DOE Stands By Decision to Move Charter School to P.S. 9 at Town Hall Meeting

Last night's Community Education Council Town Meeting gave P.S. 9 parents a chance to speak their minds about the city's continued efforts to co-locate a charter school in the building with PS 9 and MS 571. 

But if they were hoping, as billed in the meeting's flier, to have their questions answered, they were out of luck. 

"The meeting was a good opportunity to ask questions, but we didn't get any specific answers," said PS 9 parent Katharine Jung. "The evasiveness wasn't surprising, but I was still disappointed."

Nearly two dozen parents from across the district came to the meeting, including 11 wearing shirts and carrying signs in protest of the continued effort to  despite the   from parents to overturn the co-location of the two schools.

“I find it offensive that the community and school administration have no voice in this process.” said parent Christina LaBrie, “This meeting is great, but it should have happened months ago.”

At the meeting, Deputy Chancellor Sternberg stood by the decision to continue trying to co-locate Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School within the school building at 80 Underhill Avenue, citing the impressive record of its parent company, the Collegiate Network of Uncommon Schools.

“We are committed to providing great middle school options for the community,” said Sternberg, “Whether those are charter schools or neighborhood schools, this is about giving parents more and better choices.”

One of the reasons many PS 9 parents are against the co-location is because they want to use any extra space at 80 Underhill to expand the K-5 school through eighth grade. The PTO recently filed a letter of intent to the DOE, but Sternberg was unable to update parents on the status of that request. 

Parents have started a petition to support the expansion, which can be signed here.

Several parent speakers noted that the Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School does not currently provide full services for special needs students.  Deputy Chancellor Sternberg quickly responded that charter schools are mandated to provide equivalent resources under state law, citing that anything less “is a serious violation and needs to be brought to the attention of the DOE.”

The meeting closed with a plea from Councilwoman Letitia James to Deputy Chancellor Sternberg for greater transparency within the Department of Education. She spoke specifically to the issues at PS 9, claiming that the documents they released explaining the decision were confusing and vague.

“My greatest complaint is that there is no guidebook for how decisions are made at the DOE,” said James, “This cannot be a subjective process. We need objectivity.”

The Department of Education has issued a revised plan on how space will be shared between P.S. 9, M.S. 571 (which also shares the building but is slated to be closed over the next three years) and Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School that will receive a vote from the Panel for Education Policy at the May 18th hearing in Long Island City.