Parents Fear New Charter School Is A 'Disaster Waiting To Happen'

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — A charter school is moving into a Financial District building where it will share an entrance with a public middle school, but Downtown education advocates fear the influx of students will cause chaotic arrivals and dismissals on elevators that frequently break down.

The New York City Charter School of the Arts is moving into 26 Broadway where it will welcome students come autumn for the new school year. The 31-story private building also houses three public schools in city leased space including the Lower Manhattan Community Middle School, where 385 students enrolled last school year and arrived at the building's back entrance on Next Street. The same entrance where 300 more students with the Charter School for the Arts will enter in September.

The swell of students on a handful of elevators is a "disaster waiting to happen" said one Downtown education advocate who is on the public school's parent teacher association.

"The elevators are perpetually broken. They are incredibly slow and they weren’t built for the kind of traffic that they have right now," Tricia Joyce, the chairwoman of Community Board 1's Youth and Education Committee and an executive member of the Lower Manhattan community school's parent teacher association, told Patch.

"Why they placed this school before providing infrastructure for it is something that in my view is unconscionable," said Joyce.

It's not unheard for an elevator or two to be out of commission for an entire school day, forcing students to cram into even less space and beef up the time it takes for pupils to make it to their classes, said one parent whose daughter is an incoming eighth grader at the Lower Manhattan community school.

"I've seen it happen — they'll have elevator trouble and it can cause a mess for the kids trying to go up for class," Patrica Williams, 47, who works in finance and regularly walks her daughter to 26 Broadway, told Patch. "I want to know what's being done to make sure our kids are safe because if the elevators are causing problems now, what's it going to be like when hundreds more are riding in them?"

When the Charter School for the Arts signed a 12-year lease in the building, the landlord failed to mention that the school's students would not be able to use the main entrance on Broadway and sent the school scrambling to find an alternative, according to Jamie Davidson, the charter school's principal.

The school is in the process of renovating a fright elevator at a separate entrance on Next Street, but the repairs aren't expected to wrap up until six months into the 2018-2019 school year. In the meantime, the 300 students enrolled in the charter school will temporarily share the entranced used by Lower Manhattan Community Middle School students, explained Davidson.

Without temporarily sharing the entrance, the charter school would wind up co-locating with a public school for the incoming school year, which Davidson wants to avoid.

It's a compromise she is aware has some educators and parents on edge.

"While I understand the concerns voiced by community members about City School of the Arts' use of the DOE's existing entrance and elevators for 26 Broadway, this temporary arrangement, in place only until January 2019, allows us time to refurbish a dedicated elevator and entrance for our students," Davidson said in a statement to Patch. "Our aim is, and always was, to acquire a private space, not co-located in a DOE facility, in order to meet the unique needs of our arts-based academic program."

Administrators have also shifted the school's start time from 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. to give a buffer between the 8:17 a.m. start time at the public middle school.

The Charter School for the Arts is relocating to its private space in the Financial District from Hell's Kitchen, where it co-located with the city's PS 111. The 3-year-old school emphasizes creativity and threads the arts into every subject with the tagline "create, learn and thrive," according to the school's website.

In 2010, the nearby Millennium High School asked the city for additional room in city-leased space at 26 Broadway, but the Department of Education rejected the proposal.

Some locals were not excited to hear about the school's Lower Manhattan arrival, especially since Community Board 1 issued a 2016 resolution against charter schools coming to the neighborhood and demanded the city's Department of Education (DOE) alert the community board when one is slated for the area.

But 26 Broadway is a privately owned building where the DOE also leases space from for district schools, and since the school isn't actually co-locating in a city space no public notification is required, said a city spokeswoman.

“We value community feedback and ensure Chancellor’s regulations are followed when co-locating a school. This charter school leased a private space and therefore did not require a public hearing process," said Miranda Barbot, a spokeswoman with the DOE.

The education department did not answer questions on if the city is making upgrades to the elevators at the Lower Manhattan community school's Next Street entrance and the building's owner did not respond to a request for comment.

Photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch