The Village Voice, June 20, 2006
New Lessons in Class

New Lessons in Class
NEST school kerfuffle pits working class, one rich visionary against slightly privileged middle tier

by Kristen Lombardi
June 20th, 2006 11:46 AM

Courtney Sale Ross swept through the front door of a Lower East Side school on a May afternoon, an entourage trailing. A wealthy philanthropist in the education game, she had arrived to tour the building where city officials want to place her latest project, the Ross Global Academy Charter School. These days, the building houses only the public school NEST, vaguely short for New Explorations Into Science, Technology, and Math. Her charter school wouldn't open until fall, but NEST parents say Ross seemed to be treating the building as her own.
"Courtney Ross walked our halls and didn't even make eye contact with us," says PTA president Michelle Buffington, whose three children attend the kindergarten-through-12th-grade NEST. She and several other parents happened to be present when their likely neighbor showed up with architects and officials. Ross was supposed to see an area chosen for her by NEST staff. But she ended up inspecting the entire building, ordering measurements and pictures.

"She would go into a classroom and say, 'Oh, I like the light here. Take a measure,'" says Abby Horowitz, a PTA leader and mother of two, who tagged along with the crowd. At one point, Ross stepped into an administrator's office and declared it "cute." Photos were snapped, dimensions recorded.

"It was like she was shopping at Saks," Horowitz adds.

For the parents, Ross's visit felt more like a raid, a hostile takeover of the carefully cultivated school for gifted-and-talented students. The scene served to remind them why they have opposed the city's plan to place Ross Global at NEST since learning of it in April. They say that there is no room in their building for another school and that sharing space will jeopardize coveted programs. They've held rallies at City Hall; printed "Save the NEST" T-shirts; created a website; dogged Schools Chancellor Joel Klein; and inundated politicians with calls, letters, and e-mails. The PTA has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against the city's department of education.

Klein and his staff have held firm, insisting the building has plenty of room. They say that the facility can hold almost double the 732 students now enrolled at NEST and that the arrangement will only last two years, a standard incubation period for charter schools. Currently, 22 of the city's 47 charter schools—independent public schools operating outside the traditional curriculum—share space in school buildings. By fall, the plan is to double-bunk another 10, including Ross Global. .....