Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Beginning with Children Charter School to Close Next Year, City Says

By Camille Bautista | February 15, 2016 2:29pm
 Beginning With Children Charter School, which has two locations at Kent Avenue and Ellery Street, will close in June due to poor performance and under-enrollment, according to the city's Department of Education.
Beginning With Children Charter School, which has two locations at Kent Avenue and Ellery Street, will close in June due to poor performance and under-enrollment, according to the city's Department of Education.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Camille Bautista

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A struggling Bed-Stuy charter school is set to be closed by the city’s Department of Education next year after a decline in performance and under-enrollment, officials said.

Bed-Stuy’s Beginning with Children Charter School will close in the next academic year after its charter expires in June, according to the DOE.

The school, which operates its lower and upper grades from two different locations at 850 Kent Ave. near Park Avenue and 185 Ellery St. near Throop Avenue, saw its English Language Arts and math proficiency rates fall below the district’s averages, officials said.

In addition to Beginning with Children Charter School, the DOE will also close two other charters — the Lefferts Gardens Charter School and Staten Island Community Charter School.

The planned shuttering is a “last resort,” officials said, and comes months after the city’s proposal to close three other struggling traditional public schools in Bed-Stuy.

"It doesn’t matter whether students attend a charter public school or a district public school — we're committed to giving every child a path to success,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement.

“Each of these schools were given clear conditions with benchmarks for performance, and they failed to meet them. The DOE is committed to supporting all students and their families and is communicating all school options to ensure each child gets a better education."

Beginning with Children recently moved its K-5 program from Bartlett Street to be co-located with The Benjamin Franklin Health & Science Academy on Kent Avenue, while its middle school remains on Ellery Street, according to the school’s website.

The DOE awarded the school a full-term renewal of five years in 2010, but performance did not improve, officials said.

The city cited proficiency rates more than 10 percentage points below School District 14’s average, and the school also saw under-enrollment with 360 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

School officials were not immediately available for comment, but Beginning with Children’s principal detailed a student recruitment plan and the development of its ELA, math, social studies and science curriculum during a January report.  

The DOE will work with the school communities to ensure students are enrolled in a different school for the upcoming academic year, officials said.