By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Despite vehement public opposition from local parents, more than 350 applications have arrived at a controversial charter school slated for the Upper West Side, school officials said.
Success Charter Network announced Monday that 357 students have applied for seats at Upper West Success Academy, a new school it wants to open in District 3, which stretches from West 59th Street to West 122nd Street.
Plans to open the charter school have prompted angry protests from District 3 parents, who say Upper West Success Academy will monopolize scarce resources and attract more students to a crowded district.
But Success Charter Network says parents are desperate for the charter school because it will provide high-quality public school options on the Upper West Side. District 3's P.S. 87 had the longest wait list in the city last year.
"The proof is in the application numbers," said Success Charter Network spokesman David Nachtweih, adding that 67 percent of the families who applied for the school live in District 3. "We have more applications from District 3 than we have seats for. That demand from the parents speaks the loudest."
Success Charter Network released the application figures along with a poll showing that 70 percent of Upper West Side parents support the charter school coming to their neighborhood.
District 3 Community Education Council president Noah Gotbaum, who's led the charge against Upper West Success Academy's expansion, scoffed at the poll and the application numbers.
Gotbaum said Success Charter Network, founded by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, had attracted the applications with a high-priced marketing campaign of glossy mailers, ads at bus stops and a website.
"With the amount of money (Moskowitz) is putting into denigrating our district schools with the advertisements, with these fliers, if she doesn't get thousands of applications then she's not doing her job," Gotbaum said.
Gotbaum noted that parent groups from more than 20 District 3 schools lined up at a recent public meeting to voice opposition to Upper West Success Academy moving into their district.
"We have 21,000 kids in 40-plus schools," Gotbaum said. "If she can get the support of the parents of one of those schools, then let's talk. But she's not, and she can't, because the parents of District 3 want the money and funds put into our existing schools."
Upper West Success Academy will open in the fall of 2011, and will most likely share space with a public school in District 3. The Department of Education hasn't decided where to put the charter school. It recently named Brandeis High School as a possible site.
Upper West Success Academy started accepting applications on its website on Oct. 17. The application period ends in the spring, then an April lottery will select students. The lottery will be weighted to give preference to District 3 students, Nachtweih said.
The DOE is expected to make a final decision on where to put Upper West Success Academy by January.
