The Parents of Brownsville Academy High School

Oppose the proposal for

Success Academy Charter School –

                  Brooklyn 7

Brownsville Academy High School is one of the top transfer high schools in New York City. We have consistently received grades of A’s and B’s on our School Progress Report and ratings of Well-Developed and Proficient on our Quality Reviews.

Our Concern: Brownsville Academy High School opposes the proposal for Success Academy Charter School – Brooklyn 7. This shared-space proposal created by the NYC Department of Education generates serious questions for both the proposed and current school communities about classroom overcrowding, fire-safety and most importantly, the quality and continuity of educational resources at BAHS. This co-location would have a negative educational impact on the scholars at Brownsville Academy High School.

We are concerned that the size of the incoming school would cause overcrowding within the school building and that Brownsville Academy High School would not have the space necessary to continue to provide a top-notch education for our most underserved and needy scholars. In fact, we will lose many of our valuable  resources, such as our Writing Center, College Office, Art Rooms and one of our Technology Labs. We will also be forced to increase class size because we will have to downsize from 34 classrooms to 8 classrooms.  Small class sizes are ideal for the transfer school scholar who enters our school with significant learning gaps. Oftentimes, teachers are working with scholars with reading levels that range from 4th grade through 12th grade. Therefore, the instructional space is necessary to meet the instructional needs of this diverse scholar population. Again, this co-location would have a negative educational impact on the scholars at Brownsville Academy High School.

We are concerned about scholar safety in the shared-space proposal. This building lacks significant space for an additional school community of over 500 scholars. Currently Brownsville Academy High School has an enrollment cap of 250 scholars. The proposed school would add an additional 434-556 scholars. In total, the school building would house approximately 900 people including teachers and staff members. This poses serious safety concerns for a building that has a capacity of 503 people. The DOE has shared in their Educational Impact Statement that they plan to alter these numbers and increase the building capacity to 658 to suit their purposes, while neglecting the safety of the people in the building.

In the event of an emergency, there are only two active stairwells that can be used to evacuate the building. It would pose a serious safety risk to both scholars and staff members to evacuate over 900 people in a timely and safe manner through these two stairwells. Please note that this co-location would have a negative educational impact on the scholars at Brownsville Academy High School.