By Adam Nichols
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER WEST SIDE —Parents of students at an Upper West Side school have sued the Department of Education in an effort to stop a controversial charter academy from moving in.
The lawsuit tries to block the Upper West Success Academy co-sharing space currently used by the Brandeis Educational Complex.
The academy is due to open in August. It's already received 700 applications for 130 kindergarten and 54 first grade spots.
The parents, backed by local politicians including Councilwoman Gale Brewer and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, claim moving the new school in would cause overcrowding and a loss of labs and classrooms at the current West 84th Street school.
Their lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court Friday, claims the Department of Education used inaccurate enrollment figures when they pushed for the academy to move in.
It says it wrongly categorized science labs and dance studios as ordinary classrooms, failed to meet its own rules for public consultations and failed to assess the impact of extra traffic the new school would create.
"We believe that the Department of Education has not followed its own guidelines nor state charter laws in co-locating this elementary charter school in the Brandeis High School Complex," said parent Lisa Steglich.
"A separate entrance, separate screening procedures, and a costly new and separate cafeteria for charter school students are not comparable and equitable treatment."
"After months of trying to get through to the Department of Education, these parents have only one option left: sue the city," said de Blasio.
The Education Department and the city's Law Department both declined to comment.
Jenny Sedlis, a spokeswoman for the academy called the legal filings "a frivolous lawsuit that seeks to deny the 700 Upper West Side families who applied to Upper West Success Academy access to another great public school in their neighborhood.
"The lawsuit advances several arguments that are absurd," Sedlis added.
