Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr. (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights) this week ramped the pressure up on Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to exercise his emergency powers authority so the Success Academy (SA) Lafayette Middle School in Bed-Stuy can open its doors in September for the 2018-19 school year.
But Carranza and the Department of Education isn’t budging in their decision to not open the charter school and instead move the roughly 70 SA fifth-graders to current SA middle schools throughout the borough.
The dustup comes after the city approved the closure of P.S. 25, which had about 100 students at 787 Lafayette Avenue in February, leaving Success as the only school in a building that accommodates 1,000 students — and eliminating the requirement of an Educational Impact Statement (EIS), Building Utilization Plan (BUP), or approval from the Panel for Educational Policy.
Success Academy has been operating a K-4 school at P.S. 25 787 Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant for two years and wanted to convert the space to serve middle school grades. At the time, Success in good faith and necessity closed its elementary school (SA Bed-Stuy 3) in this building for the sole purpose of using the space to accommodate the first fifth graders of the new middle school.
The new facility would be a feeder middle school taking in fifth-grade students from other Brooklyn SA schools next year including Cobble Hill, Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy 1, Bed-Stuy 2, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Bensonhurst. It then will add new fifth grade students the year after and so on until it fills up to a roughly 450-student 5th thru 8th grade middle school within four years.
The DOE agreed to the plan, but on June 11 backed out of the plan because of a litigation brought from current P.S. 25 parents that wanted to keep their co-location open. This caused mass confusion to parents and students that had expected the new middle school to open, and who met with Adams yesterday seeking his help to resolve the matter.
“There are many families needlessly facing uncertainty regarding their children’s school location in the 2018-19 school year. While I understand the need for the court to keep P.S. 25 open while the lawsuit progresses, it does not follow that the students and families of Success Academy have to be in limbo this summer,” said Adams.
Both Adams and Cornegy have written Carranza to exercise his emergency powers authority, which is within his right and jurisdiction and has been exercised in other cases.
“Success Academies Bed-Stuy 1, Bed-Stuy 2, repurposed Bed-Stuy 3 and Prospect Heights are located in my district, I have met with a host of families from these schools and grasp how important this particular school is to them. The current decision punishes families whose children are not only incredibly high-performing ( 99% passed the state math exam and 96% passed the state English exam), but who also would have constituted a rare diverse school in the area,” wrote Cornegy, who has six children who have attended both regular public and charter schools in the district.
“Had there been no legal challenge, or temporary ruling, Success Academy Lafayette would be opening without any complication, and these families would be enjoying their summer rather than dealing with the fear of being educationally homeless.
“The only responsible action is for you to exercise your emergency powers authority and give these scholars their promised middle school. Next fall two schools should open in K025: P.S.25 and SA Lafayette MS. Each school has fewer than 100 students, in a building that has 1,000 seats. It is the obvious, practical course of action. I urge you to recognize the emergency,” Cornegy wrote.
DOE spokesperson Toya Holness responded that the DOE has no plans to utilize emergency powers, and instead will continue to shuttle the students to other SA middle schools in Brooklyn.
“Success Academy is projected to have over 2,000 seats available to serve middle school students within a four mile radius of the K025 building in SY 2018-2019 and we have assured them that there’s ample space for all families who want a middle school seat at a Success Academy in Brooklyn to have one,” said Holness in an emailed statement.
“We have scheduled several meetings with Success Academy families to address their concerns and will continue working with Success Academy to address their space requests,” she added.
