The New York City Department of Education (DOE) is proposing the re-siting and co-location of Success Academy – Crown Heights to building K161 currently occupied by PS 161- The Crown School. We believe that in choosing to place an elementary charter school in the space that has been deemed as under-utilized, the DOE itself is undermining the viability of the community school. In the proposal, the DOE’s projected enrollment figures show that this co-location will be detrimental to the community school in terms of a projected lower enrollment which corresponds to smaller space allocation and decreased funding. Previous DOE actions, including the truncation of the middle school grades and the recent removal of the Gifted & Talented program have already had adverse effects on PS 161 including declining enrollment and morale in the school community and this proposal will compound those issues. PS 161 has made significant improvements in the last few years and the addition of what is essentially a competing elementary school threatens those gains. While the DOE asserts in its Educational Impact Statement that it “strives to ensure that all students in New York City have access to a diverse range of high –quality schools at every stage of their education”, we must also insist that in trying to promote that diversity it does not come at the expense of our community schools. And in this instance - it does. The recommendation is that with regards to space utilization at building K161, it would be more appropriate and in the best community interest to site a middle school at the current site to replace the previously truncated middle school grades. Placing an elementary school at building K161 creates unnecessary and detrimental competition and threatens to undermine the viability of PS 161 as well as other nearby community elementary schools. We are calling on the DOE to postpone the Panel for Educational Policy vote scheduled for October 15th and open a dialogue with all affected parties including the PS 161 leadership, Community Education Council 17, Community Board 9, and PARENTS to work together on educational options that are in the best interest of the community.

Links