Save the Nest

Several hundred children and their parents jammed City Hall plaza last Friday to protest a plan by the city to add a charter school inside their Lower East Side school building.

A school for gifted students, the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math, or NEST+m school, at Columbia and E. Houston Sts., has been told that the Ross Charter School will be moving into its building this fall.

However, on Monday afternoon the Department of Education said no final decision has yet been made on locating the Ross Charter School within the NEST+m building.

Alicia Maxey, a D.O.E. spokesperson, said, “We have not yet made a decision regarding the placement of the Ross Charter, but whatever we decide will be based on what is in the best interests of all of our public school children.”

At last Friday’s rally, at least 300 students and parents filled the steps in front of City Hall holding signs saying “Don’t Crowd Out Nest,” “Give Ross A Rest” and “We Love Our School.” Hundreds more stood outside the gates on Park Row and in City Hall Park, chanting their support.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver came to show his solidarity with their cause. His remarks were interrupted several times as the children broke into chants of “No Overcrowding” and “One Building, One School.”

“What we’re really talking about here is, NEST+m is one of the city’s education successes,” Silver told the crowd. He declared the school an important waypoint in producing a qualified work force for the city’s future.
“Science labs are not a luxury,” he said. “They are the way of the future. They are the way these children will be part of the global economy of the 21st century. They need the foundations and the fundamentals of science to succeed, for New York businesses to succeed in that 21st century,” Silver said as the plaza and the park again filled with cheers.

The NEST+m school says D.O.E. notified them that many students already accepted for the new school year would now be turned away because of space limitations caused by the addition of the new school.

NEST+m Principal Celenia Chevere questioned the proposed merger.

“We are three schools in one building, and we are already overcrowded,” she said in a statement. With staggered schedules currently being used to accommodate all the students, Chevere asked, “Students start eating lunch at 9:30 a.m. How on earth could another K-12 fit in here?”

Silver echoed her concerns, stating, “You can’t embed a charter school in a NEST academy. And, you certainly can’t do it without talking to the parents first.”

D.O.E.’s Maxey said, “It is our obligation and our priority to serve as many students as possible in the space we have available.”

Also on Monday, NEST+m parents announced plans to hold a rally at the Ross School in Easthampton on April 17.

The three partners responsible for creating the Ross Charter School and trying to bring it to New York City are D.O.E., New York University and the Ross Institute. The Ross Global Academy Charter School will adopt the education model developed at the Ross School of East Hampton, a private school founded 15 years ago by Courtney Sale Ross and her late husband, Steven J. Ross, former chairman and C.E.O. of Time Warner.

The NEST+m school says it has consistently achieved some of the top test scores in the city. On that basis, last year it was designated a talented and gifted school. The current school, which does not yet offer all grade levels, has an enrollment of 732 students. The school expects to offer all grades next year with an anticipated student body of 1,050 students.

The argument between NEST+m and the Department of Education centers on the school’s enrollment and the building’s capacity. The school has about 730 students in kindergarten through fourth grade and sixth grade through 12th grade. Next year, it is expected to have 1,050 students, with increased enrollment and the addition of a fifth grade, according to Mr. Grasco, who teaches fencing there.

School administrators claim there is little extra space, especially in the school’s cafeteria and gymnasium, which must accommodate kindergartners through 12th graders.

New York City Department of Education officials disagree. They claim the school can house up to 1,400 students. And on Monday, Mr. Harries said in a letter that the school is providing false enrollment numbers.

“NEST+m administrators and teachers sought to mislead Department of Education visitors on our recent walk through the school building,” he wrote, claiming that the school divided classes so that more rooms would appear to be in use.

The Department of Education has capped the school’s enrollment at 899 for 2006-7, according to Mr. Grasco, who said that the department has pressured parents of students accepted for fall admission to NEST+m to withdraw their applications.

NEST+m advocates have obtained legal counsel and will seek an injunction if the Ross Global Academy does move into the building, Mr. Grasco said.

“This is the fourth time in four years that the Department of Education has tried to put a charter school in the school,” said Liz Schultz, a NEST+m parent. In three previous instances, Ms. Schultz said, officials have said that there is room for a charter school, but have then changed their minds and decided that NEST+m needed the space for continued growth.

Diana Aceti, a Ross School spokeswoman, said that it is not unusual for charter schools to be placed within other school’s buildings, and that the Department of Education has done so with over 20 charter schools. Ross School officials said that the building at 111 Columbia Street would provide a temporary base as the Global Academy grows toward its projected enrollment.

The academy, which is to open in the fall with 160 students in kindergarten, first, fifth, and sixth grades, is expected to eventually enroll 585 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. If over 160 students apply to enter the school this fall, admission will be determined by lottery on May 5, as it is for all New York City charter schools.

The proposal for the Ross Global Academy was taken especially poorly because of what NEST+m parents called the secrecy of the plans. Members of the PTA first heard of the proposal about two weeks ago while attending a rally in Albany, and confirmed it with the Department of Education on April 3.

Some parents said they felt duped because Ms. Ross and other Ross Institute representatives had visited NEST+m last year to observe its techniques. “They were scouting it out,” Mr. Grasco said.

Ms. Ross denied any such motive. She said that she and New York University representatives had toured several city schools with different educational models as the Ross Institute developed the charter school. “I had no idea that months later the Department of Education would request that we be in the building,” she said. “We did not pick that location.”

The state granted Ross Global Academy one of the four final charters available in New York City in January. The school, which will be run on the model of intercultural and interdisciplinary education practiced at the Ross School in East Hampton, will also be a teaching school for the Steingart School of Education at N.Y.U.

Ms. Ross said that the Department of Education will officially announce the school’s location by the first week in May. “We intend to be a good partner,” she said.

Ms. Schultz said that Ross students and staff would face animosity if the school were housed in NEST+m next year. “Ross will not be happy in a school where they will not be welcome,” she said. “You don’t want to start a school in an unwelcoming environment.”