By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Bowing to intense criticism from parents, the Department of Education said Thursday that it's now considering a public high school as a possible site for a new charter school on the Upper West Side rather than the elementary schools they had been considering.
DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said Louis D. Brandeis, on West 84th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, is "under consideration" to share space with Success Charter Network's new Upper West Success Academy in the fall of 2011. Charter school officials want to open as a K-1 school with up to 190 seats.
The DOE expects to make a final decision on where to put the new charter school by January.
Plans to open a Success Charter Network school on the Upper West Side have prompted a firestorm of protest from parents and officials in District 3, who say the charter school, called Upper West Success Academy, will bring more students to a too-crowded district.
Success Charter Network says Upper West Success Academy will give parents more public school options, and that the school will relieve overcrowding because District 3 students will be given preference to attend the school.
Success Charter Network, founded by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, runs several charter schools including Harlem Success Academy.
In an e-mailed statement, Moskowitz said opening a charter school in the Brandeis building would be a "great victory" for Upper West Side families.
"Parents desperately want and need more high quality, tuition free options for their kids," Moskowitz's statement said. "Upper West Success Academy offers them just that."
She added, "We appreciate the Department of Education's commitment to giving parents more options and to helping us find a home on the heart of the Upper West Side that can serve families from all income levels. We're very excited to get to work."
The DOE first named P.S. 145 and P.S. 165 as possible sites for Upper West Success Academy. P. S. 145 parents lashed out against that plan, holding a protest rally outside the school.
At a District 3 Community Education Council meeting Wednesday night at P.S. 165, angry parents jammed the auditorium, some carrying signs saying "Public space is not for private profit!" Others chanted "Get Eva out!" Parents from more than a dozen District 3 schools voiced their opposition to sharing space with the charter school.
The DOE's Elizabeth Rose said Wednesday night that DOE had taken community reaction into account and adjusted its plans for where to locate Upper West Success Academy.
Brandeis has space available, said Zarin-Rosenfeld. In 2009-10, Brandeis had capacity for 2,344 students but enrolled only 1,885, he said.
But District 3 Community Education Council president Noah Gotbaum said Success Charter Network's schools aren't welcome in District 3, because, he said, they have a poor track record of sharing space with other schools.
"Every time Success Charter Network goes into a building it's essentially paramount to war with our District 3 schools," Gotbaum said. "Our kids get pushed out. It's an eviction."
