Brooklyn-Based Charter School Eyes Location In Queens

JAMAICA, QUEENS -- A new charter school designed to help high school students struggling in the classroom could make its way to Queens as early as September 2019.

New Dawn Charter High School is looking to expand and its sight is set on Queens. The Brooklyn-based transfer school has already begun scoping out buildings in Jamaica to house a high school, the school's executive director Sarah Asmussen told Community Board 12 members on Wednesday.

"We felt like focusing on this area (Jamaica) would be a great middle ground for students out in the Rockaways as well as students in other communities to get to," she said of their choice for the new Queens location.

Asmussen, armed with some of her key staff members, made her case for the charter school to a roomful of community board members at their December meeting. The transfer high school, much like New Dawn, would be open to all students ages 15-21, focusing particularly on those at risk of dropping out of their traditional community schools.

"We don't compete (with community schools) for students," Asmussen said. "We take those students whose needs are not being met in their community schools."

More specifically, the charter transfer school takes in students who are over-aged and under-credited, a service Asmussen said she believes there is a need for in Queens. She's already begun scouting locations for the school along Jamaica Avenue, though none of them are traditional school buildings. The school is strictly looking for business buildings that could be retrofitted into a high school.

"None of our schools are based in Department of Education buildings," Asmussen said. "We rent and pay our own rent. We do not use any of the DOE resources."

New Dawn opened in 2012 as a sister school to the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School, which has campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx. Wildcat first opened in 1993 as an alternative high school - later switching to charter status in 2000 - to serve students who have "literally or figuratively dropped out of high school."

Asmussen said both academies have a 40 percent rate of special education students and are fully inclusive, meaning there are no special education classes, just extra help for those who need it. The new Queens location would likely boast a similar makeup, which also includes a "mentor" for each student, she said.

"High school teachers don't always believe they're being paid to be counselors, but if you're working for us, you are," Asmussen said.

Lisa DiGaudio, New Dawn's founding principal, outlined the charter school's curriculum and internship program, which she said allows students to earn a Career Development and Occupational Studies certificate in the field they focus on.

"We provide them a curriculum that gives them college readiness and career opportunities," DiGaudio said. "Many of our students are hired full time in their internship placements."

The pitch raised questions from board members as to how accessible those internships would be for struggling students.

"We're finding a lot of students are having a hard time getting those internship experiences," said board member Brittany Chambers. "Is this something that's 98 percent accessible or 28 percent accessible?"

The charter school peaked several other board members' curiosity, with questions raised on the school's success rates, diversity of teachers and techniques for engaging students who have already mentally checked out of school. Others wanted to know if New Dawn had reached out to Queens Satellite School, a transfer school already located in Jamaica at 162-02 Hillside Ave.

Asmussen said they had yet to reach out to the school, but planned to once they were further along in their plans.

"Once we move forward, we can begin reaching out to other schools," she said

Though the high school has yet to find an exact location in Jamaica, Asmussen doesn't expect it to take long. She said they hope to have a school up and running in the neighborhood by September 2019.

Lead photo by Patch reporter Danielle Woodward. Caption: Staff from the Brooklyn-based New Dawn Charter High School takes the stage at Wednesday night's Community Board 12 meeting to pose a charter transfer school in Jamaica.