City Approves Co-Location of Charter School at PS 92

Last night, as expected, the NYC Panel for Educational Policy voted to approve plans for Lefferts Gardens Charter School to co-locate at PS 92. (See the Daily News.) For supporters of the charter school, it's a huge victory; if the vote didn't go their way, the school could have ended up being sited some distance from the neighborhood.

So what now? Certainly some celebrating is in order. But the charter school leaders need to also dig in their heels and get started on seriously building support in Afro-Caribbean communities around here. If the charter school student body is overwhelmingly white and relatively affluent (as it was at Monday's public hearing), it's going to make the tensions between the two schools at 601 Parkside all that more tense, particularly if the school draws a bunch of kids from out of the district.

There's been a lively discussion on the Lefferts Yahoo group about the local school situation. If you're not already on that list, you may want to sign up and read the archives. (Reading archives requires a Yahoo account but subscribing to the email list does not.)

One standout item was a post by Johnny Kline, a neighbor on Hawthorne, including a list of suggestions for building community support for the school. We like them so much that we're copying them here:

Our Educational Consultant Weighs In

Following up on our local schools discussion, I asked educational consultant Joyce Szuflita to comment on the possibility of parents working with local public schools to reform them, as well as considering the new charter school. Commenter Babs cited PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights as a possible public school model, writing:  "Ten years ago PS 8 was not a desirable school; the kids in Brooklyn Heights attended private schools… With the increase in real estate prices, however, private school tuition became less affordable and parents turned their attention to PS 8, resulting in a remarkable turnaround for the school.”

This is what Ms. Szuflita had to say:

Even though the school is called “Lefferts Gardens Charter School,” priority is given to all families living within District 17... If there are seats vacant, families from outside of the district may fill them. It is very likely that in the first couple years at least that there will be a sizable number of students from outside the neighborhood and the district (perhaps even the borough).

Board Members Resign from Lefferts Gardens Charter School

We regret to inform you that several key members of the Lefferts Gardens Charter School have resigned from the school's board: Michelle Dees, Allison Jack, and Clark Dees. Another board member (though one who has never been active), Tolonda Tolbert, has also asked to leave.

I asked LGCS board member Mark Dicus about the resignations, but he said he didn't know why the members had resigned, with the exception of Tolbert, who has too many prior commitments.

As some of you may know, I was on the steering committee of LGCS for most of last year. I resigned in November, but Charles and I continued to support the school on the blog, despite our serious reservations with the leadership.

With the departure of the Dees and Jack, however, the future of LGCS isn't looking as supportable. No one who was actively involved in steering committee meetings last year (except for board chair Renee Ciccone and her mom, Elaine) remains with the group.

None of the board members who have left were willing to discuss their decision publicly. As someone who made the same decision to go quietly in November, I'm not exactly surprised. My hope for LGCS is that the remaining board members — Renata Gomes, Martin Mohabeer, and Brad Choyt, not to mention Dicus and Renee and Elaine Ciccone — see the resignations as a wake-up call and start seriously examining why they keep losing good people.

RELATED:

Public Turns Out for Charter School Hearing

Public Turns Out for Charter School Hearing

Those of us who expected the public hearing for the Lefferts Gardens Charter School last night to be a love-in for the new environmental science school were in for a surprise: the opposition to placing the school at P.S. 92 was passionate and vocal.

Most of the opposition stemmed from parents of students at P.S. 92. The overwhelming concern was that sharing the space would create problems for kids already attending the school. "If your child can't take the seat next to my son, find another spot," said one of the charter school's critics.

To my mind, the most persuasive argument against locating the school at PS 92 was one raised by a few people who spoke at the hearing: though the Department of Education and LGCS insist that the charter school will only be at PS 92 for a few years while they raise money to build a permanent site, odds are that the permanent site will never materialize, the DOE won't kick LGCS out, and PS 92 will become overcrowded as LGCS continues to grow. At least, that's the typical pattern.

There were lots of positive things said about the charter school, too, but I was too busy chasing my toddler to write them down… and, frankly, I'd be preaching to the choir here.

In the end, the supporters of the school outweighed the opposition by a sizable margin: 21 pro, 10 against, and 3 neutral (arguably positive) by my count. That said, it was hard not to be troubled by the racial dynamic at play, with white people tending to support the school and black people opposing.

If the DOE elects to locate LGCS in the same building as PS 92, LGCS needs to seriously step up its community outreach beyond the Manor. The PS 92 student body is 0%  (yes, that's zero percent) white and 83% black. The Lefferts supporters are about as white as the PS 92 students are black, a situation that's bound to create tensions. As one friend of mine who attended the hearing wondered, "Are they planning on hiring bodyguards for all the rich white kids so they don't get beat up?"

LGCS also needs to do serious fundraising to raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to build their promised "green" permanent facility. All the more reason for LGCS to get its house in order and rebuild its flagging board of directors.

A flyer posted on apartment buildings along Winthrop Street by one of Lefferts Gardens Charter School's critics

RELATED:

Board Members Resign From Lefferts Gardens Charter School
Update on the Lefferts Gardens Charter School

Charter School Hearing Postponed

Due to the coming snowpocalypse, all NYC public schools are closed tomorrow and that includes meetings to be held at those schools. The public hearing on the Lefferts Gardens Charter School has been pushed back to February 22. When a time for the meeting is announced, we'll post it here.

Get some salt on the streets tonight and stay warm. 

Lefferts Gardens Charter School Information Sessions and Website

If you missed the first information session, the Lefferts Gardens Charter School (LGCS) will be holding information sessions in the neighborhood at local library branches.

This Saturday, January 30, at 11AM, representatives will be at the Crown Heights library (560 New York Ave. at Maple St.)  Next Saturday, February 6, at 10AM, representatives will be at the Flatbush library (22 Linden Blvd. at Flatbush).

If you were paying attention, you saw that the name of the school is now a link, which means that the website is up and running. The LGCS website is http://leffertsgardens.org and includes a FAQ as well as applications for students and faculty. You can also get updates by joining their mailing list.

Lefferts Gardens Charter School Announces School Principal (CORRECTED)

While we're talking about the Lefferts Gardens Charter School, it bears pointing out that the school principal is now official: The head of school will be Mark Marc Magnus-Sharpe, who comes by way of the prestigious United Nations International School, where he is Dean of Students. Sharpe's resume also includes Green Schools NYC Alliance and a lengthy history at Outward Bound. I hope you are suitably impressed.

Public Hearing to Discuss Lefferts School Location

Supporters of the Lefferts Gardens Charter School should save Wednesday, February 10, for a public hearing at 6 pm at PS 92 (601 Parkside Avenue between Bedford and Rogers Avenues).

The school organizers are asking people to let the NYC Department of Education know that they want the school sited at PS 92 for its first few years (the school is hoping to find or build a permanent facility during that time). The DOE is obligated to give the school space during its "incubation" period, but it is not obligated to make it a conveniently located one. The more people that come out in favor, the more likely the DOE will chose PS 92, which, as far as I know, is the only available DOE space within the PLG boundary.

Wait, you ask, isn't there already a school there? Why, yes. But the current elementary school there isn't at full capacity. If LGCS is located there, the two schools would share the building, an increasingly common practice at city schools. The administration at PS 92 is unlikely to be very happy it, however; ditto the teachers union.  So we can expect a fair amount of opposition. The Lefferts school -- and charter schools in general -- are seen as a threat to old-line public school admins. (For a little background on the teacher's union and arguments against the way New York public schools operate, see this one-sided but illuminating  New Yorker article.)

Anyway, the Lefferts Gardens Charter School is also asking people to send letters of support to D17proposals (at) schools.nyc.gov stating that you'd like to see the school at PS 92. Every letter counts.

Update on the Lefferts Gardens Charter School

This morning at Brooklyn Public Library, Renee Ciccone led an information session about the soon-to-open Lefferts Gardens Charter School (LGCS). There were about a dozen parents in attendance, as well as a representative from the NYC Charter School Center who was also able to answer some questions about the rules and regulations concerning charter schools. Here is my report from the meeting for those that weren't able to attend.

Nuts and Bolts

• LGCS has been authorized to operate as a charter school for grades K-5 and will begin operations in September 2010. In the first year (assuming full enrollment) it will open with three Kindergarten classes and 3 first grade classes, with 25 students in each class for a total of 150 students. Each class will have 2 teachers for a teacher/student ratio of 12.5:1. Each year the school will add a grade as this year's first graders advance until there is a full K-5.
• LGCS applied to open as a K-8 school but only the elementary school was authorized. They anticipate applying to extend to middle school but will not be permitted to do so until they have been in operation for three years -- and there is no guarantee that the request will be granted.
• LGCS has not been told where it will be housed, but it has been assured that it will be located within an existing public school in District 17(map), which includes all of PLG and a large swath of Crown Heights. They have also been promised that once they are located, the charter school will be able to stay in that location as they grow to the full 6 grades.
• LGCS is currently accepting applications. The application will be available on the school website* as soon as it goes live. This is expected to happen in the next week or so, and when it does, we'll post about it here.
•  Applications will be accepted until March 31. If there are more applications than the school has seats, a lottery will be held on April 13 to determine who gets in and who gets wait-listed. Priority will be given to District 17 students. In future years, siblings of enrolled students will get pre-lottery priority.
• The school will have neither pre-K nor a gifted-and-talented program, as those programs are federally funded and the charter school is not eligible for that funding.
• The school does currently have office space, but it is not in the neighborhood. The Charter Center, at 111 Broadway in Manhattan, has generously given the LGCS an office to use. So don't be surprised when the application tells you to mail it to a Manhattan address.
• For parents of students who are too young to attend the school next year but are interested in future years, the school intends to have regular open houses and tours during the school year.

Breaking: Lefferts Gardens Charter School Wins Approval!

After well over a year of planning, the Lefferts Gardens Charter School has passed its final hurdle: the elementary school has been approved and is headed to open its doors in the fall 2010. Major congratulations to everyone who worked on seeing the application through, from the school organizers to community members who wrote letters of support.

As you may have heard, the school will feature an environmental-science program that spans across disciplines. The over-arching idea is that the learning will be "experiential"—meaning that teachers will try to connect what goes on inside the classroom (and out) to children's daily lives. The school plans on working with the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and the Prospect Park Audubon Center as part of its curriculum.

As for the school details, we'll have to wait for a formal announcement from the planning team. This much, however, we know: the Lefferts Gardens Charter School will be a free, public school open to all children in New York City. If the school receives more applications that than it has seats, applications will be selected by a random lottery, with preferences given to children living in District 17 (and, after the first year, to siblings of children who already attend).

The location of the school hasn't yet been determined. The planners are hoping to secure a space within walking distance of Prospect Park and the BBG, but it's possible that the school may end up outside the PLG border (at least temporarily).

For the time being, the school has an office at the New York City Charter School Center (111 Broadway, Suite 604, New York, NY 10006, Tel: 212.437.8314).  I suspect that they'll need to hire teachers soon, so if you know of any exceptional candidates, you might want to put them in touch.

I was involved in this group for most of this year and, though I left a couple of months ago, I'm excited and hopeful for its success.

See also:
Update on Lefferts Gardens Charter School