By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Department of Education officials confirmed this week that they want to put a new charter school inside a building that is home to five public high schools on the Upper West Side.
The DOE's plan, which hasn't been approved yet, would put kindergartners at the new Upper West Success Academy charter school inside a West 84th Street school building with Brandeis High School, the new Frank McCourt High School and three other high schools.
The DOE's Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled to vote on the space-sharing plan, known as a "co-location," at a February 1 meeting.
Some parents and community members raised concerns about how Upper West Success Academy's kindergartners would fare in a building with much older students.
"There's an inherent incompatibility of early childhood education and high schools," said Mark Diller, chairman of Community Board 7's youth and education committee.
One of the high schools, Innovation Diploma Plus, was a transfer school that served students as old as 20, Diller said.
"That's putting an enormous burden on staff who should be focusing on educating kids and instead they're going to have to police hallways," Diller said.
Diller and others raised concerns about how smaller-sized students would share facilities such as bathrooms and lunch rooms that are designed for bigger bodies.
But Upper West Success Academy spokeswoman Jenny Sedlis said one of the network's schools, Harlem Success Academy 4, has had a successful track record of co-locating with a high school.
"Upper West Side parents want great public school options," Sedlis said in an e-mail. "We're very excited to open Upper West Success Academy and serve this great community and we look forward to the extensive public review process."
The charter school is part of the Success Charter Network, a group of schools founded by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz. The network has five schools in Harlem and two in the Bronx.
Plans to expand to the Upper West Side sparked protest from parents who worried the charter school would give seats to children from outside the neighborhood and leave fewer slots than ever for District 3 students, who've endured some of the longest waiting lists in the city.
Upper West Success Academy officials said the new school would provide high-quality public education options in the neighborhood.
Success Charter Network's first school, Harlem Success Academy I on West 118th Street, scored better on the DOE's 2009-10 school progress reports than District 3's P.S. 199 and the well-regarded P.S. 87.
More than 500 students had applied for Upper West Success Academy, Sedlis said.
