From the Washington Post Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss | http://wapo.st/1Mimoji
March 17, 2016
:: One of the features of the
charter school movement that may be unknown to many is what is
called “co-location,” when a charter is permitted to open up in a
traditional school building to share space with a functioning school. The
schools are run independently but resourced differently. In this post, Carol
Burris, a former New York high school principal who is now executive director
of the nonprofit Network for Public Education, explains how co-locations work
and problems they can create. She was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by
the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the same
organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year.
►WHAT
CAN HAPPEN WHEN A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL IS FORCED TO SHARE ITS SPACE WITH A
CHARTER?
By Carol Burris
Imagine this. You get
a call telling you that another family will now occupy the second floor of your
home. After you recover from your
initial shock, you complain. “Outrageous,” you say. That is where I have my office, our second
bathroom and the guest bedroom for when my mother comes to stay.” You quickly learn the decision is not yours
to make. This is a top-down order, and
you must comply.
As far-fetched as the above might seem, the above is what
principals in New York City and other cities around the country face when
charter schools demand space. And
although principals may not “own” their schools, the community that surrounds
the school surely does. Yet, no matter
how strongly they protest, community voices are nearly always ignored.
With increasing frequency, community-based schools, located
predominantly in poor neighborhoods, are being hedged in, disrupted and
derailed by charter school co-location, which is the forced insertion of a
charter school into an existing neighborhood public school.
The students and parents of Meyer Levin School for the
Performing Arts (I. S. 285) are learning this lesson now. Meyer Levin, which is located in the East
Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, is a magnet for middle school students who
want to develop their musical and performance talents. Eighty nine percent of
the school’s student body receives free or reduced priced lunch, and 93 percent
are black. Nearly one in five have a
learning disability. Although some
students come from other parts of the city, the vast majority are neighborhood
kids.
Five weeks ago, the phone call arrived that a new Uncommon
Elementary Charter School wanted to move into Meyer Levin, which the New York
City Department of Education claims is an underutilized building. The Uncommon Charter would take over the
third floor where the school’s dance study, two band rooms, theater production
room, choral room, lighting room, sound room, computer labs and community
offices for special programs are located.
In other words, they would take the floor that is the heart of this
performing arts school.
Shortly after the call, the charter school came to the
building for a walk -through. When she heard about the visit, community
activist, Zakiyah Ansari, was outraged.
Four of her daughters had graduated from the school and she understood
its deep ties to the community. “It is
like someone coming to your home to figure out what piece of furniture they
want. And this happened even before approval. “
Ansari remembers Meyer Levin with great fondness. “My daughters had so much when they were
there. They had a science lab, a steel
pan orchestra, one of my daughters got into poetry. They had access to amazing things that I
thought all schools had, until I learned that what they were experiencing was
rare.”
Ansari’s praise for the school was echoed by other
parents—as was her outrage that a charter school would come in to claim
space. Kianne Guadeloupe, the mother of
a seventh grader speaks with pride about her older daughter who graduated and
went on to Brooklyn College Academy. She
credits the school’s arts program for giving her confidence and helping her to
succeed. Her belief in the
transformative power of the arts was shared by parent and PTA member, Donna
Rose, who is the mother of an eighth grader with special needs. “If they take that floor they will take away
what the school is all about—the performing arts. My daughter learned her dance skills
here. Getting into dance brought her out
of her shell, and now she is on the honor roll.
She always wants to be in school now.”
Make no mistake: Meyer Levin is not a failing school. Its scores are above the district average,
and above the state average for students who are black and economically
disadvantaged. The school’s focus on the
arts has helped support academics in the school. And the performing arts program anchors the
community, and is a source of great pride.
To understand why the performing arts matters so much to
this East Flatbush community, I spoke with Eddie Gentile, who was principal of
Meyer Levin from 2001-2008. Before he
became principal, Gentile was a teacher in the school. He spent 31 years in total nurturing the
program in the arts and helping it grow.
He told me that the school began its performing arts center in
1978. During the 1980s, it was supported
by a neighborhood group, the Friends of Education. Eventually a rich program in performing arts
became an integral part of the school day.
Teacher and school programmer, Rocco Romano is certain that
the performing arts will suffer if the school is co-located. Romano creates a special “breakout period”
that allows nearly every student to take classes in the performing arts,
including the school’s special needs students.
“We run an inclusive program. It is during the breakout period that
students engage in their specific arts discipline. We put on three large performances a year for
the community in addition to performances by the individual groups. Beyond
losing our performing arts floor, if we are forced to share space, our program
will lose the flexibility that allows for our intensive arts programming. Fewer
kids will be able to participate and the quality of the performances will
suffer,” Romano said.
The third floor is also the home of Higher Levin, a
not-for-profit 501(c)(3) youth organization based in the East Flatbush that was
founded in 2006 in order to provide an alternative to the streets. Its intent was to keep Levin alumni connected
to the performing arts even after they graduated middle school. It is now open to all teens in the
community. Program director Tichard
Chapman, cannot imagine the program without the third floor. Not only does it provide office space, it
provides the program with performance space. The third floor is also the home
to East Flatbush Village, a youth development community organization that
offers mentoring and sports to the neighborhood kids.
Former principal Gentile describes himself as “heartbroken”
and fears what may come. “East Flatbush is a hardworking community where people
have two or three jobs. This school is
known for sports and arts and 90 percent of the kids come from the
community. It is a second home.” He is also worried for the school’s
future. “I’ve seen this with similar
situations. Once it [charter school] gets in it will grow and will phase out
Meyer Levin. [Success charter school
network operator] Eva Moskowitz and her group have a keen sense of what is going
on.”
Ansari agrees.
“There is a pattern to these co-locations. We see it. The charter school kids do not
want to play with ‘those kids’- it creates tension and anxiety. They say it will be three grades, then they
say they want to expand. Meanwhile the
community public schools lose enrollment and high-achieving kids to the
charter. It is sabotaging the
school. We need to call it out, saying
‘enough is enough.’”
Ultimately the city’s PEP (Panel for Educational Policy)
committee makes the decision on whether the co-location will take place. But the timeline is short and while parents
are ready for the fight, many worry that PEP just goes through the
motions. There is also a suspicion that
charters target communities like theirs because they expect less resistance
from parents who are poor.
Former District 30 Board President, Isaac Carmignani, does
not disagree that charters seem to target communities with fewer resources to
fight back. During his tenure, the board
of the more diverse and more affluent District 30 was able to stave off, or at
least control, many charter co-locations.
Last year’s bid by the Success Charter chain to co-locate in the Andries
Hudde Middle School in the Midwood section of Brooklyn was tabled and then
ultimately rejected. More often than
not, however, the co-location goes through.
Despite parent protests, the Achievement First charter chain
was able to secure space in a Bushwick, Brooklyn school building that was the
home to two public middle schools.
Councilman Antonio Reynoso spoke out against the co-location, referring
to it as a systematic displacement from the community. Other school districts located in the poorer
sections of Brooklyn are being totally overwhelmed by charters, with
neighborhood schools forced into mergers or closed as enrollment drops.
Despite the tough road ahead, the community around Meyer
Levin intends to keep the Uncommon Charter out.
They never asked for a charter school and they want the school they are
proud of to stay intact. An emergency meeting sponsored by the PTA in late
February was packed with alumni, parents, teachers and community members, and
next Wednesday’s meeting is expected to draw an even bigger crowd.
“This is basically bullying,” Zakiyah Ansari said. “And we
are gearing up for the fight.”
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