Panel Votes (Again) to Co-Locate a Charter School at P.S. 9

The panel that oversees the city’s school system has once again voted to have a charter school share space with P.S. 9.

The 7-4 vote took place at a Panel for Educational Policy meeting last night at Long Island City High School.  

“It’s disappointing but not surprising,” said Michelle French a P.S. 9 whose daughter attends pre-K at P.S. 9.

In February the , Brooklyn East Collegiate, to move into the building at 80 Underhill Ave., gradually replacing M.S. 571, which . But a group of P.S. 9 parents appealed the decision to the state education commissioner, saying the city’s plan for sharing the space between the two schools was unfair. The commissioner sided with them, and asked the city to file a new plan, .  

Meanwhile, P.S. 9’s principal, Sandra D’Avilar, sent the city an official request to the Department of Education to expand the school from pre-K-5 to pre-K-8.

At the meeting last night, Chancellor Dennis Walcott said “he's committed to continuing the grade expansion conversation with the P.S. 9 community,” a DOE spokesman confirmed via e-mail today.

French said parents were eager for the DOE’s response, but she noted that expanding with BEC sharing the building would probably require P.S. 9 to reduce the number of classes in each grade “which is not ideal,” she said.

P.S. 9 parents could appeal the PEP’s decision to the state again. P.S. 9 parents say the new space-sharing plan is still inequitable, with much of the library time allotted for P.S. 9 students coming before the school day even starts.

But it might be a tougher fight this time: shortly after overturning the PEP vote (and shortly after the , whom he ok’d), the state education commissioner, David Steiner, resigned. His replacement, named Monday, is John B. King Jr., a former managing director at Uncommon Schools, which is part of a network that includes Brooklyn East Collegiate.

French said parents are “going to take a few days to look at options.”

And still, she remains upbeat.

"We had a great turnout from parents last night," French said, noting that about 20 parents went to the Queens meeting to push for the K-8 expansion rather than the co-location. "We just showed our strength as a community we’ll have to move forward from here."

Meanwhile, Laura Lee McGovern, COO of Uncommon Schools, says she's glad the panel has approved the co-location. 

"We look forward to sitting down with P.S. 9 and M.S. 571 soon to address their remaining co-location concerns directly and to begin working together productively in preparation for the coming school year," she said via e-mail.