GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

With weeks to go before the deadline to apply to city charter schools, early numbers suggest that two controversial new schools are finding some takers — but mostly not from the neighborhoods where they are set to open.

Cobble Hill Success Academy and Williamsburg Success Academy, the newest additions to Eva Moskowitz’s Success Charter Network, have each received hundreds of applications already, according to the network. Cobble Hill has gotten nearly a thousand applications for its kindergarten and first grade, while the Williamsburg school has garnered nearly 700.

But despite vigorous recruitment efforts, most of those applications are from outside the schools’ districts. Just 260 of Cobble Hill’s applicants come from District 15, and fewer than 200 applicants have signed on from District 14.

Applications are due April 1, giving the schools nearly three weeks to find takers. But they do not appear to be on track to meet the numbers posted last year by Upper West Success, which opened amid protest. That school received 700 applications from residents of District 3 yet still opened under capacity this fall.

Enrollment numbers are high stakes for new charter schools, which must prove local demand in order to win the right to open. The Success Network collected 4,100 signatures from people in District 15 who said they thought a new charter school was needed there. If too few local students enroll, it could damage the schools’ credibility and undermine them if they try to open additional schools elsewhere, as the Success network plans to. (more…)

A Quinnipiac University poll released this morning found that most New Yorkers do not think publishing executive Cathie Black is qualified to run the city’s school system. Her approval rating dropped further when voters with children in the public schools were polled.

Sixty-two percent of parents with children in the public school system disapprove of Mayor Bloomberg’s choice for the next chancellor and 63 percent say Black isn’t qualified. Fifty-one percent of voters in general think she’s not fit for the job.

A majority of voters, 64 percent, think that experience in education is important for whoever manages the city’s school system.

“Do New Yorkers approve of the Black appointment? Does she have the right experience? No and no, voters say,” said Quinnipiac pollster Mickey Carroll in a statement. (more…)