Hearings tomorrow for Success Academy charter revisions & comments from District 2 CEC members demanding more transparency
Hearings on revisions to the Success Academy charter will be held by the SUNY charter committee tomorrow Tuesday Oct 6, 2020. The meeting will start at 9 AM and will be webcast here. The agenda is here and the proposed Success Academy revisions are included in a document entitled SUNY Charter Schools Institute Update.
For more on these revisions, which include evidence of high attrition rates including elimination of all three originally planned Brooklyn HS , see the analysis by Brooke Parker here.
Below is testimony submitted by six members of CEC2.
Testimony for the SUNY Charter Institute on
Charter School Revision Application by Success Academies in
Community School Districts 2, 3, 14 and 15
September 30, 2020
Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony. We submit the below testimony as individual members of the Community Education Council District 2 (CECD2). Due to the timing of the charter revision notice, which was released after the September monthly meeting, the CECD2 is unable to issue an official statement. Thus while the majority of members signed this testimony it does not represent the official position of the CECD2.
We are against the proposals for charter school revisions submitted by Success Academies Harlem 1, Bed-Stuy 2, Cobble Hill and Wiliamsbsurg.
- Our comments from 2019 are still relevant
In a comment letter submitted by Shino Tanikawa and Ushma Neil on October 3rd, 2019, appended to this comment letter, we listed three reasons for opposing the revision proposal submitted by SA Union Square, Hell’s Kitchen, Harlem I & III and Upper West. We understand the group of schools included in the current revision proposals are not the same but the substance of the 2019 comments remains very much relevant.
1.a. Academic year and proposal timeline
Nowhere on the 2-page notice sent by the NYC Department of Education is there indication of the academic year for which the proposal is submitted. We can only hope that this is for the academic year 2021-2022, since the current year is already underway, even if SA has announced 100% remote learning for all its students.
Please ensure all future notices clearly state the timeline of the proposal and the academic year for which the proposal is submitted.
1.b. Organizational & building capacity data
Below is the Enrollment, Capacity and Utilization Report data from December 2019, with grade spans served in each building added (we are making assumptions since grade CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Hearings tomorrow for Success Academy charter revisions & comments from District 2 CEC members demanding more transparency