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In a major reversal, the city said today it would ask a Lower East Side charter school to find a new space instead of expanding inside its current building.

Facing a threat of litigation, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is backing down, at least for the moment, from using new emergency powers to allow Girls Preparatory Charter School to add a middle school inside the PS 188 building. Klein said last week that he would use the powers to override a state ruling barring the expansion, but the city never took the steps to make his declaration official.

Klein said he hasn’t ruled out taking those steps in the future.

“Given the threats of litigation and continuing uncertainty, we are working with the Board of Girls Prep to find a stable solution for these young women,” he said. “At the same time, we remain prepared to exercise our emergency powers should that become necessary.”

Meanwhile, Girls Prep will delay the first day of classes for some students by up to a month while it searches for more space. (more…)

The city will forge ahead with a plan to give a Lower East Side charter school more space — even though the state ruled this week to throw that plan out.

The move takes advantage of an “emergency” provision in state law and will allow Girls Prep Charter School to expand into middle school grades in a building the charter currently shares with two district schools.

Earlier this week, State Education Commissioner David Steiner threw out the city’s plan. Steiner ruled that the city did not properly report the impact the charter school’s expansion would have on the students at one of the district schools, P.S. 94, which serves only students with autism. (You can read Steiner’s decision in full here.)

The law says that the chancellor can unilaterally change how a building is used when it is  “immediately necessary for the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare.” The change can be in effect for six months while the city goes through the full public approval process required under state law. (more…)

The city must start over its controversial plan to let a Lower East Side charter school expand in city space but may proceed with another, the state education department ruled yesterday.

State Education Commissioner David Steiner threw out the city’s plan to allow Girls Prep Charter School to expand its middle school grades in the building it shares with two district schools, ruling that the city did not properly report the plan’s impact on disabled students who attend school in the building.

But in a separate ruling, Steiner argued that the city did provide enough information about its plan to let Brooklyn’s PAVE Academy Charter School expand in the building it currently shares with P.S. 15.

Both plans have prompted bitter space battles this year between the charter schools and teachers and parents at the district schools who share the buildings. Both charters want to expand the number of grades they serve; opponents of the expansion argue that the plans would squeeze the students at the district schools in the building. (more…)

Parents and supporters from Girls Prep Charter School (left) faced their counterparts from P.S. 188 and 94 at a protest yesterday outside of the Lower East Side school building where the charter school wants to expand.

When Girls Prep Charter School first requested more space in the Lower East Side school building it currently calls home, its principal and the leader of the district school that shares the building said they wanted a peaceful discussion. That hasn’t happened.

Yesterday, parents from district schools squared off against their neighbors at Girls Prep, separated by a few yards of sidewalk, each trying to shout the other down.

And both sides had the same message: give our school room to grow. (more…)

Kimberly Morcate, principal of Girls Prep's middle school, rallied with students, teachers and parents on the steps of City Hall this evening.

The city is re-shuffling a set of contentious proposals that would ask Lower East Side district schools to give up classroom space to make room for an expanding charter school.

Last month, the city presented three proposals to accommodate the growth of Girls Prep Charter School to parents at a heated district parents’ council meeting. The options drew the ire of many parents at nearby district schools because each proposal would require schools to give up classrooms and resource space.

Today, Debra Kurshan, the head of the DOE’s Office of Portfolio Planning, announced that the city has removed one of the three options from consideration entirely.

The discarded proposal would have moved P.S. 94, a school for students with autism, out of the building they currently share with Girls Prep and P.S. 188, a district school. A new program for disabled students would then have been opened in the building currently occupied solely by P.S. 184, the well-regarded dual-language Shuang Wen school. (more…)

Parents at a school for students with disabilities are accusing the city of excluding them from discussions about plans to move their school to make way for an expanding charter school.

For the past month, debate has raged in District 1 over three scenarios the DOE has proposed to accommodate the expansion of Girls Prep Charter School into middle school grades. Seven elementary and secondary schools in the district could be affected by the plans. Last month, parents from most of those schools packed into the auditorium of P.S. 20 for a heated meeting to tell the DOE they won’t accept space-sharing plans.

While the meeting was raucous, the voices of parents from P.S. 94 were noticeably absent. The school, a District 75 school for severely disabled students that currently shares space with Girls Prep and a district school, would be affected by the expansion. One of the scenarios would move their students to a new building in Battery Park City.

Jessica Santos, the president of the parent association at P.S. 94, said that’s because parents learned only yesterday that the DOE was considering moving their school.

“I’m surprised, and to be honest, I’m pretty pissed off,” Santos said. “Our children are already vulnerable to the social stigmas of being disabled, and now it seems like the DOE is treating us the same way.” (more…)