LOWER EAST SIDE — A crowded Henry Street school building that serves high-need students does not have enough room to squeeze in a new charter school, as the city is proposing, parents and staff said this week.
The Corlears Complex at 220 Henry St. already houses three middle schools, a high school and a space science education center in a building so packed that it has no library, parents and staff said.
Now the city wants to add an elementary school to the mix. The DOE announced plans last week to open a new school, Manhattan Charter School, in the building next fall.
"How do they see that as possible?" asked Jeanette Vasquez, whose son is in seventh grade at CASTLE Middle School, one of the existing schools in the building. "They're taking away from our kids. They're cutting into the programs we have already."
Vasquez, 38, a Lower East Side resident, and others are worried that the addition of another school to the carefully carved-up building will place an overwhelming strain on the shared spaces; the gym, cafeteria and auditorium, for example, are already at capacity.
Erin Balet, principal of the Henry Street School for International Studies, a combined middle and high school in the building, said the school's gym is booked solid from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, with two classes sharing the space at all times.
And while on paper it may look like there are extra classrooms in the building, they are being used to provide students with individualized services like occupational therapy, Balet said.
Thirty percent of the middle school students in the building receive some form of special education services, Balet said, which means the extra space is a necessity, not a luxury.
"It would add more pressure to an already challenging situation," Balet said of the proposed new school. "Our main concern is that you would constrain the schools that are already serving some of the highest-need [students] in the city."
The 220 Henry St. building, moreover, was constructed for middle school students, not for younger children, so it does not have a jungle gym or kid-sized bathrooms, parents said.
Manhattan Charter School, a small K-5 program on Attorney Street, opened in 2005 with an emphasis on music and arts instruction and has since grown to about 275 students. The school's leaders decided to open a second location in the neighborhood after receiving so many applications last year that they were forced to turn away almost 90 percent of the children who had hoped to attend, said Stephanie Mauterstock, co-leader and business director of Manhattan Charter School.
"There's a huge need for more quality programs in the neighborhood," Mauterstock said.
Manhattan Charter School initially tried to lease private space for its new location, but after being unable to find an affordable spot, the school turned to the Department of Education for help, and the DOE turned to 220 Henry St.
Mauterstock said she understands the existing schools' worry over the shared space, and she would need to learn more before deciding whether it even makes sense for Manhattan Charter School to open there.
"Of course it's a concern we have," she said. "We haven't seen the building yet. [The city] proposed it to us and the community at the same time."
Manhattan Charter School's current plan is to launch its new location in September 2012 with two kindergarten and first-grade classes each, and then growing by a grade a year. Admission is by lottery, and District 1 students receive priority.
Many parents and staff members from the Corlears Complex schools — CASTLE, Henry Street School for International Studies and University Neighborhood Middle School — turned out to a District 1 Community Education Council meeting last week to speak out against the city's plan. The proposal will likely come to a vote at the Panel for Educational Policy in April, said Lisa Donlan, president of the District 1 CEC.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
