Harlem, UWS Education Council Opposes New Charter School

HARLEM-UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Community Education Council for School District 3, which spans the Upper West Side and parts of Harlem, will oppose the KIPP charter school network's plans to open a new middle school in the district.

The council — a volunteer body made up of parents from the school district — is taking steps toward drafting a letter detailing its reasons for opposing the new school, CEC 3 President Kim Watkins said during a Wednesday night council meeting in Harlem. The letter will be sent to the State University of New York Charter Schools Institute to recommend denying KIPP's application.

The SUNY board of trustees is authorized by the Charter Schools Act of 1998 to grant charters in New York State. The SUNY Charter Schools Institute is tasked with evaluating applications to open charter schools, according to its website.

KIPP NYC — which currently operates 13 schools in the city and is in the middle of an expansion in the Bronx — announced it was "exploring" options to open an "intentionally integrated" school in District 3 in a December letter from the network's superintendent. The letter did not specify where in the district the school would be located. District 3 spans 59th Street to 122nd Street on the west side of Manhattan.

Currently, 99 percent of KIPP NYC's students are African-American, Latino or Multi-Racial, according to the network's website. The goal of the new district 3 school would be to achieve a more integrated student body.

Community Education Council 3 members cited its own 2018 middle school diversity plan as a reason to reject the new charter school. The plan — which takes effect for students entering 6th grade in 2019 — will reserve 25 percent of seats at District 3 middle schools for low-performing students who qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program, city schools officials said.

Studying the results of the initiative must be done before opening "integrated" charter schools in the district, council members said Wednesday.

"Even [District 3 Superintendent Ilene Altschul] has cleearly state that she will make no changes while she waits for these plans to see results," CEC 3 Charter School Committee member Sharmilee Ramudit said Wednesday.

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