It’s all cooing and kisses between the de Blasio Administration and charter schools following the state deal granting de Blasio two years of mayoral control over the city’s schools, but come Aug. 15 the two love birds may again start quarreling.
That after 12 city charter school leaders sent a letter to Mayor de Blasio yesterday welcoming a new collaboration between the two sides. However, within the letter was a veiled warning that if the city doesn’t resolve 27 current public space requests for charter schools by August 15 the peace may quickly erode.
The signatories to the letter include de Blasio nemesis Eva Moskowitz as well as several other CEO and charter executives including Dacia Toll from Achievement First, Jacob Mnookin from Coney Island Prep, Jim Manly from KIPP NYC and Brett Peiser from Uncommon Schools.
“We stand ready to work with you to do our part to meet this parent demand for more high quality public schools, by providing 100,000 new seats for high need families in the coming years. Our biggest challenge to date has been the ability to secure reasonable public space,” the letter states.
“Together, our schools currently have 27 open requests for public space that are waiting for a response from the City. Though we are not all seeking space at this time, we all believe that access to quality public space is crucial to providing families with quality school options. We ask that your administration let us know the status of these requests that will impact thousands of New York City families no later than August 15th.”
Both the de Blasio administration and charter school sources say that the August 15 deadline is not part of the deal the city cut for mayoral control. However, charter school sources said the deadline is critical because to serve more students, schools need to begin their application/lottery process this fall for the 2018-19 school year.
“Beginning this process without knowing whether children will have the space they need to go to school the following year leaves families in limbo,” charter school sources say.
De Blasio spokesperson Olivia Lapeyrolerie said what is in the deal includes:
- Agreed that current state law allows for the reissuance of charters in NYC in cases where the previously issued charter is not currently in use.
- Will provide Metrocards for charter students whose school begins before busing starts for the year.
- We’ll immediately apply the recent increase in facilities reimbursement to all eligible charters, including those charters already receiving facilities reimbursement.
- We’ll streamline the cumbersome process for facilities rental reimbursement by shortening time requirements and packaging appeals together.
- DOE won’t split site charters, a process they’ve moved away from under this Administration, without explicit consent from the charter & will make every attempt to reunite split-sites within two years. Where not possible we will work with charter to devise a solution using facilities reimbursement process.
- We will reply to requests for building upgrades in co-located spaces w/in 45 days & will grant requests unless demonstrably unreasonable.
“The charter sector is an important partner and these changes provide opportunities for us to better work together to serve all public school students,” said Lapeyrolerie.
