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The co-location situation

October 28, 2011

Amid criticism, Moskowitz will introduce new Brooklyn charter

by Rachel Cromidas, at 7:25 pm

Success Charter Network head Eva Moskowitz is making her first public appearance in Brownstone Brooklyn—and as usual, she will be joined by protesters.

Moskowitz is holding an informational session tomorrow to detail her plans for a new charter school that is likely to open in the affluent Cobble Hill neighborhood next year. Most of tomorrow’s protesters are parents from the neighborhood, who say they are planning to attend the meeting to tell Moskowitz that the Success Charter Network is not wanted there.

Opposition is also starting to rise from another group: School leaders in the Baltic Street building where the city has proposed to house the new school. The principals say they are nervous that the charter school’s presence could derail their attempts to improve their schools.

“We have had monumental success this year, and I’m concerned about how we can sustain that with another school added to the building, with the division of space,” Joseph O’Brien, principal of the School for Global Studies, one of the three schools currently housed in the building, told GothamSchools last week, before the co-location plan was announced. 

His school, which is in its second-year of “transformation,” a federally-funded school improvement program, moved from an F to a B on the annual high school progress reports this year. “I wonder, for a school that’s moved so far, how could they lay that at my feet?”

Another principal inside the building, Fred Walsh of the School for International Studies, said he is also worried the co-location will put a strain on the shared space, which the DOE identified as under-enrolled this year.

“To have four schools in the building, to put 190 more students in here, means huge class sizes, which would really, really impact our programming,” he said. “It would be really, really upsetting to both schools.”

Walsh’s and O’Brien’s schools enroll mostly African-American students, many of whom hail from public housing, in an neighborhood that is predominantly white. Nearby, P.S. 29 is known for its white, middle-class student body, while two other elementary schools, P.S. 261 and P.S. 58 in the neighboring Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens communities, also serve largely middle-class populations.

Success Network officials defended the plans to colocate in other schools, citing the Independent Budget Office’s findings that district schools co-located with charter school are less likely to suffer from overcrowding issues.

“We’ve made the decision, so the goal of meeting is to introduce parents to our school model,” said Jenny Sedlis, Success Academy’s director of external affairs. She said the school will replicate the Success Charter Network schools in Manhattan, the Bronx, and the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

The parents organizing tomorrow’s protest were originally concerned that the charter would be located in their school, M.S. 447, a selective middle school with many middle-class families and a special program for autistic students. Parents there say they are relieved that their school is off the hook. But they said they would keep protesting Success Charter Network’s move into Brownstone Brooklyn.

“We know that things can always change. We are continuing to mobilize to keep the parents and community involved, until its really done and final decisions are made,” said Valerie Price Ervin, whose son attends M.S. 447.

Protesters from that school, other area schools, and several community organizations are planning to rally outside the Carroll Gardens Library tomorrow during Moskowitz’s presentation.

“If they’re not going to put it in our school, then we are still in opposition—not in 447, not in any public schools,” said Isemene Speliotis, a parent-teacher association member at M.S. 447 who is organizing the protest.

The purpose of Moskowitz’s meeting will be to demystify the charter school network’s academic philosophy for parents who are not familiar with charter schools, Sedlis said.

Though attendees will have an opportunity to provide feedback after hearing from Moskowitz, she said Success Academy leaders have already decided to move forward with their plans.

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  • bee

    In fact, charter schools are NOT public schools.

  • disgruntledparent

    Michael,
    My feeling and it is only a feeling is that there will be an attempt to shut down the School for International Studies.  The conventional neighborhood wisdom has always been that between the two schools, International Studies is the better program. Now, there seems to b a smear campaign assisted by the NY Post.  Last month a reporter for the NY Post wrote and article excoriating the school but the reporter had to dig really deep. The reporter called the school lousy and the basis for the article was that the principal was considering hiring a PR firm.  Some of the things that reported the reporter said made the school lousy were a former student who had graduated years before stabbed a fellow Brooklyn College student, the AP told graduates the did not need to come to school (this is SOP, MS 51 doesn’t permit graduated 8th graders back into the building except to pic up their diploma and report card, graduated PS 261 5th graders are told they don’t need to come back to school and if they do they will be playing games and helping teachers clean up), that the school had a championship basketball team – in 2006
    The article failed to note that Global Studies’ former principal stabbed her husband with a box cutter, students served teachers and students brownies laced with Ex-Lax, and Global Studies and International Studies students play together on the basketball.
    I also find it suspect that Global Studies went from an F to a B (not that I put much stock into those ratings) in less than a year while International Studies’ rating has been delayed under a cloud of suspicion courtesy of the DOE.  It would not surprise if the goal were to phase out IS and have Global Studies absorb those students similar to what happened with the three schools in the John Jay building in order to create room for Brooklyn Millennium.
    I have known a good number of students at both schools since they were Kindergartners.  
    I do not know anything about the program for autistic children, only that it exists.  When I toured IS last year there was a group of autistic children using the cafeteria  as makeshift gym as part of their therapy/program.

  • HSA Teacher

    Just shows your ignorance Michael. Have a little faith that the world is not always lying to you. Some people are honest and do happen to be HSA Teachers, like myself. I am not employed by any PR firm. I stand in front of a class of 28 students everyday from 7:45 to 4:30pm teaching and working hard. So before you assume that people are fake, ask a few questions.

  • HSA Teacher

    Bee – maybe you are right and there is no true reason for the existence of charters in the long run. But I do know this, it’s a sad world when we judge before we see or know. I am not saying you should be a believer, but at least come take a look of what you criticize. The kids are learning, and at a very high level. You may not agree with Eva’s personality, but the school we work hard in is producing results without doing test prep everyday of the year. Something is up in my school that I have never seen in any public school I have worked in (and I have worked in plenty).

  • HSA Teacher

    Okay, what is a public school? An elementary or secondary school in the United States supported by public funds and providing free education for children of a community or district (well… so says the dictionary). HSA is free for all students who come there. The money to run the school comes from public funds. Are there supplements? Yes. We fundraise. But what school doesn’t? Ever bought wrapping paper or candy? It’s a fundraiser right? I have worked at plenty of public schools who spend so much PTA energy begging parents for money. It’s all fundraising!

  • HSA Teacher

    When a community rallies behind a cause in a peaceful and mature way, I applaud their efforts. The commitment a group can show to a school can be magical. My only issue is opposing something you only know anything about by what you read in a newspaper or on a blog. There is a core to the Success charter face you see at sessions like yesterday. The core is the kids and the teachers who work to produce awesome results. The numbers in the paper on the state tests are not fake. I didn’t cheat or make my kids do test prep from September to May to get all of them to pass math. I worked really hard, we tutored like crazy, we worked diligently with parents, and we made the gains bit by bit. We are school teachers and not all of our kids were rocket scientists or hand picked.

    I get sad when people have no first hand knowledge of what goes on inside our school and automatically pop on here and assume our schools are the devil. I have worked at many public schools over the years and I have not seen more dedicated people working for a common goal than at these schools. Is there attrition? Yeah. But what school in low economic areas doesn’t have that? The public schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn have trouble keeping their young teachers too. You are preventing a great school who will be populated by your community kids from opening.

  • a teacher

    In the New York City public school system, 47% free lunch is really low.  I think the average is close to 80%, though that may be free + reduced price combined.  

  • Clay

    “HSA Teacher”, your response is completely unconvincing and does nothing to establish that you aren’t a part of the Success PR machine. Hell, as it is not a move beneath Eva, you’re probably getting paid to monitor the Ed blogs.

  • HSA Teacher

    Ha! Clay, I wish I was being paid to monitor ed blogs.

  • http://twitter.com/BNiche B

    @98ba098f89647d6a1d3548bc10362faa:disqus , you say “Is there attrition? Yeah. But what school in low economic areas doesn’t have that?”

    In my 3 years of experience (not much, but I’m sure more than the HSA 3 principal who’s 25 years old and running an entire school), I have seen many of my colleagues leave schools for a plethora of reasons: an overbearing principal, frustrations with how the school is run, lack of professional support, lack of administrative support, the long days and overwhelming amount of work, and on rare occasions, for a move into a new position or a move out of the City  or something similar. In my school (a public school in District 6), a primarily veteran school, in the last two years, three teachers moved out of the City and the others were excessed. 

    If the school is as rosy-planted as you claim HSA is, why is there high teacher attrition, with some schools like HSA1 boasting a really high teacher attrition rate? Could it be that ALL the teachers had a move as Eva claimed in the NY Times to a new town or a “different kind of school” or could there be more than what she says? Lack of support? Overbearing work? What do you believe?

    Since you have told any critics to HSA to visit your school before they criticize, maybe you can give me more facts as to why teachers and administrators leave at your school and tell me what you see. Are these teachers leaving just because of a move or is there something more? Please be as detailed as you can.

    I appreciate the replies.

  • guest

    I have never met a long term charter school teacher who can handle real students and a real school.  All the real school teachers who left my school to teach in charter schools couldn’t teach.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Ellen,

    When the city sold buildings in the 1970′s, the school-age population had (temporarily) crashed, and the city hadbeen losing population for decades. That is certainly not the case today.

    As for charter backers allowing the city to “keep” title to the buildings they take over, you may be right. However, my guess is that ultimately they want possession of those buildings, as well. I don’t think it’s coincidental that one of Harlem’s most active real estate developers, Gideon Stein, is on the board of HSA. 

    In high-rent cities like New York, charters are not just about busting the union, de-skilling teachers and turning them into temporary, at-will employees, and providing Skinner Box-type pedagogy to the worthy poor. In New York, charters are also a real estate play. 

  • Michael Fiorillo

    HSA Teacher,

    I don’t think the world lies to me; I think Eva Moskowitz and her backers lie to the world.

    If you’re teaching from 7:45 to 4:30 every day, you and your students are in a sweatshop. How long to you think you can keep up that kind of routine, especially if you have any hopes of having a family? Or does Moskowitz expect her teachers to sacrifice that, too?Then again, perhaps not, since she seems perfectly content with the high teacher  turnover in her schools.

    And, by the way, you keep mentioning your classes of 28 students: whatever happened to those small class sizes her marketing and PR materials always brag about? Did funding go down because Whitney Tilson’s hedge fund is having a bad year? If so, then Eva will have to ask the Chancellor to divert even more funds from the public schools she’s taking over, something they are no doubt exchanging emails about at this very moment.

  • HSA Teacher

    Being that I work at only one HSA, I cannot speak as to why other teachers left another school. I can tell you from my experience as to why teachers/administrators left my school. 

    Honestly, the work load is tremendous, but when I was hired they made no bones about the hours and the demands. I had a rough start myself going from a public school to a charter, but I never felt unsupported by anyone. If I asked for help, the leaders made sure I got it. If I felt I didn’t understand a component of the literacy program, they gave me resources and examples to follow. I came into it with the thought that this is someone’s school and they hired me to do it a certain way, as with any boss and any job. It was my responsibility to do it the way the boss wanted it done and if I couldn’t, to ask for help. If I disagreed with it, I had the option to find a school that was more to my liking.

    I toughed it out and now I find the work load totally manageable. It’s a challenge, but my personality likes challenges and deadlines and the feel of urgency. It’s just my style. It’s not everyone’s style though. Some people felt that the ideologies were different and didn’t agree with the rigorous pace we move at.

    I also saw the results in the kids from the hard work. The curriculum works. I have been teaching for 7 years now and I am amazed at what my kids can do sometimes. The curriculum is also always evolving and developing. They are always visiting top schools and implementing successful practices they see in those other schools. We are always working to be better and better. In a sense you could feel that nothing is ever good enough, or you can think to yourself, “yeah, it’s working okay, but how can I make this even better.”

    Some people left because they didn’t believe it would be hard and found out it was. They left because they were not willing or couldn’t to work up to the high standards. There are very high standards no question (and in the interview they did not hide that fact), but I am a hard worker and totally think anyone who works as hard finds their path.

    I know some people got married and moved to another state. Some people’s schedule didn’t align with our hours and had to leave because they wanted to finish degrees or have children.

    Some people couldn’t handle the kids or were not good classroom managers and felt that they weren’t up to the challenge. I don’t know from first hand but I do think leaders are very honest when it comes to talking to people whether they are cut out for the atmosphere or not. 

    The NYT article included in their numbers of people who left those who were promoted or moved to other schools within the network. I know of some personally.

    If the idea I am painting is that it’s a “rosy life” as you say, that is not my intention. Teaching is hard work as any educator knows. And with such high expectations it can make the job a lot harder. But, the network doesn’t randomly fire people because they don’t like you. They spent a lot of time and energy investing in me as an educator and I never felt like they were trying to outright fire me. What a waste that would be. 

    As to overbearing principals… I love our principals. They are smart, funny, caring, devoted people who are also challenged daily by the high standards. Do they have their crabby days? Who doesn’t, they are human. But the mission is simple: we are trying to make excellent schools and it takes a lot of hard work and determination to do that. Especially when you think the outside world is always out to get you.

    If you still have questions or I wasn’t clear enough on anything, feel free to ask away. I am not paid to be on here by anyone, nor do I drink the Koolaid. I just feel that the truth about our school is not totally being put out there. And there is a lot of negative energy coming towards us when the people who work daily in the schools are just trying to do a great job. I guess I feel the need to defend my co-workers and my kids.

  • Clay

    Once “HSA Teacher” wrote that public schools have 15 kids in a class, it became fully apparent that he/she was simply making stuff up.

  • Public School Teacher

    If there are no empty tables, then the kids share the table. That is the point. The kids should only have to share a table if the building is crowded. If the building is not crowded, let the kid sit alone. If the population of the building rises then the kids have to share the table. However, if the building is not crowded, why should a charter school set up shop there if there is no immediate need for it to be placed in that building? In other words, leave schools as they are and only make them crowded when there is no other choice to do so. Charter schools have slick PR and advertising campaigns to recruit students into co-located buildings. I think they should leave current school buildings as is and set up shop in their own building. 

  • Ken Hirsh

    I hear that Eva is planning to convert her schools into luxury condos.

  • 2nd Year Teacher

    I am not asking in a offensive way, and I hope it doesn’t come out wrong…just curious, is your salary higher than the avg DOE salary?  Also, how do you find your work/life balance?

  • HSA Teacher

    My annual salary is more than I would get if I worked at the DOE. The work/life balance is different depending on the time of year. Just like in a public school you tend to spend more time at school in the beginning and then you get into a rhythm and the time you can get out after school gets earlier. I try to be as efficient as possible and use my preps to make sure I get the most done during school hours. I also like to get there about an hour early so I know I am ready. Some people come early, some stay later.

  • HSA Teacher

    How do you know I don’t have a family now? Just because you couldn’t work  the hours and have a family and still do a great job doesn’t mean I can’t. Don’t assume you know me or my life. You must think I am 23 and fresh out of college and a bad teacher right?

    I have worked in other states that do not have union contracts and we did what the principal told us to do. We had no union to run to. We worked it out with them or supervisors or moved on. I didn’t feel like I was working in a sweatshop, nor do I feel that way now.

    And take a look at “The Lottery” movie with footage from 2008? In there Eva is quoted as saying we have large class sizes. Please point me to this PR material you are talking about. I have never seen it. Nor have I ever heard Eva say we have small class sizes.

    I don’t care how you feel about Eva or the amount of money she raises, but do not discredit the hard work the teachers do daily for the kids that walk through our doors. They are just doing the work they were hired to do, and doing a pretty good job.

  • internationalteacher

    So HSA teacher, those of us who work diligently at our own respective schools on 284 Baltic Street shouldn’t feel angry, disrespected, and invaded? We already have three schools that struggle but somehow have gotten past sharing space and now we have to make way for another school that plans to expand, and we should have a calm, civilized reaction after we have been told the decision has already been made with no input from the community? Really? All this on top of constant budget cuts.  And you talk about how your schools and the teachers who work there feel smeared. Well, what about the smearing that takes place against our schools and our kids on Eva Moskowitz’s end. I was at the meeting and wish it had unfolded as planned, if only for my own bizarre curiosity. But I understand the anger of many people who were in attendance as I share it as well. 

  • HSA Teacher

    internationalteacher – no if I was in your shoes and felt someone was taking something that belonged to me, I would feel the same way you do. But I don’t hear Eva smearing your kids. I have never heard Eva smear children. I haven’t read anything in the papers where she has said anything bad about your school or Brooklyn schools.

    If there is a space sharing problem, the fight should be with the DOE. They are the ones who approve of a co-location.

  • guest

    We all work long hours.  You did not invent that.  Charter schools did not invent that.

  • Drockeducation

    Our Supporters

    Success Charter Network has been fortunate to receive both strategic
    and financial support from many foundations and individuals over the
    years. We’d like to thank the following foundations and individuals for
    supporting the Success Charter Network’s mission to serve our scholars
    by preparing them to succeed in college and in life, and to reform the
    public school system in ways that will help every student access a
    world-class education.

    Eli and Edythe Broad FoundationWalton Family FoundationDoris and Donald Fisher FundCharter School Growth FundNew Schools Venture FundRobin Hood FoundationSidney E. Frank FoundationCarmen and Lucia Buck FoundationTiger FoundationMaverick Capital FoundationAchelis and Bodman FoundationsWilliam E. Simon FoundationCenterbridge Foundation

    HSA Teacher,

    I don’t think this list of !% funders are donating wrapping paper.  You are disingenuous extremely misleading.  A public school embraces students with special needs.  A public school is a school that serves all children and doesn’t push students with special needs out. 

  • Drockeducation

    I’m sure the families at PS 241 were very happy when their students were forced into the basement for two years against their will.  Now that HSA 4 had no choice but to move there themselves, the basement was then renovated.  PS 241 and Opportunity Charter School, in fact the DoE themselves, had no idea that the yard was going to be renovated.  Eva did that with no input from anyone.  Co-located schools do NOT like someone moving in, taking over and making decisions that effect everyone in the building without asking anyone like Eva know what’s best for them.  How about I visit your house and take over and see how much you’re thanking me?

  • School Follower!

    I just came across this and went to the article….all I can say is wow and isn’t  Moskowitz married to Eric Grannis who is on the Board of Trustees at this charter school – very interesting.  People do the research before you sign up for any school.  

    What a shame former charter parents and new ones who have seen that charter schools are not the answer weren’t there in huge numbers to let the parents know what is happening then let them be the ones who can judge for themselves.  Parents just go to Charter School Scandals and see all the horrors and yes it is happening here in NYC.  Go to http://eastvillage.thelocal.ny… and see for yourself – I have 2 children – one in the elementary and one in Middle School and live in the neighborhood and you can bet they will not be there next year after the shame they have bought on themselves.  Read the article and all the comments and you will see why Charter Schools are not the answer.  Lets stick together and demand that the Public Schools get the help that they need.  In Charter School you as a parent lose your voice the voice that is helping them to obtain a school.  good luck.

  • bee

    Drockeducation you are right on the money! Oh and lets not forget about the entrepreneur, “philanthropist” real estate developer chairmen of HSA’s boards.

  • Pingback: Controversial charter network making move on Cobble Hill – New York Daily News « Abolish Pest Control Serving Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York

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