Educators & Parents Blast Proposal At Middle Village Meet
Parents, teachers and education advocates criticized charter school operator Success Academy during the Community Education Council (CEC) District 24 meeting at P.S./I.S. 128 in Middle Village last Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Citing overcrowding, misuse of city resources and a complete lack of any details, members of three Community Education Councils–Districts 24, 28 and 30–blasted the company for not making a presentation or providing any further information on a plan to explore possible charter sites in the three districts.
Several members of the three CEC’s expressed their frustration with continued overcrowding in the district’s, and are concerned charters will take away vital space from public schools.
The hearing was held prior to the regular District 24 calendar meeting, following a request the company made to President Nick Comaianni this summer, he said.
He was expecting Success Academy to make a presentation on their plans-or provide additional details so that parents and others could ask questions- but upon arriving at the meeting learned that would not happen.
“If you have questions, they won’t be answered. This is more of a comment thing,” Comaianni said .
One SuccessAcademy official did attend the meeting, prompting Comaianni to ask “Will you be answering questions?”
After the representative declined, Comaianni remarked, “Then you are not really here.”
The decision to allow new charter’s lies in the hands of the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, that hears recommendations from the SUNY Trustees’ Charter Schools Committee
“They sent us an email, stating that they wanted to hold a meeting in District 24, only District 24, they didn’t mention the other districts in that email, Comaianni said last Tuesday evening. “And SuccessAcademy wanted to look at 24 for possible sites and they were going to give us a presentation and outline exactly what they wanted to do here, which we never received by the way, and we still don’t have here tonight. So obviously something got lost in the translation.”
City Council Member Daniel Dromm, chairperson of the Council Education Committee, attended the meeting and said he is opposed to any new charter schools in the districts.
“I was a New York city public school teacher in District 24, at P.S. 199 for 25 years, and I am a supporter of our public school system, and not of our charter school system,” he said. “The New York City Council Education Committee which I chair has gone on record as opposed to any expansion of charter schools until we have some oversight over the expansion and what goes on in charter school’s.”
“There are so many differences between what every charter school does and very, very little accountability. This is an outrage. It is an outrage to our district and it must be stopped,” Dromm added.
Members of the other district councils were also frustrated that no Success Academy representatives would be speaking. A tape recorder was left running to provide feedback instead, Paul Yen, a facilitator from the Department of Education said.
“I should stand over by the tape recorder since that’s who we are speaking to,” CEC District 30 member Deborah Alexander said.
“The comments will be submitted to the authorizer, which is the State University of New York,” Yen said.
CEC 24 member Carl Chiaramonte said his children attend school in the district and he doesn’t want the limited space to be taken by charters. District 24 is the most overcrowded in the city, several speakers noted.
“I’m hoping co-location will not be considered,” he said.
He was frustrated that no presentation or details were provided as well.
“To not even send a power point, we have no idea what they are thinking or looking at,” Chiaramonte said.
CEC 24 Vice President Peter Vercessi said the lack of details or a presentation reminded him of “a show about nothing.”
“My comments are going to be basically questions,” he said. “What is Success Academy? What is their educational philosophy?”
Only one speaker, Charlie Vavruska of Maspeth, said he has heard anything positive about charter schools.
Vavruska attended a meeting with parents from a Success Academy school in Harlem where the parents said their children’s reading skills were greatly improved after attending the charter school.
Every other speaker, including Dromm, who went further and criticized Success Academy outright, expressed frustration.
“Success Academy is about privatizing education, and making profits for hedge funds,” he said. “My job is to hold the NYC Department of Education accountable.”
Comaianni was contacted by Successs Academy in the summer, and received a follow up email from the Department of Education Charter School Division in August asking for time to make a presentation at a District 24 meeting, he told the Times Newsweekly last Thursday.
“The email was a little deceiving,” he said.
When Comaianni arrived at the meeting last Tuesday, only to learn from colleagues that no details would be given, “I was very disappointed,” he said.
“Just a hearing in general, which makes no sense to me. There was no clarification. Nothing,” Comaianni added.
Concerning where in the three districts Success Academy may be looking to locate charter schools, or any other details of the plan, Comaianni said he doesn’t know much. He believes any approved charter’s will be co-located within public school buildings.
“What they told us is they are looking at multiple locations,” he said. “They said multiple; that concerns me. We asked that they make a presentation and we thought they would make one. And that was disappointing.”
“What are we giving you input on. There was no specific plan, it was very badly organized,” Comaianni added.
Public school teacher Brandon Melendez asked, “As someone who works in District 24, who works in one of the most overcrowded elementary schools in this public school system of New York, what exactly is the benefit for the students to have co-habitation? What is the benefit for the students who are now underesourced.”
CEC 30 President Vera Daniels doesn’t want any colocated charter’s approved in the three districts.
“No more co-locations should be approved until every New York City student is provided with the space needed for a safe, well-rounded education that allows for small classes and individualized attention,” she said.
Daniels wants the city to “require charter operators to find their own space in private facilties,” she said
“Then at least, the damage to our public schools student’s education will be minimized,” she added.
Daniels noted data on overcrowding to make her points. “School utilization rates are at a critical level in Districts 28, 24, as well as District 30. More than 480 students city-wide are in extremely overcrowded buildings. The elementary school average building utilization target rates at 97.4 percent, median at approximately 102 percent,” Daniels said.
“There are 25 elementary and middle school buildings in District 28 that are at 100 percent utilization or perhaps higher. So the seats needed in these schools are over 1,600 students,” she said
“We’ve successfully fought every charter school coming in here, and we’ll definitely continue to fight that,” Comaianni added.
Phone calls and an email to Success Academy for comment were not returned by press time.
Community Education Council District 24 meeting generally meets on the fourth Tuesday each month at various public schools in the district. Call 1-718-418-8160 for information.
