So Sue Me

P.S. 150 is slated to close next year and be replaced by two charter schools. Paul Stephens/COVERING EDUCATION

By PAUL STEPHENS

Brownsville Brooklyn parents and school leaders gained new allies Tuesday in their battle to keep P.S. 150 from closing down for good.

The lawsuit charges that the department violated state zoning law when it failed to consult the districts’ Community Education Councils before eliminating a neighborhood school, effectively changing attendance zones. A spokesperson for the Department of Education would not comment on pending litigation, but explained that the placement of charter schools in schools that are being phased-out fulfills the Department’s goals of using underutilized space in school buildings for charters, which do not receive funding for facilities.

Several parents and guardians who were picking up their children at P.S. 150 this week expressed dismay at the Department of Education’s top-down decision. “I think it’s really sad,” said Dorothy Glover, a grandmother and guardian of two children who attend the school. “The children really have a sense of family. My kids come home and say ‘I love my teacher.’” Glover wondered why the Department of Education decided to abandon P.S. 150 without considering ways it could be helped. “Whatever they want to give to the charter schools, why not have that here?” said Glover, who rallied with other parents against the school closure on March 18.

“They are taking a school that was whole and breaking it in half,” said Latriece Clark, another parent who was worried about where her soon to be first grader would be going to school next year. “If the students don’t meet the requirements of the charter school, then they have to go somewhere else.”

Charter schools are financed publicly but managed by a private board of directors. Charters don’t have any special requirements for admission, though some charters require a certain level of parental involvement and uniforms. Most admit students by lottery.

School children currently enrolled at P.S. 150 are expected to be given priority admission to the two charter schools opening in the building this August and three nearby traditional public schools. But there is no guarantee. David Grinage, president of the district’s Community Education Council and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that even with priority admissions, students have not been guaranteed placement at a local school, and that the policy ignores homeless students and students in social programs who currently attend P.S. 150.

The school was informed that it would be phased out in December, and the Department of Education announced in February that it would be replaced with a charter school. The school had received an ‘F’ on the city’s school report card in 2008 and a ‘D’ in 2007. Schools that are considered to be failing are on a short list for closure by the city.

The lawsuit contends that because students may have to go outside the district for schooling, the policy amounts to a rezoning of the district, an action that requires the consultation of the council. “This is an opportunity to set a precedent that the Community Education Council is an elected body that should have a say in what is going on in the district,” Grinage said. “We’ve been mistreated and ignored.”

Zoning laws are one of the few areas that the district councils have control over since mayoral control of the schools was began in 2002. Mayor Bloomberg is seeking the renewal of mayoral control laws this year.

The charter schools opening in P.S. 150, Brownsville Collegiate Charter School and Leadership Preparatory Brownsville, are managed by Uncommon Schools Inc., a charter school management organization. The well-regarded non-profit organization received approval last year from the State University of New York’s Board of Trustees to open four new schools in Brooklyn in August, 2009 and three more in August, 2010. These new schools will be added to five schools in Brooklyn it already manages. Brownsville Collegiate is expected to open in 2009 with grades five and six and expand by one grade each year to grade eight. Leadership Preparatory Brownsville will open with Kindergarten and first grade and eventually expand to serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. All grade levels at P.S. 150 will be phased-out as the two charters expand.

Jessica Simmons, the future principal of Brownsville Collegiate, said that community interest in the new school was high and that applications to the school are likely to exceed the number of spots available. “People want to know they have a choice,” she said, explaining the apparent demand for charters. Charter schools that have more applications than spots are required by law to hold a lottery to determine who will attend the school. Brownsville Collegiate will hold an admissions lottery on April 6.

Grinage said that it was a perceived lack of choice that was allowing the charters to take over the traditional public schools in the district. “Parental involvement has always been an issue in the district,” he said. “They believe in too many cases that they don’t have a choice, and the Department of Education plays on that.”

Glover, despite her strong opposition to the charter schools opening in the school, has filled out applications to those schools and other charter schools in the district. She has few other options. She said she thought Achievement First Brownsville might be a good fit for her granddaughter. Ideally, she wants her kids to stay at the school, but she said, “Like I tell the children, if we fail to plan, then we plan to fail.”