Possible New Home for Upper West Side Charter School
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Updated, 5:30 p.m. | Three weeks ago, State University of New York trustees green-lighted the opening of a charter school in the Upper West Side. All the school needed was an actual home.
Although nothing is final, the new charter school, Upper West Success Academy, will likely be housed inside Louis D. Brandeis High School, a perennially low-performing school that is slated to close in 2012.
“We do think that Brandeis is a better option right now,” said Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the education department. “Brandeis is a strong option, but it is not the only one under consideration.”
Brandeis, on West 84th Street, emerged as a compromise after vociferous opposition emerged once it was suggested that the charter school could open at Public School 145 on West 105th Street, taking space in an elementary school building. It also allowed the education department to maintain its original goal of opening a charter school outside the low-income neighborhoods that most charter schools serve.
“Choice is something that should be given to all families,” Mr. Zarin-Rosenfeld said.
Eva S. Moskowitz, a former city councilwoman and chief executive of Success Charter Network, sponsor of Upper West Success, sees the school as a piece that would help solve the Upper West Side’s perennial school overcrowding.
“It’s a quick, powerful solution to the problem of overwhelming parental demand for great public schools,” Ms. Moskowitz said.
Opposition to Upper West Success persists. Noah E. Gotbaum, president of District 3’s community education council, said that education department officials did not discuss the new location at the council’s meeting on Wednesday night and that even if they had, “We don’t want it.”
Mr. Gotbaum added, “We don’t want them to set up an alternate system to drain the resources from our schools. The D.O.E. should be focusing on in investing in existing schools.”
Aside from the charter school, the Brandeis will eventually house several new, small high schools, in keeping with the city’s philosophy of replacing large, struggling high schools with more intimate ones.
Upper West Success still needs to clear a few hurdles before its final approval. The Department of Education has to prepare a formal proposal, demonstrating how Brandeis’ building will be shared and how it will accommodate the students from the charter and high schools operating there.
A public hearing would be held and a vote would be taken by the Panel on Educational Policy.
Earlier versions of this story erroneously reported that Braindeis was a definite choice. In fact, a final decision has not yet been made.
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