Three schools in one building is adding up to one ongoing fight in Harlem.
A month after the New York City Department of Education decided to bring a charter school into a building currently occupied by two traditional public schools, parents said they are still planning to do whatever it takes to fight back.
In February, the DOE’s Panel for Educational Policy voted to allow Harlem Success Academy Charter School I, one of five charter schools operated by the Harlem Success Academy network, to eventually expand into the M088 building on West 114th Street, which is already home to Wadleigh Secondary School and Frederick Douglass Academy II.
The decision specifically allows Harlem Success I—which currently serves kindergarten through fifth grades—to add middle school grades, with their fifth through eighth grades being located in M088 by the 2013-2014 school year. But that move is something Wadleigh and Frederick Douglass administrators said their building can’t handle without someone losing out.
“We may have to go to court,” said Julius Tajiddin, a Frederick Douglass parent who chairs the school’s leadership team. “This will be parent-led.”
According to the DOE, Wadleigh and Frederick Douglass will still have room to expand within the five-story building if their enrollment increases. But Wadleigh principal Herma Hall said that’s not the case.
“I’ve been opposed to it from day one,” Hall said of Harlem Success’ move to the building. “We are totally against having anyone else coming in.”
Students in the building said they had heard that additional students from Harlem Success would bring overcrowding problems.
“It’s not that we’re worried—it’s that we’re mad,” Jose Mendoza, a ninth-grade student at Wadleigh, said. “We heard that they’re going to take away our art class so the other kids can go in and use that classroom. If you go in and look at the hallways, it’s already crowded. Now imagine a third school.”
“There’s not going to be room,” agreed Shyheim Gibbs, an eighth grader at Frederick Douglass. “They can move in, but I’m just concerned about how they’re going to eat lunch.”
According to the DOE, the M088 building is only at 71 percent of its student capacity. In the 2009-2010 school year, Wadleigh and Frederick Douglass had 985 students enrolled, though their total target capacity was 1,393 students—leaving room for 400 more.
Still, Hall said it will be more difficult to implement new initiatives like a culinary arts program with the addition of another school.
“We’re looking to get funding so that the kids can have yet another thing to do and an option for the future,” Hall said. “In competition with other schools, we’re not going to get the same resources.”
But Jenny Sedlis, director of external affairs for the Success Charter Network, said children at the Harlem Success charter school have the same right to those educational resources. The DOE statement cited a lack of adequate space in the building Harlem Success currently occupies on 118th Street—where it also shares the building—as the reason for its move to M088.
“These children deserve the opportunity to continue to attend a school that is serving them exceptionally well that their parents are thrilled about,” Sedlis said, adding, “We work very hard to be good neighbors and respectful members of the community.”
Hall, however, said she’s skeptical about the charter school’s motives.
“You’ve got to fight for these kids,” she said, noting that students and staff are willing to mobilize against the decision. “Is it about the kids, or is it about one group doing it better than the other?”
The DOE statement noted that over 85 percent of Harlem Success students scored at or above grade level on the state English and math tests, higher than any other District 3 elementary or K-8 school.
Mendoza, however, said he is concerned the arrival of Harlem Success will push out public school students who aren’t performing as well, and Tajiddin said that parents will continue to fight against the move.
“We have time,” he said. “We’re going to protect our rights, so whatever we have to do to protect those rights, we’re going to do. We’re not going to sit quietly. We’re not accepting this.”
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy