Why I Say No to the Red Hook Charter School
By Jim Devor
There are multiple reasons why the Red Hook Charter School would be detrimental to Community School District 15. The following are excerpts from the comments I submitted to the New York State Regents in opposition to the Red Hook Charter School application.
Contrary to the representation made by the applicant, there is little evidence of much community support for this charter school. For example, the proponent of the application in question was duly notified, in advance, of the public hearing. On that evening, over thirty parents appeared in support of the application of the Brooklyn Urban Garden School. Yet, no one, aside from Lisa Chamberlin, spoke in favor of the Red Hook Charter School proposal nor (as far as I could tell from the front of the room) did anyone else appear to be in support of it.
The application’s explicit reference to the increasingly affluent and “whitening” populations in Census Tracts 55, 57 and 59 in Red Hook is far from casual. Rather, it describes the population the proposed Charter School is