Construction To Begin On UWS Charter School That May Never Open
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The cash-strapped Department of Education is about spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on construction for an Upper West Side charter school that may never be allowed to open. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report.Construction may begin Friday on a half-million dollar school project in the Upper West Side that may never be needed.
On Thursday, a State Supreme Court judge decided not to extend a court order that was keeping the DOE from starting work on a new cafeteria in the Brandeis High School building in Manhattan. Right now, the space holds file cabinets full of school records.
The cafeteria would be for a new charter school, Upper West Side Success, that is scheduled to share the building next year with five public high schools.
But there are two lawsuits trying to keep the charter out, meaning there is still a chance the students who would use the cafeteria will not even be allowed to move into the building.
Lawyers for the charter say there is no time to lose.
"The children will be starting school on August 24, so obviously we are just about a month before that timeframe, so obviously time is of the essence," said charter school lawyer Emily Kim.
The judge made it clear that he was not deciding on the overall case. He may still rule that the charter cannot move into the building, which means that that half-million dollar cafeteria could still go back to being a file room.
"The sad thing for the tax payers for the City of New York is that the expenditure of money, especially in these times, to upgrade a room that may ultimately may not be needed to for anything other than file storage, is a complete waste," said attorney Jon Brooks.
Since the rooms are not being used by students, the attorneys trying to stop the charter weren't able to convince the judge the construction would cause anyone "irrevocable harm."
"He was looking for more specific examples of actual, as opposed to legal, 'irrevocable harm,'" said Brooks.
The charter school has accepted 180 students, as part of the high-performing Success Network, run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz.
DOE officials say the Brandeis building has plenty of room, and they want to get it ready in case the judge eventually agrees. Otherwise, the school could have the most expensive file room in town.