GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

School co-locations don’t have to be a bad thing.

My children both attended schools in one of the city’s oldest multi-school sites, the Julia Richman Education Complex on the Upper East Side. JREC is a prime example of effective school co-location. The building serves a diverse student population: preschoolers, middle schoolers, English Language Learners, future performing artists, children with autism who share resources and even classes at times. Herb Mack, a co-principal of Urban Academy High School, located on JREC’s campus, told me that staff from each school have met weekly for the last 15 years to make sure the campus functions effectively and in the interests of the children who attend school there. Unfortunately, the city has proposed disrupting the successful co-location at JREC by moving the schools more than 40 blocks south and giving the site to Hunter College.

The problem with co-location right now is the arbitrary process that decides which schools will share space — or more correctly, it’s the lack of a process that is transparent, accountable, and inclusive. To that end I propose a moratorium on co-locations until the following “seven rules of co-location” are implemented:

1.  All district schools that the Department of Education considers to be underutilized must undergo a comprehensive review and analysis of current utilization by an independent entity (such as the Independent Budget Office) to assess the availability of space and the potential impact of co-location on the existing school. All findings of the independent review should be considered binding.
2. Schools, parents and community members (including elected community education councils) must be informed before a review begins that they are being considered for co-location. (more…)