New Sunset Park Dual-Language Charter Finds Home On Fifth Avenue

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — A new kind of Spanish-English school that has been a years-long dream for its founders has found a home to make it a reality. LEEP Dual-Language Academy, set to open later this year in Sunset Park, signed a lease this week for space on top of the Chase Bank building on Fifth Avenue.

The school, which is the first two-way immersion program of its kind in the city, will house the second and third floor of the building for its first class of kindergarteners, first, second and third-graders, founder Roberto Gutierrez said. The space also includes the opportunity to expand for fourth and fifth graders in the future, he said.

The 31-year lease brings Gutierrez one step closer to his dream of opening a dual-language school that celebrates both English and Spanish language and culture. And, for its new principal Delines Rodriguez, it brings a new motivator to make LEEP the best it can be.

"It's exciting, and even more exciting after I’ve had the opportunity to meet our families and our kids," Rodriguez said. "It makes it all that much more real and creates the sense of urgency. We’ve promised our families a school where their children will thrive and I want to make sure that promise is kept — and that includes the space as well."

Now that the school has a home, the next step will be renovating the space to make sure it works for the collaborative learning model LEEP hopes to emphasize, Rodriguez said.

The 13,500-square-foot space will include four kindergarten classrooms and three first-grade classrooms in its first year, Guitierrez said. It will also have a dance and art space and will explore options for an outdoor play area.

Getting the school ready has also included getting the word out to families in Sunset Park, which Rodriguez and Gutierrez both agree offers a unique diversity that allowed LEEP to fill a need in the community. The school promises to make kids bilingual by the fifth grade by using an immersive model that starts kindergarteners with 90 percent of their school day in Spanish and gradually moves to a 50-50 language split by the fourth grade.

Rodriguez said she not only has seen how this model works during her time as the instructional school leader of a similar school in Hoboken, but that she understands the personal reasons for why families value learning in the dual-language setting.

"As a Latina I know how difficult it can be to navigate between your own culture and your American culture — sometimes you feel as though you need to sacrifice one or the other," she said. "It was really important to create a school culture where everyone felt seen, appreciated and valued."

The native Brooklynite, who is Puerto Rican grew up in Midwood, said opportunity to lead the school in her home borough has been a "very emotional experience." Rodriguez started her career teaching at a predominantly Spanish-speaking school in Newark, where she started its first elementary foreign language department, before working at the Hoboken school.

Rodriguez emphasized, though, that not only Latino children can thrive in LEEP's program.

Being biliterate can be an asset no matter a family's background, Rodriguez said, which families at recent information sessions seemed to underscore. Students at LEEP do not need to know both Spanish or English when starting at the school.

"A lot of these families noted that the United States has fallen behind on that (bilingual) component and we need to catch up,"Rodriguez said. "LEEP is a program everyone can benefit from."