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Hebrew Language Charter School Withdraws Uptown Application

By Carla Zanoni | May 4, 2011 12:46pm

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER MANHATTAN — A Hebrew language charter school looking to open a branch in Washington Heights or Inwood has withdrawn its application in order to strengthen its English Language Learner (ELL) curriculum, a school official said.

The Sosua Hebrew Language Academy Charter School pulled its application after feedback from the Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York (CSI) "recommended that the planning group take some additional time to work on and strengthen a few parts of the application," according Dan Gerstein, a school spokesman.

According to Gerstein, ELL students make up 37 percent of District 6.

CSI did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Officials said they plan to reapply for a charter by the end of the year and added plans to open the school are still active. 

The school had planned to open in September 2012, if approved.

Sosua officials said they do not yet have a school location identified, but continue to explore options in the neighborhood, stressing the school will not look to share space with another public school, but instead will be situated in a private space.

Charter schools seeking to share space with existing public schools have sparked controversy and even lawsuits across the borough.

As with all charter schools, Sosua would be a publicly funded venture, but the organization has received start-up backing through the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, created by former hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.

His daughter Sara Berman, a philanthropist and former journalist, founded would-be Sosua’s sister school in Midwood, Brooklyn, called the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School.

In March, Community Board 10 in Central Harlem voted down a resolution in support of the same school opening in District 3, which serves both Harlem and the Upper West Side.