City Councilman Jumaane Williams and State Sen. Kevin Parker joined a number of parents and and educators in opposing the city Department of Education’s (DOE) proposal to co-locate a Success Academy Charter Elementary School into I.S. 240 Andries Hudde Middle School, 2500 Nostrand Avenue.
But Success Academy officials say the co-location would work fine as the school is currently under utilized and there is strong parent demand for high-quality schools in Midwood and nearby neighborhoods for a charter school. In 2015, the Success Academy network received 1,063 applications from parents who live in District 22 in which the school is located.
“I’m not against charter schools but I’m definitely against forced co-locations,” said Williams. “We have to do a better job of getting schools to work together rather then getting them into a school that already exists. To me that is problematic.”
The proposal calls for Success Academy-Midwood to open at Hudde in the Fall 2016, serving about 130-180 students in kindergarten and first grade, and will add one grade level each year until it serves approximately 375-495 students in kindergarten through fourth grade in the 2019-2020 school year.
According to the The DOE evaluation the Hudde building has the capacity to serve 1,526 students. Currently, the building is serving about 873 students, yielding a building utilization rate of approximately 57%. If the proposal is approved, the building will be ultimately house between 1,155-1,305 students for a 76%-86% utilization rate.
But at an open hearing at the school Monday night many Hudde parents opposed the co-location.
“We are not for co-location at Hudde. We want it to remain as it is and allow our principal, who is new, an opportunity to grow the school to where it can be 900-plus kids,” said Hudde PTA co-President Golda Smith.
Smith said Hudde has always been a community school for children and families that lived in the community and the co-location will force future students to go to middle schools out of the district.
Parker, who attended Hudde, said like most co-locations throughout the city this one was ill advised. “We really want to work towards a plan to provide a dedicated funding source for locating charter schools,” he said.
Other parents and educators accussed Success Academy Founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz of walking into the school and demanding Hudde officials stop what they were doing and give her a tour of the building.
But Success Academy Spokesperson Ann Powell disputed this.
“Eva Moskowitz was invited by the DOE to tour Hudde, which is standard operating procedure to see a school before a formal proposal is put forward,” said Powell.
Powell also noted more than half of all NYC public schools are co-located, and there are more than 160,000 empty seats in public school buildings across the city.
“By the DOE’s analysis there are more than 650 empty seats in the Hudde building. Success Academy at capacity would require less than 500 seats,” she said.
The Panel for Educational Policy is expected to vote on the co-location at 6 p.m., May 20 at the Prospect Heights Campus, 883 Classon Avenue.
