News + Views

South Brooklyn Post will have more on this continuing controversy over the Success Academy Charter School moving into the building at Baltic and Court occupied currently by three other schools: School of Global Studies, School of International Studies (both small secondary schools with populations of mostly low-income kids) and a special middle/high school for kids with autism and severe disabilities.

Most recently, a parent at PS 261 in Boerum Hill wrote an op-ed for the New York Times discussing why she’s against the school, and worries with other parents and teachers that it will harm schools like PS 261. Read Lucinda Rosenfeld’s piece here.

Jenny Sedlis, a representative of Success Academies, wrote a response to the piece, saying, in part, “People have wondered why Success Academies opened up a school on the Upper West Side and is seeking to do so next year in Cobble Hill rather than sticking to just the poorest neighborhoods. The reason is that we believe very much in integration in public education.

Public education in New York City is shockingly segregated.  Most public schools are either more than 90% African American and Hispanic or less than 10%. To address this paucity of integrated schools, we began Success Academy Upper West” … “49% of the students are African American or Latino; the rest are White, Asian or multi-racial” … “We do not have programs that separate the minority students from the non-minority students.”

Success Academy is reporting that parents of more than 260 local children, and more than 950 children in total, have applied for the 190 available seats at Success Academy Cobble Hill.

Success Academy Williamsburg has received nearly 700 applicants so far, including 196 from local families. One third of in-district applicants to Williamsburg are English Language Learners, the school chain reports.

Read about  a lawsuit filed to block the school from opening on Court Street.

If you want to apply for the Success Academy lottery, applications are due by April 13.