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Schools on the Lower East Side say it is hard to be great when they don't have the space. Girls Prep Charter School is maxed out and needs more room for its growing middle school, but local public schools say they have none to share. Both groups held rallies this week and both blamed the Department of Education for the tension between them.

"We are only going by what the DOE said. If there is a problem, talk to the DOE," said Girls Prep Charter School parent Latrina Miley.

"When the DOE says we are underutilizing space, it is inaccurate. Their way of measuring is false, because they are talking about our science labs, our tech labs, and these are rooms that allow students to expand and to develop critical thinking," said PS 20 parent Monica Harris.

Charter schools are not guaranteed space in public school buildings, but the mayor and chancellor have put many of them in school buildings they say are underutilized. That's just what the DOE proposed for Girl's Prep, giving it more space by shifting other schools around among neighborhood buildings.

The public schools formed a coalition to fight back, with the highly regarded dual language school Shewn Weng leading the charge. But an an hour before the latest meeting on Monday, the DOE announced that Shewn Weng had been removed from the proposals and won't be moved or lose any classrooms.

"It's not surprising. They are very organized parents, they have a great school. I guess they are showing how the fight works," said Girls Prep Charter School Founder Miriam Lewis Raccah.

The fight may involve a lot of lobbying, which is why Girls Prep bused hundreds of supporters to City Hall. They say they're not to blame and that the DOE is pulling all the strings. Still, they want to make sure the strings are eventually pulled in their favor.

"Our parents campaigned for mayoral control, we believe in the mayor and we believe in the chancellor and we want to encourage them to do the right thing by all schools, and certainly by our school," Lewis Raccah said.

Representatives from all of the schools involved say they're trying to keep a civil tone, in contrast to fights over school space in Harlem and Red Hook, which have turned ugly. But with a finite number of classrooms, city lawmakers can expect a lot more lobbying before the final vote in February.