30 SCHOOLS IN 30 DAYSA look at school successes, and the challenges that come from being denied facilities funding

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The 30 Schools in 30 Days project showcases the good work that is being done in charter schools across New York State. From every borough in New York City through our Capital and Central and Western New York, charter schools are making a difference in the lives of their public school children.

The schools that we highlighted are all located in private space and are among the charter schools that are denied a dime of state facilities funding. In 2014, a state

law was passed that made in-roads on this inequity. This law allowed for co-location or help with paying the rent, but only applied to new or expanding schools in New York City. Existing schools in New York City, and every school in the rest of the state, were excluded – despite their quality programming. Half of the state’s charter schools were left out. Nearly 50,000 children statewide are denied their fair share.

The schools you will read about are forced to make difficult decisions that other public schools do not face. They dip into their operating budgets and direct money intended for kids to pay for buildings and all the costs associated with running them. This means fewer classroom resources, teachers and academic supports. No other public school in the state is denied funding for a roof and walls.

Charter schools are doing great things with what they do have. But all of us wonder what excellence they could achieve without the strain of paying for a building.

Included in each school’s unique story is a message to lawmakers – the common plea is for state leaders in Albany to expand facilities relief to ALL of the state’s charter schools this year.

Kyle Rosenkrans Northeast Charter Schools Network CEO

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New York Charter Schools Facts At A Glance ........................................................................................................ 6

New York Charter Schools Funding Disparity Snapshot ..................................................................................... 7

Broome Street Academy Charter School ............................................................................................................... 8

Sisulu-Walker Charter School .................................................................................................................................... 9

Amani Charter School ................................................................................................................................................. 10

Amber Charter School ................................................................................................................................................. 11

Brooklyn Prospect Charter School ........................................................................................................................... 12

Growing Up Green Charter School .......................................................................................................................... 13

Urban Dove Team Charter School ........................................................................................................................... 14

Neighborhood Charter School of Harlem .............................................................................................................. 15

Bronx Charter School for Excellence ....................................................................................................................... 16

International Leadership Charter School ............................................................................................................... 17

Young Women’s College Prep Charter School ...................................................................................................... 18

Harlem Hebrew Language Academy Charter School .......................................................................................... 19

Aloma D. Johnson Charter School ............................................................................................................................ 20

Central Queens Academy Charter School .............................................................................................................. 21

Niagara Charter School ............................................................................................................................................... 22

Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School ......................................................................................... 23

Brilla College Prep Public Charter School ............................................................................................................... 24

Academy of the City Charter School ........................................................................................................................ 25

Bronx Community Charter School ........................................................................................................................... 26

Brooklyn Ascend Charter School .............................................................................................................................. 27

Staten Island Community Charter School .............................................................................................................. 28

Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School ................................................................................................................. 29

Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School .............................................................................................................. 30

Syracuse Academy of Science and Utica Academy of Science .......................................................................... 31

Finn Academy Charter School ................................................................................................................................... 32

John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School ................................................................................................ 33

Albany Community Charter School .......................................................................................................................... 34

Newburgh Preparatory Charter High School ........................................................................................................ 35

Henry Johnson Charter School .................................................................................................................................. 36

Great Oaks Charter School ........................................................................................................................................ 37

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Number of New York Schools and Charter School Enrollment Over Time

2014–15 Charter School Affiliation

FAST

CHAR

TER F

ACTS Charter Schools Open

in 2014-15248Fully Co-located Charters131Approved Charters to Date309

Closed Charters to Date24

248 Charter schools open statewide

Est. Enrollment 2014-15

105,937In 2015-16

23 New charter schools currently chartered to open

82 Affiliated with a charter management organization

16 Affiliated with an educational management company

46 Affiliated with a partner organization

104 Are independent

10% of the 248 charter schools have a union

16Western New York

17Central

New York 10CapitalDistrict

3HudsonValley

197New York City 5

Long Island

New York City: 83,570Hudson Valley: 1,117Long Island: 2,164

Western New York: 9,199Central New York: 6,347Capital District: 3,540

Statewide Chartered Enrollment:

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Number of schoolsEnrollment

Focus on the Facts: New York State Charter Schools 2014-2015

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$9,811 Less $23,524

$24,044

NYC’s charter students receive only 68 cents for every dollar their friends in city-run public schools receive, resulting in $7,623 less per pupil.

Buffalo charter students receive only about 60 cents for every dollar their friends in city-run public schools receive, resulting in $9,811 less per pupil.

Albany’s charter students receive only 76 cents on the dollar, resulting in $5,379 less per pupil.

$5,379 Less $22,259

New York Charter School Funding Disparity

Estimated Facility-Related Spending for 2013-14NYC Upstate and Long Island

$1,700 per pupil $2,500 per pupil

$7,623 Less

New York State charter schools in private space spent an estimated $188 million on rent and other facilities costs during the 2013-14 school year. This funding inequity affects 49,000 children statewide.

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555 Broome Street, Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10013 (212) 453-0295 broomestreetacademy.org

Broome Street Academy Charter School (BSA) does so much more than educate its students – it nurtures them, feeds them, often helps clothe them, provides them healthcare, and prepares them for post-secondary success.

The high school, which serves children from all of New York City’s five boroughs, has a very distinct and vulnerable popula-tion of students. Half of the school’s students are homeless or in foster care, 30% of the students are special education students, and most came from under-performing middle schools.

School director Barbara McKeon said, “A lot of what we do is work to regain trust with our students and let them know we won’t fail them. We deal with a lack of trust in systems and adults.”

Broome Street grew out of the strategic plan of The Door, a non-profit youth development agency. BSA students become automatic members of The Door, which provides them with food (ensuring that they get three meals a day), health care, dental, mental health services, and recreation activities. The students are provided a holistic program to address not just their academic needs, but their personal needs as well.

2015 will see Broome Street’s first graduating class.

McKeon said, “This is our Championship Year. We are graduating our first class and we want every single staff member, from janitorial to front desk to teachers, to be champions for these kids. What this means is we each have a group of students for whom we are the champions. This is one of the ways we’re building trust between our students and adults in their lives.”

The school also works to emphasize post secondary success for its students. Anyone who wants to go to college is encouraged to and if not, the school helps them become career ready. Each has a transition counselor who will help them make that step, but this is a very unique type of support system. The school is providing support for its students for four years post graduation to make sure that they stay on track.

“We are trying to prevent drop outs from happening in the first year of college, primarily,” said McKeon.

McKeon and her staff are changing their students’ lives. They are helping to ensure their students become productive, successful and happy.

“I have a very specific and vulnerable population. We believe in data, of course, but that is not the only measurement of success. Accountability may be more important to me than the data-driven goals.

“Charters have a bad rap for not being accountable – we are not that charter school. We are accountable.”

McKeon also gladly shares best practices. “In fact, BSA is the host school in the Chancellor’s learning program so we are working with two district schools to share our teaching methods.”

Chancellor Carmen Farina visited the school last year and praised its work.

But, McKeon said, “We need more money to be able to make our mission a reality for more children.

“A huge chunk of change –11% of our budget – is used on facilities. That is money that could be going to more programs – programs we need.”

McKeon was asked what the money spent on facilities could go toward.

“Oh my gosh, so many things. We are trying to collaborate to enhance our drama program. We need to incorporate AP classes. We want to broaden our arts offerings. I would love to offer internship programs for our students. There are so many things we could do for these kids with more money. When I first came to the school, there wasn’t even a sign on the door. That tells you something.”

McKeon’s message to lawmakers is simple: “Our students deserve what every other kid deserves. Facilities fairness. It’s about equity.”

BROOME STREET ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

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125 West 115th Street, New York, NY 10026 (212) 663-8216 sisuluwalker.orgbroomestreetacademy.org

If anyone can talk about the good works of Sisulu-Walker Charter School – the state’s very first charter school – it’s Michelle Haynes. She has been with the school since the very beginning, first as a teaching assistant, and now as the principal.

“This school feels more like a close-knit family. Teachers tend to stay here, and generations of kids from the same family attend school here.”

Sisulu-Walker has been successfully educating kids from central Harlem, most of whom are black or from Africa, since 1999. The school serves students in grades K-5. More than two hundred kids are on the wait list to get in.

Haynes graduated during her first year with Sisulu-Walker and the following year became a teacher there. She spent nine years teaching before becoming an instructional coach and helped open a charter school on Long Island and one in the Bronx. Now she’s the head of the school and says she has former students who are now in college and is seeing those students’ siblings and cousins attend the school.

“Unlike a lot of schools in the city, we have a steady teacher population. Teachers stay for seven, eight years. We don’t have a high turnover rate.”

The charter school has longevity in an environment where low-performing schools close. Haynes says that is because of hard work, flexibility, and using proven best practices from other schools and institutions.

“In the charter world, it really is survival of the fittest. You have to be able to adapt. The school today looks very different than the school that opened 15 years ago.”

The school follows trends in education and applies them to Sisulu-Walker to keep advancing their students and provide them with what they need to succeed.

But the school faces huge obstacles. First and foremost: no state facilities funding.

Haynes says that’s the biggest problem. She says they should be in a bigger and better building, with room to grow and serve more students. She wants to have more teachers to support more of their ELL and special-ed populations. Having more teachers also means reducing class size, so that kids get more one-on-one support.

Like most of the schools in private space feeling the crunch, Haynes ticks off a laundry-list of items they’d love to be able to provide their students: more technology, a computer lab so that kids can be on computers “every single day”, and more language software.

Haynes wants to tell lawmakers in Albany: “My message is that there is no such thing as a ‘charter student’ or ‘public student’. They are all our children. They are all entitled to the best quality education possible but when you set up a formula where some kids don’t have the same access to funding as others, there’s a huge inequity. We care about all of the city’s children and just want a fair system and level playing field.”

SISULU-WALKER CHARTER SCHOOL

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60 S. 3rd Avenue, Mount Vernon, NY 10550 (914) 668-6450 amanicharter.org

The founder of Amani Charter School in Mount Vernon, Debra Stern, talks a lot about miracles. She says it was a miracle that she found the brand new school building that will finally house all of the school’s students under one roof. She says it’s a miracle that she has been able to find the funding to make ends meet for her students.

And while maybe she’s right, the more likely scenario is that Debra Stern has worked tooth and nail to provide for these kids. And her hard work has been paying off.

Amani Charter School exists because Debra and her husband, Charles Stern, realized that there is a wide achievement gap in Mount Vernon and that it becomes even more persistent in the middle and high school years. As parents of kids in the district, they were involved in the PTA and saw the schools’ problems firsthand.

“By the time some kids reach fourth grade, their parents either leave the district, pay tuition to attend public schools in neighboring districts, or try to get their kids into private schools because the district schools are failing,” said Stern. “We wanted to make a change internally, within the district. We had been hearing a lot about charter schools and there was a huge need here. So we decided to go for it.”

Amani opened in 2011. The school serves students in grades 5-8 and 99% of them are black students. A large majority – nearly 80% - of the school’s population is free and reduced lunch.

The need for this school becomes increasingly apparent when the lottery happens.

“This means something to the community. You see it when you see parents crying when their children don’t get in. You realize how much people really do want Amani here,” she said.

“Once they’re here, students don’t leave our school until they graduate. We have a growing waitlist for only a handful of seats each year.”

None of this could happen, though, if Debra didn’t act as both a social worker and a real estate agent. She says she looks at running Amani as though she’s running a small non-profit. To make ends meet, she worked for nothing for the first year.

“I didn’t take a salary for awhile. That way we could put most of the money right into the school. Also, because the school district refused to pay charter school tuition for at least two years while suing the state education department to close Amani, there were instances when Charlie and I had to consider writing a personal check to cover pay roll. It may sound crazy, but I wanted to make a difference in the community.”

Financial struggles aside, Debra had been working tirelessly to find the right building for her students. Amani just celebrated its ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new school building on January 5 of this year.

And while this is a time of celebration for the school, they still have to be very creative with their finances. Amani does not receive any state facilities funding and roughly 1/5 of the school’s budget is spent on the building and its expenses.

“If we want to make this school special for our kids – and I am talking about sports, arts and things like that – we have to rigorously fundraise. I am thankful for state stimulus funds; we wouldn’t be here without those. But not everyone has the time or energy to do this and to spend this much effort just looking for the building to house the students. But you see how critical this is to the kids. And that makes it worth it.”

Her message to lawmakers is: “We need a solution. Suburban charter schools need greater support with facilities financing. Without one, we’re setting our kids up for failure. It should not take a miracle to set our students up for success. It should not take a miracle to educate our kids.”

AMANI CHARTER SCHOOL

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220 E 106th St, New York, NY 10029 (212) 534-9667 ambercharter.org

“Diversity brings such a richness of culture to our school and our faculty. We revel in that.”

This is what Amber Charter School Executive Director Vasthi Acosta says when talking about the mix of ethnicities and cultures that her school serves. Located in Harlem, Amber was founded in 2000 and is among the state’s oldest charter schools. The school was the first Latino-led charter in the state and arose out of a community need for a great school.

The vast majority of the school’s students are Latino and black, with a growing immigrant population, with children from China, Mexico and other Central American nations. These are the school’s ELL students as they come from non-English speaking homes. Additionally, all students learn Spanish as a second language from kindergarten until they graduate in fifth grade.

Acosta says the parents she works with have a real appreciation for what the school is doing, calling the parents her “champions of education.”

But Amber’s teachers and staff deal with all the challenges that arise when serving children in poverty, some coming from what Acosta called “crisis mode”. She says some of the children live in very stressful home environments so the school does everything it can do ensure Amber is a safe, consistent, and nurtur-ing environment.

“Leave your worries behind,” Acosta says to her students when they enter the doors of the school.

She and her staff have been able to do that and their students shine. They outscore their peers in nearby district schools in both math and ELA tests. The school touts the fact that this year, 100% of their students scored 100% proficient in the New York State science test. And demand is high – each year more than 700 students apply for just 110 seats.

Something else that makes Amber unique is that it is a unionized charter school, with a special contract with the UFT. In fact, Amber has been unionized since its inception.

“It’s a very simplified contact and one that works well for us. In 15 years, we have only had one grievance. We take great pride in that.”

Amber owns its own school building and pays the mortgage on it and everything else that comes with owning a 114 year-old building. That is because the school is denied state facilities funding. So their expenses include repairs on the building, cleaning services, plumbing, energy - you name it.

“None of that has anything to do with educating children inside the classroom,” said Acosta.

Acosta talks about the “magic that happens in the classroom” and she wants to be able to provide even more for her students. She wants Amber to provide free after-school programs, be able to offer summer school to all grades (it’s currently only offered to one grade), employ more than one special education teacher, and offer more staff development for teachers.

These are all things that Acosta said she could do if it wasn’t for the crushing expenses that come with paying for a school building for 500 children.

Her message to state lawmakers: “The future of education is in offering parents choice. We must all recognize that charters are part of the menu of options that parents should get. Charter schools are public schools and therefore should receive equal funding.”

AMBER CHARTER SCHOOL

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(Elementary) 80 Willoughby Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201(Middle) 3002 Fort Hamilton Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11218

(718) 722-7634(347) 889-7041

brooklynprospect.org

Brooklyn Prospect Charter School exists today because two Brooklyn dads, Daniel Rubenstein and Luyen Chou, were looking for good middle school options for their children and realized the difficulty of this goal.

The two decided to do something about it and through lots of hard work, opened Brooklyn Prospect in 2009 with 100 sixth grade students. The school is now a kindergarten through 12th grade program, replicating existing grades, and looking forward to graduating its first class in 2016.

Rubenstein said the school is based on three ideas:• Great teachers make a great school.• School should be about the next 20 years, not regurgitating the last 20 years.• Students with radically different backgrounds should sit by side and learn and achieve with each other.

The student population at Brooklyn Prospect is very diverse. Approximately one third of its newest 6th grade is white, one-third is Hispanic and one-third is a mix of Asian, black and mixed race students. The school serves a high poverty population, with approximately 40% percent of students receiving free and reduced lunch.

Despite their backgrounds and circumstances, the children are succeeding. “The results speak for themselves,” said Rubenstein.

Brooklyn Prospect has out-performed both its host district and the New York state average on the ELA and math state exams for the last several years.

Brooklyn Prospect is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, a globally acclaimed model. Rubenstein says it is one of the best secondary school programs in the world and that their standards are “very rigorous and comprehensive.”

But like all charter schools in private space, facilities funding is the school’s biggest challenge.

“Twenty percent of our operating costs go to facilities. This burden takes money from our instructional programs. We have a wide range of needs and we would prefer to use this money on our students’ instruction,” said Rubenstein.

“We are trying to provide opportunities for students who wouldn’t otherwise have them.”

Rubenstein continued: “It’s very, very challenging to not be fairly funded. We believe that we are one of the most underfunded schools in NYC.”

GREAT TEACHERS

“The best thing we can do for any student is put a great teacher in the front of the classroom,” said Rubenstein. “We have great people here. Our teachers come from all over the US and the globe – as far away as Hong Kong and countries in Africa.”

When asked how he would rather spend money that currently goes to his buildings, Rubenstein doesn’t hesitate: “Invest more in people – more teachers. Expand our program in new directions. Ensure that our great teachers are rewarded for being long-term, high-performing faculty members.”

His message to lawmakers: “All public school students deserve equal funding. It’s not fair to have a two-tier system between district schools and charter schools. But that’s what we have right now with charters in private space and those who are co-located. It’s absurd that some charters receive full funding and some don’t. All charter schools deserve full and equitable funding so we can continue doing the important work of educating children.”

BROOKLYN PROSPECT CHARTER SCHOOL

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39-27 28th Street, Queens, NY 11101(Middle) 36-49 11th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101

(347) 642-4306 gugcs.org

“This school is the definition of what a public school should look like. We have such a diverse population with 34 home languages spoken, kids of many colors and religions.”

This is how Growing up Green Charter School founder and school leader Matthew Greenberg describes his school, now in its 6th year. The school serves Long Island City and Astoria, as well as surrounding neighborhoods in Queens. It’s K-6 now but will grow to K-8 in two years.

Greenberg has been in education for 20 years and has worked in a host of school environments, from private schools to public schools. He says one thing is certain – the city needs more good public schools to give children the opportunity to learn and be successful.

And if demand is any indication, Growing up Green is a success. There is a huge waiting list. For 2014-15, the school had 1500 applications for just 120 seats.

Greenberg and his teachers employ a learning-lab school model with a heavy emphasis on science and social studies.

The teachers used museum visits and trips outside of the classroom to “bring to life” what the kids are learning, Greenberg says.

“For instance, if they’re learning about immigrants maybe they will take a trip to Ellis Island or the Tenement Museum.”

The school is also a responsive classroom school and every school employee is trained in this model. Greenberg says this is an effective language used to connect students to each other and their school.

“This is how each day is launched,” said Greenberg. “It’s used to help our students decide to make good choices. You can feel the energy. This is unlike many schools.”

Another part of making the school a success is involving parents in the learning process. The school is always open to the parents, and they are invited to visit at any time.

Greenberg said, “There always parents around our school. If you visit, you’ll see parents.”

But there are huge challenges that the school faces. Greenberg says $2,300 is taken from each child’s per-pupil allocation to pay for facilities and operating costs.

“This really compromises us. Say our ventilations system breaks in the kitchen, which it did. It’s over $20,000 we have to pay to fix it. We pay so much for our building. We could be spending this money on our kids.”

Asked what facilities funding would mean to the school, Greenberg says, “It would be a game changer for us.”

There is a laundry-list of items the school could use for their children: • Technology• More teachers• More enrichment and intervention programs• Professional development for teachers• Healthy food program with fresher produce

Greenberg’s message to lawmakers: “As a public school, we are asking for fairness and equity. Facilities funding should be part of what we receive.”

GROWING UP GREEN CHARTER SCHOOL

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600 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216 (718) 783-8232 udteam.org

Urban Dove Team Charter School (UD Team) defies the misconception that charter schools don’t take students who are difficult to educate. In fact, those are the students who Urban Dave welcomes with open arms.

The school, founded in 2012, is a transfer, alternative high school that serves over-aged, under-credited students. It’s fair to say all of their students are high-needs. Nearly forty percent of the students are special education students; that’s nearly triple the district average, according to the school.

UD Team is a three-year high school but doesn’t follow a traditional 9-12 model. UD team meets students where they are and works to get them back on track with the number of credits they need to graduate. The school currently serves 260 students.

Founder Jai Nanda ran an after-school non-profit – Urban Dove - for at-risk youth for over a decade before starting UD Team.

“There is no other school, public charter or otherwise, that exclusively serves our population in New York City,” he said. “Using all that we learned in the after-school program, our goal here is to catch kids at the beginning of their off-track process and get them back on track before it’s too late.”

Nanda said thousands of kids who are off-track leave the system and drop out – very often, for good. He and his team want to do something about this incredibly pervasive problem in the educational system.

“We know that at the end of 9th grade if students don’t have at least 11 credits, they drop out at a rate of 85%. That’s staggering.”

There’s also something unique about the school model. Urban Dove uses teams and a sports-based youth development model in which every student is placed on a single-gender team with a full-time coach. The idea is to build teams, leadership, morale, and provide a support network for each student.

“The students spend two hours every day in physical activity with their teams. They go to class as a team. They are with their team throughout the year. They’re always seeing their coach,” Nanda said.

This model caught the attention of CBS Sunday Morning in 2013 and the school was featured in a long-form story.

Like many charter schools, students here have a longer day, from 9-5. There’s also a Saturday program and summer school is offered.

So far, Nanda said the results show that this hard work is paying off.

“It’s been very encouraging. We have our first class of graduating seniors coming up in June. We’ll have about a 35-40% graduation rate for our first cohort, over double the city-wide average. In the first 2 ½ years, we’ve found something that is working for these students.”

But there are huge challenges that come with housing the school in private space. Nanda said that co-located space just would not work for this school.

“The cost of this building is an extreme challenge for us and one we have managed so far, but it is a daily burden. The space is physically not in the best of shape. We have spent a great deal of time on things like fixing leaks, calling landlords, fixing the heat. All of these things have nothing to do with educating students.

“Our students require a tremendous amount of time and money and it’s a double whammy for us.”

Nanda continued, “Without investing in this piece, the building, we are shortchanging our entire model. We also want to build an internship program. We would love to pay our staff more and attract more talented teachers. We require high quality staff with additional expertise.”

Nanda’s message to lawmakers is: “There are charter schools that are really working hard to serve kids who are not being served by the system and we inhibit their ability to do that when we don’t provide money for something as fundamental as facility. A facility is not a luxury; it’s a basic necessity. Being in New York City, costs are extremely challenging and there should be some relief. We shouldn’t be penalized for making the decision to serve our students. We are asking for fairness.”

URBAN DOVE TEAM CHARTER SCHOOL

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132 West 124th St, New York, NY 10027 (646) 701-7117 ncsharlem.orgudteam.org

The Neighborhood Charter School of Harlem is another shining example of a charter school that is dispelling myths about the kinds of students charter schools serve.

This high-performing school serves students in grades K-3 and opened in in 2012. The school will grow a grade each year until it is a K-8 school. The Neigh-borhood Charter School of Harlem (NCSH) has a unique inclusion program for high functioning students with autism. Thirty-one percent of the school’s children are Special Education students, and all of the school’s students learn together. Each classroom has two teachers. The school is flexible with grouping and scheduling to meet the needs of every single student.

“NCSH is a very special place and is educating all of our students at an extremely high level,” said science teacher Michael Renda. “Our scholars have a longer school day, longer school year, and participate in a well rounded curriculum. Starting in kindergarten, our students participate in hands-on science every single day, in addition to several hours of math, English, physical education and the arts.”

The school also has two full time Speech Language Pathologists who provide socialization instruction for students on the autism spectrum.

Renda continued, “The school is highly structured; nothing is left to chance. The majority of scholars are reading at or above grade level. Those who aren’t are given immediate and constant intervention and quickly improve. We utilize an “all hands on deck” approach to teaching. I am the kindergarten and first grade science teacher but I also teach a reading and math intervention group every day for an hour. We aren’t job description educators here. We all do whatever it takes, with no excuses, to help our scholars achieve.”

This can be seen in the school’s most recent achievement data. NCSH scholars scored in the 91st national percentile on the TerraNova exam, a nationally recognized achievement exam.

Last spring, Chancellor Carmen Fariña visited the school and was impressed.

The need for the school is clear. NCSH received almost 1,000 applications for 50 kindergarten seats last spring.

Renda said, “Families are desperate for options, especially families with children with special needs.”

NCSH is located in private space and is forced to pay money from its operating budget to cover rent.

“We would love to use this money to expand our already existing programs such as the arts and counseling,” said Renda. “Hopefully facilities funding for charter schools like ours will eventually be provided by the state and city.”

Renda’s message to lawmakers is: “There is a huge need for high-achieving schools like ours that are providing an impeccable education to all students, especially those with special needs. NCSH has taken on this challenge and the results show that our methods work. We wish that facilities funding would come to alleviate the tens of thousands of dollars that we spend each month on rent. This is money that could be used on our scholars. Please act for schools like NCSH. Please act quickly.”

NEIGHBORHOOD CHARTER SCHOOL OF HARLEM

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Bronx Charter School for Excellence (BCSE) in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx educates students from some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country. The K-8 school is a high-performing, nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School for Excellence. 650 students attend, with a waitlist of more than 4,000 children.

Head of School Charlene Reid said, “The neighborhood a child is from should not determine the student’s ability to succeed. Given the right opportunities, all children have the potential to achieve greatness. Every child can learn and that every child is smart.”

She continued, “Even though we’re in a high-needs area, our students are excelling.”

BCSE is considered one of the top charter schools in New York State. On average, BCSE third grade students perform about 40% higher on New York State ELA exams than children in the district schools. Their fourth graders perform 50% higher. The youngest children are expected to read at a mid first-grade level by the end of kindergarten.

The school even caught the attention of former US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who toured BCSE last year.

The culture of BCSE is scholarly. Not only are the students called “scholars” because their teachers want them to be lifelong learners, they dress in uniform, and college pennants adorn the walls of the school. Discipline is strict. Students are expected to obey instructions. The school year is longer than a traditional district school year.

But the students who attend school here love it and know they are lucky to have won a spot. Many young children talk about their aspirations for college and beyond.

BCSE also shares best practices so that it can help expand its successes into the community. The school was chosen by the state to collaborate with nearby district school PS 85 to share best practices. In 2012, 86% of BCSE students passed state reading exams but just 20% of students at PS 85 passed the exams. The two schools are working together to boost the students’ test scores. They received a $500,000 grant from the state Education Department for their collaboration until 2017.

Despite its huge successes, BCSE is denied any state funding for facilities. It must use money intended for teachers, books and materials to help pay rent and building costs - all because of an omission in the state law that leaves charter schools in private space out in the cold.

Reid talks about the kinds of things she could provide if she did not have to dig into the per-pupil funding to pay rent and mortgage.

“We could hire more teachers, provide more extra curricular activities, enrichment programs, more arts and music, and more field trips for our kids.”

Her message to lawmakers is: “Charter schools in New York have proven their worth. If we’re serious about breaking failing cycles and funding what works, provide all charter school students with equal access to public funding for their school buildings. We are a Blue Ribbon school and we are setting our children up for academic success. We deserve to be treated fairly.”

BRONX CHARTER SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE

1960 Benedict Avenue, Bronx, NY 10462 1804 Holland Avenue, Bronx, NY 10462

(718) 828-7303(718) 892-1276

bronxexcellence.org

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2900 Exterior Street, Bronx, NY 10463 (718) 562-2300 ilchs.org

International Leadership Charter School (ILCHS), the first public charter high school in the Bronx, is the embodiment of a school that helps change lives and provide a brighter future for its students. It opened its doors in 2006 and currently serves 320 students in grades 9-12, with hopes to expand to serve 450 students in the future.

College prep is a major focus for ILCHS, and that focus is paying off big time for the students - over 90% of graduates go to college. The success of ILCHS has garnered plenty of attention. US News and World Report named International Leadership as one of the “Best

High Schools of 2013 and 2014,” and Newsweek named the school one of “America’s Top High Schools” for 2014.

ILCHS prides itself on being invested in the community and working hard to make sure its students are prepared for life after school. The majority of the students are children of Latino immigrants, primarily Dominican, and most students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Serving a high-needs population, a focus is put on making sure students receive the best education possible.

High expectations, academic rigor and test prep are a large part of the college readiness focus at the school. Tutoring for one hour per week per subject is available for all students, and a “Saturday Academy” is offered. Students also receive real world experience, with each one putting in 100 hours in internships before graduation.

In recognizing their students’ hard work, ILCHS received some local news attention earlier in the school year with a nice gesture for the school’s seniors.

“Our students work so diligently on their college applications, so we had this idea to have our scholars march to the post office – 9th, 10th, 11th graders cheering on the students as they went to mail in their college apps,” said CEO and founder Dr. Elaine Ruiz Lopez.

Despite the great work International Leadership is doing, the school faces many challenges. Authorized to serve 350 students, the school’s enrollment is only at 320 because their building is so small.

Dr. Ruiz Lopez said, “The direct negative impact is that we cannot provide a recreation area or a library. We have miraculously been able to do much more with less, but we cannot completely meet our enrollment of 350 because it’s a really tight space. We use every nook and cranny of our space.”

Fortunately, the school was able to secure bond funding for a new facility they plan to move in August 2015. The new facility will move the school from a one-floor operation to three, complete with a cafeteria, two science labs, an adolescent health clinic and a library and visual media center. However, this new facility causes an additional financial burden for the school.

Since the school is located in private commercial space, a massive amount is spent annual-ly to paying rent and overhead expenses, rather than investing in greater for instructional resources and staff. The school must also make the payments on the bond for the new facility, so they are paying for both their current facility and the new one at once.

Dr. Ruiz Lopez’s message to lawmakers is: “We have closed the achievement gap for hun-dreds of public school students, outperforming the city and the state. We have done so, without any facilities funding and an overhead expense of over $660,000.00 annually for a private space that does not have the room for library, recreation area and proper cafeteria for our students. If you believe charter school students deserve more, please consider the costs of not closing the funding gap today!”

INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL

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Young Women’s College Prep Charter School is the first public all-girls high school in Rochester, providing young women in the community with an opportunity they have never had before.

“Since this is an all-girls school, our students are naturally empowered, whether it is in the classroom, in school clubs, or on teams,” said founding and present Chair of the YWCP Board of Trustees Duffy Palmer. “There are no gender stereotypes and the girls feel comfortable to express themselves. There are no distractions and they are able to be themselves and apply themselves to their academics. Not only that, they build confidence at YWCP.”

The school opened in 2012 and serves grades 7-9. Over the next six years, the school will grow to include 7th-12th grade and accommodate more than 500 students. All of the students are coming from Rochester City Schools, which are among the most underperforming schools in New York State.

YWCP is an affiliate of the Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN), which supports five very successful, single-gender schools in New York City. The flagship YWLN school in East Harlem has celebrated a graduation rate of over 96% for the past 13 years, and every graduating senior has been accepted to college. YWCP benefits directly from the structured and targeted support that YWLN provides for its network and affiliates.

“At YWCP, students are connected to their community through their school curriculum, allowing them to experience all of the wonderful things that are part of Roches-ter,” said Palmer.

He added, “Four of our local college campuses currently partner with our school, so we have both academic and extra-curricular pro-grams with these institutions. It is a great experience for our students and gets them thinking about the colleges and universities they may want to attend.”

Since YWCP is housed in private space, the school is forced to siphon money from the girls and from the program to pay the rent.

“So much of our funding goes into our building. We rent our space and because of recent changes in the charter school laws, we had to spend $100,000 to get our building up to code. It’s something a district school would never have to do -- take money away from its students to pay for its facilities.”

Palmer also said they are trying to find a permanent home for the school so that it can grow to serve 500 girls. It’s challenging to find that kind of space, he said, and they simply can’t afford to renovate their current space to meet the demands of that many students.

Palmer talked about other things the school would like to provide, such as a retirement system for its teachers. The school would also like to hire more staff, more teachers, and provide more programming for students. Like most charters, the school would also like to offer more extra-curriculars like sports and arts.

“It’s extremely challenging to be denied facilities funding,” Palmer said. “The Rochester City School District is putting millions into their school buildings and we can’t even afford a building that will take us to capacity.”

His message to lawmakers is: “The denial of facilities funding is unfair and unreasonable. This is public education. We should not be penalized just because we’re a charter school. We are providing great opportu-nities for our students. Let’s fund what is working.”

311 Flower City Park, Rochester, NY, 14615 (585) 254-0320 youngwomenscollegeprep.org

YOUNG WOMEN’S COLLEGE PREP CHARTER SCHOOL

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147 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York, NY 10026 (212) 866-4608 harlemhebrewcharter.org

The founders of Harlem Hebrew Language Academy Charter School envisioned a public, tuition-free dual-language school that would be academically rigorous for its students. The goal was to open up new worlds and new opportunities for the children. Their unique curriculum includes intensive instruction in the Hebrew language. Since opening a year and a half ago in the fall of 2013, their vision is a reality.

The school serves about 220 students in grades K-2, but the school’s charter allows for them to grow to K-5. The school is a mix of primarily white, black and Hispanic students who come from all over the city – the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and as far away as Riverdale. The school says there’s a great demand for the kind of academics provided at Harlem Hebrew Language Academy.

“Harlem is such a place of change. We wanted the children to learn about the community, who settles here, and why,” said Head of School Robin Natman. “We are lucky to have a specialized curriculum developed in partnership with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Our students learn about immigration and migration through the lens of Harlem.”

The school is a dual-language, partial immersion school, which means 40% of the day is taught in Hebrew. Some subjects, such a social studies, are taught in both languages- English and Hebrew and includes curriculum that explores Israeli culture and history alongside other cultures. The children receive gym class and music class every day. Some of the unique classes they receive are chess and Israeli dance, which are offered once a week. The curriculum also emphasizes service learning as a way of teaching values of social responsibility and respecting difference.

The school emphasizes the importance of students learning another language. Research shows that children gain academic advantages when they begin foreign language learning at a young age.

Like all of the charter schools whose buildings are in private space, Harlem Hebrew Language Academy pays rent without any state facilities aid.

Natman said, “All the money that we are forced to use for rent takes away from money we can use for students. This is money we could be using to provide more for our students. If we had facilities funding, the money could go directly into the classrooms.”

Natman’s message to lawmakers is: “Facilities funding should be fair and equitable. We are fortunate to be in private space but we should not be denied these funds. Public schools should be treated fairly no matter where they are located.”

HARLEM HEBREW LANGUAGE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

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15 Jewett Pkwy Buffalo, NY 14214 (716) 856-4390 adjcharter.org

Named after an incredibly active and respected member of the community, Aloma D. Johnson Charter School (ADJ) carries on her spirit of giving back to the Buffalo area.

“Aloma’s name stands for community activism, and her name and the school coincide. We work with both students and parents; we make sure the kids are aware of their community,” says School Director David Bouie.

Now in its seventh year, ADJ serves 300 students in kindergarten through 4th grade. The student body is 100% African American and Latino, and all students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Fifteen percent of the children are special education students.

On the high-needs makeup of the student population, Bouie says, “We serve a very unique population. Our needs are a lot greater than other charter schools to reach academic pinnacles.”

In serving so many high-needs children, the school offers a robust curriculum with a writing program and a focus on leadership. The school works with groups like the National Honor Society to help the students develop into leaders. ADJ emphasizes character building and students are given awards and prizes for their achievements.

Parent involvement is a large part of the culture at ADJ. Each year, the school takes part in the nationwide “Million Father March,” and other events are held throughout the year to foster community and family engagement.

But while the ADJ works hard to help the community and students in need, the school unfor-tunately finds itself met with a massive challenge.

The school rents space in a privately-owned building. Operating costs for the building take up thirteen percent of ADJ’s yearly budget. Money that could be spent on the classroom instead goes to keeping the lights on.

With reduced rent or building costs, ADJ would be able to better provide for the students, hiring more social work staff, and add more social activities to engage parents and families.

“We can’t get to the heart of educating children if we can’t work on students’ social and emotional needs. We need more help,” Bouie said.

Ken Kruly, the school’s financial controller, said, “If we had the level of per pupil funding that goes to Buffalo public schools we would have the resources to provide additional teaching and other support staff for the students.”

Bouie’s message to Albany is: “This is a civil rights issue. Many of the students that attend charter schools are minority students. Parents who pay taxes should be able to send their kids to the best possible school. It’s not fair that if they choose to put their child into a different kind of public school, their child doesn’t receive the same amount of money.

“To be fair to every child and every parent, there should be equal access for every student. It’s just fair that wherever the child goes, the funding goes to the school where the child goes. Those funds should not be held up in schools they are not attending.”

ALOMA D. JOHNSON CHARTER SCHOOL

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55-30 Junction Blvd, Elmhurst, NY 11373 (718) 271-6200 centralqueensacademy.orgadjcharter.org

Here are some staggering statistics regarding English Language Learners, or ELL students. Right now, NYSED’s Office of Information and Reporting Services reports that the Empire State’s ELL students graduate high school ready for college or career at a rate of only 5.9 percent .

And they are the fastest growing student population nationwide. In New York City – one of the largest school districts in the nation for ELL students – 14% of the students are ELL, according to data from SUNY Albany. High school completion rates for second-language learners are less than half of the general education population.

It was these alarming numbers that inspired Central Queens Academy Charter School (CQA) founder and Executive Director Suyin So to action when she opened the school in 2012. CQA currently serves 305 students in grades 5-7 and was designed with a focus on ELL students. It is one of the first of its kind in New York City and offers an explicit admission preference for ELL. What this

means is that 30% of CQA’s seats are specifically set-aside for ELL students. This number exceeds the standard district number for ELL students.

Located in one of New York City’s most overcrowded school districts, District 24, and designed with support from a variety of community-based organizations, CQA aligns with a newer, community-rooted model of charter schools. CQA’s program has been met with high demand in District 24; it receives three applications for each seat.

So understood the need for ELL students to have more specialized learning because the students have challenges that other children don’t.

“Most of our families—between 70 to 80 percent-- are coming from non-English speaking families. Many speak Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, to name a few. And when they come to us, about 20% of our fifth graders are reading at a second or third grade level,” she said.

Because of these obvious challenges, the school uses intensive doses of literacy instruction to get their children up to speed. Additionally, teachers at CQA spend twice as much time on ELA instruction than the rest of the district.

As with most charters, students benefit from an extended day that starts at 8am and ends at 5pm. Children are offered a free extra hour from 5-6pm for help with homework.

“We have some of the most dedicated and hardest-working young scholars I have ever encountered in my 16 years working in New York City’s public schools,” said Ashish Kapadia, CQA’s School Director. “They are responsible, bright and inquisitive and generally arrive school wanting to learn.”

In the April 2014 state exam testing, CQA students outperformed New York City, New York State and its host district for both grades 5 and 6. CQA was also recently honored as a Rising Star by the New York Blackboard Awards for Excellence in Education program.

But there are many challenges the school faces. CQA is currently paying rent to two private landlords in order to house its students. The school opened in the most overcrowded district in the city, so space to house a school of 300+ students is hard to come by.

Kapadia and So both say that CQA would like to grow the school to expand into high school in what would considered a common sense next step – but space in CQA’s district is at a premium. Like all charter schools in private space, the school has to pull money from the operating budget to pay for facilities.

“There are, frankly, many great things that we could do with that money if we did not have to use it on facilities” said So. “We would love to more literacy, a robust arts program and more tailored literacy instruction.”

While CQA has been fortunate to find generous donors, So says, diverting funds intended for student instruction to pay for housing the school impedes student progress.

“If we had facility aid and could free up additional budget, we could run more intensive programs - offer more tutoring and rigorous summer school programming. We could expand our counseling services – the kind of ratio you need for a successful middle school program. We could have a team of social workers, psychologists and counselors.”

Despite the challenges, Suyin says of her work, “There is nothing more rewarding.”

She continues, “We want to help children learn and we want to believe that there is a place for public education. We have optimism and believe that we can improve the lives of our students.”

“We are committed to helping our young scholars get ready for high school and college,” Kapadia adds. “With additional funding to support our facilities, our students would get not just the instruction they need, but the educational opportunities they deserve.”

CENTRAL QUEENS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

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2077 Lockport Road Niagara Falls, New York 14304 (716) 297-4520 niagaracharterschool.org

“When Niagara Charter School opened, it was the result of a rally cry from parents and members of the community who wanted more for the community’s children and a choice for parents,” said Tamika Morris, Community Liaison at the school.

“We realized we had some students slipping through the cracks and we wanted to do everything we could to make sure more students didn’t follow that path,” said Morris.

Niagara Charter School opened in 2006 and is the only charter school in Niagara County available to Niagara Falls students and surrounding communities.

The school is an Expeditionary Learning school. Under this approach, students participate in hands-on learning and they connect to the community around them.

“All students learn differently. The Expeditionary Learning approach helps students understand what they are learning by connecting the classroom to the community,” Morris said.

When the school opened, it served grades K-4. Now the school serves 350 students from K-6. After the lottery is held in April for seats in kindergarten, the school is fully enrolled. Applications received after the lottery and throughout the school year are then placed on a waiting list.

Morris said, “Parents call the school constantly asking if spots are available or if we offer pre-K. Under our current charter, we are not authorized to offer pre-K.”

Niagara Charter will be submitting an application under the newly authorized state legislation to offer Pre-K in its next charter.

“We constantly receive requests from parents asking us to expand to 7th and 8th grade. One of the major restrictions preventing us from expanding is the lack of facilities funding. To say that our families are disappointed by the lack of options for their children after 6th grade is not an understatement.”

The school pays a considerable amount on a monthly basis to cover the cost of rent and all other facilities expenses, including energy costs and maintenance. They have to use money from their per-pupil allocation to cover all of these expenses.

“We could be doing a lot more for our students if we were reimbursed for facilities expenditures. We’d provide additional instructional materials and enhance the expeditionary learning aspect of our school to increase student achievement.”

Darci Novak, Chief Academic Officer at Niagara has a message for state lawmakers: “The denial of facilities funding inhibits the charter schools’ ability to put resources into the classroom where they are needed most. It also affects the schools’ ability to serve more students and expand.”

NIAGARA CHARTER SCHOOL

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82 Lewis Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (718) 453-1001 bsnbcs.org

When Vicky D’Anjou-Pomerleau talks about the school where she works - Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School (BSNBCS)- you can hear the excitement in her voice.

“Our school’s founders are very connected to the community. Some have roots going back generations, one founder as many as six generations. They’re invested and wanted to make a difference here,” said D’Anjou-Pomerleau, who is the school’s Associate Director of Knowledge and Development.

One of the major ways the school is making a difference is by instilling in its 525 students the importance of service learning.

“We teach our students through action-based learning and social change. The children learn about the processes to enact social change, not just doing a one-day volunteer event. We like them to think about strategy and planning.”

For instance, the younger children of the school are working on a neighborhood beautification project. They planted daffodil bulbs last fall and will do the proper work to see that they bloom in the spring. They’re getting used to thinking about the long-term goals of bettering their neighborhoods.

BSNBCS opened in 2010 as a K-3 school and will grow to serve students in K-8.

D’Anjou-Pomerleau said there are a variety of other ways BSNBCS is unique.

“We try very hard to hire people from the community to work here. I really value that. Our Executive Director lives three blocks away, I live 15 minutes away and I walk here. Many other employees ride their bikes or walk to work. The idea is that we are in it for the community and the long run.”

BSNBCS is very progressive, too, with a hydroponic urban farm in the building. The students learn how to grow plants and understand their life cycle. The plants are then used for the school’s culinary arts club. And BSNBCS teaches its students about food justice with a partnership with an organization called Teens for Food Justice. The group works on an “equitable, sustainable approach to food” according to its website.

BSNBCS is finding ways to make a positive impact on the community and its students and it is successful. The school out-performs the district in both math and English Language Arts.

But like all other charter schools in private space, the school did not benefit from last year’s law that helped a segment of new and expanding charter schools either find or pay for space.

“Like many other charter schools, we’re forced to dip into our per-pupil funding to pay for rent. About 1/5 of the funds meant for our students’ instruction and programming goes into our lease, not to mention other building costs,” said D’Anjou-Pomerleau.

“We still have 20 years on our lease, and this is a 90 year-old building. School administrators in charter schools really have to plan differently. We have to think about how to heat the building, the plumbing, and the repairs. Sometimes we have to play the role of building manager.”

“We have to become experts in areas that are not directly connected to education and we have to figure out how to pay for it so that our kids can learn in the best environment possible.”

D’Anjou-Pomerleau was asked what the money spent on the building could go toward.

“If I had an million-plus a year extra, I would hire more teachers to support our at-risk students, hire additional guidance counselors and build more proac-tive interventions for our students. I would provide our staff with more high-quality trainings.”

She goes on, “What I ask myself is: ‘How can we make this school environment a beacon in our neighborhood that is a resource to everyone? It’s part of the dream.’”

Her message to lawmakers is: “Every child in New York State should receive the same funding for their education. Our children are having their fair share stolen from them. We out-perform the neighborhood schools with 80% of their instructional funding. Imagine what we could do if we had fair funding. We could do so much more.”

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT NEW BEGINNINGS CHARTER SCHOOL

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413 East 144th Street, Bronx, NY 10454 (212) 437-8305 brillacollegeprep.org

Most of our 30 Schools in 30 Days posts have ended with a message to state lawmakers. But for Brilla College Prep Public Charter School, we’ll start with Advisor to the Board and Founder Aaron Gillaspie’s message and invitation:

“Come out and see what we’re doing. See it firsthand. Understand. We are not wasting money. We are using our money wisely. Come see how we’re doing this.”

Brilla College Prep opened in 2013 with a rolling start of 200 students in K-1 and now in their second year, the school serves K-2 with about 250 students. The school will grow one grade per year until it reaches 8th grade. The school’s population is diverse -- 65% Hispanic, 35% black, more than 15% of students are special education students, and more than 20% of the school is comprised of English Language Learners (ELL).

The school is equipping its students for what they need to succeed, says Gillaspie. “We have two certified teachers in each classroom, 15 MacBook Airs in every room, a blended learning model. Kids are on computers and we provide small group teaching for both math and science.”

Gillaspie makes sure he tells us something very special about the school – that is their family and parent engagement. “If you don’t have the relationships, you are done before you ever started,” he said.

“We see our families every single day. Our staff is on from 7am-7pm every day. The parents have the cell phones of all of our teachers, and in turn, we have all the parents’ cell phone numbers.”

He continued, “Communication is key in our school. We have built genuine relationships with our families and that will be part of our long-term success. We host family night – we have 100% attendance. We do home visits. We know the kids, what they love, where they live, where their parents work.”

Gillaspie stressed the importance of the staff taking the time to build these connections. He said they hold “coffee and conversation” time often with families. It’s optional but hundreds show up, he said. It’s there that the school goes the extra mile, often teaching parents how to read at home with their kids and letting them know how important that is for their growth.

Like all of the state’s charter schools in private space, facilities funding is the biggest challenge for Brilla College Prep.

Gillaspie asked, “With funding the way it is, will we be able to thrive like we should be able to do? No, I don’t think so.”

“We want to hire more teachers to serve our special-ed population and be able to bring in more ELL kids. I would love to bring in more counselors. Don’t get me wrong, we’re providing an excellent education for our kids, but I know what we could do if we had fair funding.”

“Something else that I would like to provide is a matching 403b program for our teachers. Right now we’re unable to match. It’s important to give your employees that option, but right now, we can’t.”

Gillaspie finds that unjust because he says something he’s proud of is the sustainability of the school’s staff.

“We work to prevent teachers turnover and we have a model that works. We empower our teach-ers. Truly loving their job makes our teachers want to stay. And that all trickles down to the families and kids.”

BRILLA COLLEGE PREP PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL

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31-29 60th Street, Woodside, NY 11377 (718) 487-9857 academyofthecity.org

BRILLA COLLEGE PREP PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL

Several years ago, there were about 1,000 children sitting on a waiting list to get into a charter school in Queens called Our World Neighborhood Charter School. Seeing this huge need – and knowing that tens of thousands more children were trying to get a seat in New York City charter schools – the founders of Academy of the City Charter School took action and opened the school four years ago in 2011.

Academy of the City serves 360 students in grades K-4. The school will grow to serve K-5. Seventy-three percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced lunch.

The school is “progressive and hands-on” according to Principal Richard Lee.

“We use primary sources to teach the kids and that includes field trips, visiting museums, and sharing information. This type of approach works for a lot of students and connects them to the community.”

“We also have a big focus on music, arts drama and physical education.”

Academy of the City offers small class sizes of 29 students or fewer and offers specialized and increased support for English Language Learners (ELL).

There’s a big demand for seats in the school. There are 730 kids on the waitlist and Lee says there are about 1,000 applications for 84 seats each year.

Like all of the New York City charter schools in private space, Academy of the City faces challenges in how to put a roof over its students heads.

Lee said, “We have our own building which we lease from the church but we are trying to get it ready for 21st century learning. It’s a huge cost. We spend over $600,000 in rent – but we have done more than $400,000 in renovations here.”

Lee said there are things he wants to provide for the students and the teachers but they are often forced to hold off on because of building costs.

“We have made it work, but it’s a challenge,” he said.

Lee said he would love to hire more teachers, continue to expand their at-risk services, and expand their arts and drama programs. Currently, the drama program is done by a volunteer, and the school had to cut its dance program. Lee also said he wants to put more resources, like Smart Boards, into the classrooms.

Lee’s message for lawmakers is: “We need equitable funding for all schools. It would make a huge impact on our school and the 40 percent of charter schools in New York City who don’t get any help with their facilities funding. We’re calling on state lawmakers to level the playing field for all charter schools this year.”

ACADEMY OF THE CITY CHARTER SCHOOL

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3170 Webster Ave, Bronx, NY 10467 (718) 944-1400 bronxcommunity.org

What happens when two public school teachers see a huge problem in their district -- one that leaves families with no real options?

For Martha Andrews and her fellow teacher and school co-founder, Sasha Wilson, the answer was to open a great charter school. That is what they did and how Bronx Community Charter School came about.

“We were teachers in District 10,” said Andrews. “It was very clear to us that families in District 10 needed more choices. We’re the only charter elementary school.”

She continued, “We wanted to offer something different than what kids get in a traditional district school. We have small classes, and we’re a small school of 350 students in K-5.We have two teachers in every classroom of 25 kids. We spend time getting to know our students as individuals.”

Andrews said that every adult in the school knows every child in the school. Their curriculum and model is grounded in knowing that kids work best when their adults know them very well. It’s a point of pride that they have been able to foster a real sense of community and respect.

The school started 100 kids in K-1 and 16 staff members and has grown. This is the school’s seventh year. The school student body is very diverse. Their plan is to add a middle school.

“More than 15 home languages are spoken in our school,” said Andrews. “Our families come from a wide range of places and are mostly Latino, West African, and African-American. 85% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.”

Andrews said that the put a lot of emphasis on project-based learning.

“We start the year with a six week all-school study where the whole school learns something together. This year, the project was on the Bronx River. Part of the research was spent canoeing on the river, spending time on the riverbanks, and examining the ecosystem. The kids designed projects around the river and each project is geared towards the appropriate ages and grades of the students.”

For instance, the kindergarten students learned about the animals that live in a river and the older students would study things like erosion and how the river has changed over time.

Then the entire school presents their findings to their families. Andrews says it’s a way to connect the entire school and get the kids excited about learning.

There is something else unique about Bronx Community Charter. The staff is unionized with the UFT. It’s a slimmer contract than what the UFT has with the city schools and Andrews said it works well for her school.

Andrews said, “We believe strongly in the importance of the union. It was an incredibly amicable process to codify our contract. This ensures teacher voice throughout the school.”

Like all charters in private space, Andrews said this has been an incredible learning experience.

“In our first space, we wore many hats. We learned a lot about plumbing, we answered the phones, and served lunches. We saved money for our permanent facility, which we designed ourselves with our staff and our families. Everyone contributed to the design of the space.”

While the school says it is fortunate to have a great building, it doesn’t come without the challenge of paying for it – something all charters in private space must do. Right now the school diverts per-pupil funding to pay for the costs associated with the school building.

“With more equitable funding we could hire additional counselors, social workers, and support staff to provide the social and emotional support that our students need.”

Andrews has a message for lawmakers: “We are educating public school kids and our kids deserve the same level of funding that all other New York City public school kids get. Right now they are not receiving that. We should all be treated fairly under the law.”

BRONX COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL

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BRONX COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL

“There is a dramatic need for quality schools in this community. Parents historically have not had many choices about where they can enroll their children in school,” said Janna Genzlinger, Managing Director of Brooklyn Ascend Charter School. Janna manages two of the seven schools operated by Ascend Learning, all located in central Brooklyn.

Genzlinger talked about the seven Ascend schools and their importance to Brooklyn. Ascend has a significance presence in the Brownsville neighborhood, where Ascend schools are providing parents with options they would not otherwise have. Ascend schools are also located in Bushwick, Canarsie, and East Flatbush.

She told us about one campus that serves 523 students in 4-8 grades. “We provide a college prep education at a scalable model – and we want to serve as many students as we can.” Genzlinger added, “We have a lot of children in need in our schools.”

The student body is 99 percent African American, many coming from families who immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean and West Africa. There is also a small Hispanic population.

Brooklyn Ascend outperformed its host district in both math and ELA on the most recent state tests. And the schools are in demand. Their waiting list exceeds 2000 students.

Genzlinger said that the schools emphasize academic rigor and a strong humanities curriculum. The school has partnerships with many of New York City’s art museums, and adorning the hallways of the middle school’s “art gallery” are high quality

reproductions of artworks whose originals are in those museums. This helps to tie the students’ learning to the greater community outside of their neighborhoods.

The facilities themselves help to set the standard for learning in Ascend schools. “Having our own buildings helps us to maintain a high code of conduct and have a physical environment that is beautiful and collegiate. The physical buildings matter, and reflect our highest aspirations for our scholars,” Genzlinger said.

“We offer a true liberal arts curriculum. We use blended learning, combining inquiry-based and guided instruction models.”

Despite Brooklyn Ascend’s successes, the school is still denied state facilities funding because of an omission in last year’s law that left charters in private space out in the cold.

“The denial of facilities funding hurts us. A large portion of our per-pupil funding goes to our rent. Rent for over 500 children is a huge bill every month. When I think about the fact that charters are already receiving less per-pupil it becomes even more obvious how much we are being short-changed,” said Genzlinger.

She said that she hopes for a solution to the facilities funding omission so that charter schools can use their per-pupil funding the way it is intended, and the way that district schools do – to pay for teachers and tools for learning for the children.

Genzlinger’s message to state lawmakers is one of the most heartfelt we’ve heard throughout the 30 Schools series: “I would like to see equity in all ways between district and charter schools. We are all born of the same desire to do what is right for children.

“If we level the playing field, my hope is that all parties can stop vying for the limited resources, but rather share best practices with each other for the benefit of all our kids. Most schools are full of good-hearted, talented people. We should all be working in a collaborative way. Our elected officials should mend this glaring gap this year.”

BROOKLYN ASCEND CHARTER SCHOOL

(Lower) 205 Rockaway Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11212 (Middle) 123 East 98th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11212

(718) 907-9150(347) 289-9000

ascendlearning.org

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309 St. Paul’s Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10304 (347) 857-6981 si-ccs.org

When Staten Island Community Charter School (SICCS) COO Lorna Harris talks about the school, you can hear just how much providing a strong, close-knit school community for students means to her.

“We are on an island, and it can be isolating,” said Harris, who was a member of the founding group. “There weren’t good school options in the neighborhood and the need was great. As a response, community members – grandmothers, parents and local residents—worked together to build this school from the ground up in order to provide an exceptional academic experience for our kids.”

The school, the first and only charter school in Staten Island, opened in 2010 and currently serves 360 students in grades K-5, but will eventually expand to serve grades K-8.

The school is holistic in its approach to learning with a cutting-edge curriculum that has the Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program (RCCP) as a cornerstone. Every aspect of student learning and achievement takes into account the social-emotional aspects of learning.

The goal is to make sure each child graduates ready for college preparatory high schools and for the world at large. “We believe that every single child if given adequate support, can and will succeed,” says Principal, Dr. Nicole Garcia.

Board chair, Ellen Icolari, seconds that. “SICCS aims to build a student body who are articulate and excited about the world around them, who are good community members, who understand that we have to protect our natural resources and that we have to support each other,” Icolari says.

The school, which is divided between two campuses less than a mile apart, is making the best of existing space. The hallways of the school are named after great schools such as Harvard, Princeton and Howard University. Students who excel in every area – with great grades, attendance and behavior – are known as Super Star Scholars and rewarded with year-round incentives such as participation in fieldtrips and cultural events. The school launched an innovative dance and performance program called PAIR (Performing Arts in Residence) that is led by highly accomplished musicians and dancers who live in Staten Island.

The school’s student population is very diverse. Students hail from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ecuador, Panama, Belize and elsewhere. “Staten Island has the largest Liberian population outside of that country,” says Harris. “Many of our kids come from homes where the family tradition is oral communication, and not necessarily written.”

School leaders have worked hard to make Staten Island Community Charter a safe and welcoming place for kids. Harris said that having an exemplary learning environment for all of the children is a priority.

But, she said, finding enough space to grow is still a huge issue. “I am telling you, we are busting at the seams. Having adequate space and providing academic excellence cannot be divorced from one another. A student’s environment impacts their learning.”

The school applied for co-locations but so far has not been accepted. “We’ve taken to working in hallways and getting very creative,” says Harris.

The cafeteria doubles as a performance space and a conference room. An open space nearby is transformed into a dance studio.

The denial of state facilities funding is a huge hurdle for the school. “The money we spend on facilities should go to our instruction and programming,” says Harris. “How do we deliver these critical services our children need? We don’t have a CMO. Our principal rolls up her sleeves just like everyone else does and we’re all working so hard to provide the best possible education for our students. But we need help.”

Her message to lawmakers: “We are undergoing a tremendous and positive transformation. We are committed to excellence but we desperately need private facility relief to maintain our existing space and continue to expand.

Until then, there is much work to do.

“We have big ideas about how far we can take this school with a little more money and a little more space,” says Principal Garcia.

STATEN ISLAND COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL

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500 19th Street, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn 11215 (718) 280-9556 bugsbrooklyn.orgsi-ccs.org

STATEN ISLAND COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL

Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School opened in 2013 in a district that had been notorious for lacking high-quality middle schools for years. Seeing this glaring problem, some community members stepped up to open a new school and give families an option.

Co-founder and Senior Director of Policy and External Affairs, Miriam Nunberg, said she wanted to found a charter school because of both the opportunity for community input drawn from a board of directors as well as the lottery admissions process.

“We wanted a transparent admissions method. Equity of access for all students is very important to us,” said Nunberg, who is a former civil rights attorney.

The school currently serves grades 6-7 but will grow to full capacity as a 6-8 school next year.

The name says it all. The school’s model is very unique and centers on eco-literacy in an urban setting. The school uses a hands-on, inquiry-based approach. One very special part of the school is that the children design, build and maintain an on-site garden.

Nunberg said, “We aim to be a model of innovative and visionary educational practices. We’re steeped in the notion that it is crucial to get kids outside and exposed to the environment.”

“The kids are thriving. They’re exploring gardens, farmers’ markets, and they’re taking pride in our gardens and outside spaces,” she said. “Even some of our more challenging students are taking part in creating our beautiful outdoor space.”

Nunberg calls opening a charter school in an already over-crowded district a “labor of love”. They applied for DOE space but there was none available.

So as not to be a burden to the overcrowding in its home district, BUGS has been paying for a private facility during its financially challenging start up years. Aside from the challenge of funds, it has been extremely hard to find a place they could afford during its ramp-up years and where the school could also grow to serve 300 children at full capacity.

“Renegotiating our lease takes up an enormous amount of time, attention and worry. Every dollar that we spend comes directly from our operating budget.

We have to compete with anybody – this is a desirable space in New York City.”

She goes on, “We’re independent. We’re not funded by a hedge fund or big investor. We operate out of our per pupil funding.”

Nunberg reiterated her intentions in wanting to open a school, saying, “We don’t handpick anyone; we take anyone. We believe in what we are doing. But the facilities funding issue hurts. We have made an appeal to the Commissioner on this issue, but have as yet not received an answer. The facility issue keeps getting in the way of being the school we want to be, by draining our resources and time.”

She has a message to lawmakers about this issue: “We are a public school that serves stu-dents from a very diverse background in one of the more uniquely integrated middle schools in Brooklyn. We believe our students deserve their fair share.”

BROOKLYN URBAN GARDEN CHARTER SCHOOL

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In one of the most struggling school districts in New York State, a gem of a school stands out for the 406 students fortunate enough to attend. Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School (EMHCS) opened its doors 15 years ago, thanks to the foresight of founder founder Julio Vazquez. Vazquez seized on an opportunity to improve the educational landscape for Rochester’s children and families and opened this charter school with the help and input of local educators and community members.

The school was named for an influential Puerto Rican educator, lawyer, and school reformer in Latin America and its hallmark is that it is a bilingual school. Students in all grades – K-8- learn in both English and Spanish.

“Our students are taught through an immersion approach to language learning,” said Principal Jeff Halsdorfer. “This helps our students gain a firm understanding of another language because Spanish is used in all subjects. Teachers teach in both languages, and therefore kids really get the opportunity to become fluent in Spanish and hone their English language skills. This is especially helpful in language development in grades K-2.”

The importance of this education is certainly not lost on the students. Halsdorfer said a student recently wrote an award-winning essay about the importance of her bilingual education noting how much this background would help her in her future career.

The school’s model and its emphasis on academic excellence is paying off. On the most recent Math and ELA state tests, EMHCS outperformed the district by double-digit margins.

Last year, a state law was passed allowing only a portion of charter schools facilities funding or co-located space. This new law left out all of the schools outside of New York City. Because of this glaring omission, EMHCS faces serious challenges. The school cannot hold all its students in one building, and therefore has two different buildings.

“We have an unnecessary separation between primary and middle school grades. We have two buildings 1 ½ miles apart,” said Halsdorfer.

When asked what that means for the school community, he and Julio Vazquez name a number of issues.

“School celebrations can’t be done together. We have to have staggered dismissal times, which is difficult for parents who have students in both school buildings. We have two security guards working the same hours in two different buildings. We have to duplicate all of our services, for that matter- our kitchen staff included. It’s a very costly way of running the school but we have no choice.”

The school must pay the rent on two school buildings, which are older and often in need of repairs. To pay these costs, money is taken out of the school’s operat-ing budget. That is money that ideally should stay in the classroom.

“I don’t want to make decisions about teachers’ professional development or fixing the boiler. Or making a decision on whether or not to fix the roof or send children on field trips. These are difficult decisions.”

Not only that, the school is already “bursting at the seams”, said Halsdorfer.

“We have to find new ways to create space. We do things like use the cafeteria space or the music teacher’s office to have meetings.”

Vazquez said, “We lack the adequate space to do what we want to do to move forward. This affects whether we expand or not.”

Julio Vazquez’s message to lawmakers: “We need help with facilities funding –this would help us tremendously. Our children deserve this. Our parents live in the city, pay taxes want their children to be treated like all public children.”

Jeff Halsdorfer’s message to lawmakers: “We have a tremendous reputation for success and we have done so much with minimal funding and no facilities support. Can you imagine what we could do if we were fairly funded? Our children deserve equal treatment.”

EUGENIO MARIA DE HOSTOS CHARTER SCHOOL

(K-3) 1069 Joseph Avenue, Rochester, NY 14621(4-8) 938 Clifford Avenue, Rochester, NY 14621

(585) 697-7115(585) 544-6170

emhcharter.org

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EUGENIO MARIA DE HOSTOS CHARTER SCHOOL

“We are making sure that the students can dream the American dream and that they can reach it,” said Dr. Tolga Hayali, the superintendent of the Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School and the Utica Academy of Science Charter School.

Hayali understands the importance of a STEM education- short for science, technology, engineering, and math - to help children in Central New York achieve their goals.

“It’s incumbent on us to use curriculum that will prepare this generation for the 21st century,” he said.

Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School was founded in 2003, and in 2013, the Utica school opened its doors. The schools are highly successful and in huge demand. The Syracuse Academy has 845 students with a waitlist of 1,300 kids since the school is a K-12. The Utica Academy has 240 students with a waiting list of more than 200 students. It’s currently a 6-10 school but will grow to serve grades 6-11 next year.

On the most recent state exams, the Syracuse Academy scored 37.27 percent proficient in math compared to the district’s 8.5 percent. And in ELA, 30 percent proficient compared to the district’s 8.5 percent.

The Utica Academy scored more than 25 percent proficient compared to the district’s 19 percent in math. In ELA, the school was more than 24 percent proficient compared to 15 percent proficiency in the district.

Hayali says the success of the schools can be attributed to intense and focused one-on-one attention, a longer day, and a longer school year, in addition to the rigorous curriculum.

“Our schools are a pipeline for college for our students,” he said. “As research indicates, students exposed to STEM in elementary will continue this into college; we want to bring as many STEM-oriented programs as possible to our urban kids at a young age.”

Hayali said that school leaders work very closely with the teachers and having a small teacher student ratio makes a huge difference. The emphasis on each child means there’s less of a chance of a child falling through the cracks.

“We want to help students from low income homes and expose them to opportunities they may not otherwise have. They can attain success with a great education. That is what we want to do here – foster success.”

He said the schools are fortunate to have the resources that they do but that “any additional funding creates new possibilities for our inner-city youth.”

He talked about some of the inequities that face charters no state facilities funding.

“Charters do have more flexibility and we love that. But at the end of the day, we need to focus on the child and giving them the additional funding – fair funding – is the right thing to do.”

He went on, “The state wants the charters to do better than the state average so we should be afforded equal funding so that our schools can excel.”

SYRACUSE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND UTICA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

(Elementary) 4837 S. Salina St., Syracuse, NY 13205(Middle) 200 West High Ter., Syracuse, NY 13219(High) 1001 Park Ave, Syracuse NY 13204

1214 Lincoln Ave. Utica, NY 13502(315) 266-1072

uascs.org

(315) 469-9404(315) 487-5986(315) 428 8997

emhcharter.orgsascs.org

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301 Demarest Parkway, Elmira, NY 14905 (607) 731-7136 finnacademycharterschool.com

“I am an educator and I worked in the public school system. So did our entire founding team,” said co-founder of Finn Academy Charter School, Maggie Thurber. Finn Academy is scheduled to open its doors this August and will be the Southern Tier’s very first charter school.

“In our region, since 2012, we have been dealing with a lot of consolidation of schools. A few years ago, I was a school administrator in the public school system and I had to deliver letters to a group of amazing educators telling them they were losing their jobs. They had to be let go. 126 teachers in total lost their jobs.”

She went on, “The conversations that ensued were devastating. We had teachers who had just lost their jobs asking, ‘What is going to happen to Dylan, or little Kwame, or Olivia?’ These conversations had real children’s names on them.”

These conversations are what led Thurber and others to look into founding a charter school. “It became a conversation that galvanized our community about what matters in education,” she said.

Through grit and hard work, Finn Academy was approved to open in 2015 with 180 students in grades K-3 in the first year. Throughout its charter, the school will grow to grades K-7.

These educators did not want to lose sight of their children, their students. “We’re in this because we want to change outcomes for children.”

Thurber cites some sobering statistics about Elmira’s schools. The city ranks 419 of 432 upstate school districts, according to the Buffalo Business Journal.

Thurber said Elmira consistently ranks at the bottom when it comes to outcomes. She said that graduation rates there are about 62% and that for students with disabilities, the graduation rate is in the 31% range. For economically disadvantaged, the rate is 52%. She said parents get the need for more school options in Elmira.

Thurber and her co-founders are now well-versed in the challenges that charter schools face in finding adequate space and paying for it. Since charter schools outside New York City are all in private space, they are all denied state facilities funding. This, even though Finn Academy is a public school and the students who will attend are public school students.

Thurber talks about beautiful school buildings that are no longer in use, but because Finn doesn’t receive any state aid for buildings, these spaces were not an option. The school district did not want to lease the space, only sell it – at full market value, which the school simply can’t afford.

“Those facilities can’t be rehabbed for any less than somewhere in the range of $6 -$11 million dollars. We’d have to meet ADA enhancements, get new windows, and make repairs. We don’t have that kind of money.”

“We have explored every single space that we could in the county. It’s a unique situation – but from these challenges great solutions can emerge.”

The school finally has a home – and that location will be announced soon. “We have a space now. It’s phenomenal but requires some adjustments and an addition. We will be making an announcement soon. We’re very excited.”

Thurber and her co-founders and board are looking forward to taking on this incredible challenge, but they’re aware that a change in state law would really benefit them. They are hoping that the state levels the playing field for all charter schools this year so that schools outside of New York City are afforded building aid or space in district schools.

“If there were co-location options, we would have been able to make some of the empty school buildings work for us. If Elmira was set up the way things are in New York City, we could make co-location work.” Alternatively, if charters received the same building aid as their host districts – in Elmira 89% - facilities rehabilitation would be within reach.

But waiting was never in the cards. “The option is not ‘don’t do it’ or ‘wait to do it when it is easier’”, she said. “It’ll never be easier.” And the families in Elmira can’t wait.

FINN ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

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17 Battery Place, New York, NY 10004 (212) 209-6006 jvlwildcat.org

FINN ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

“We do not turn anyone away. We take everyone who walks in the door. No one is refused entrance. We fill up as much as we can, and then we have a wait list.”

Principal and CEO of John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School Ronald Tabano emphasizes this point again and again. His school accepts everyone – including the students the district was unable to educate. His school is a transfer/alternative high school for students who have either dropped out, were in school truants, incarcerated or in the foster care system. They have one of the toughest populations of students in the city.

“Some of them are here as an alternative to incarceration. We take them in and try to get them on the right path.”

The school population is generally over-aged and under-credited – for instance a 16 or 17 year-old with zero credits. It serves about 28 percent special education students, and about eight percent are ELLs.

Wildcat Academy was founded as a Board of Education school in 1992 and Tabano said they were operating year-to-year. They wanted some more stability so became a charter in 2000. There are 500 students between two campuses – one in the Bronx and one in Manhattan. Incoming students attend the Bronx campus full time for at least six months. Once a student has 21 credits, he or she transfers into the Manhattan campus, which is technically 11-12 grades. To graduate, each student must have 44 credits and pass the Regents exams.

It takes time and an incredible investment of patience and energy, but the school tries to set up the students to get Regents diplomas.

“The first six to seven years were really difficult. Our kids don’t fit into No Child Left Behind. We don’t necessarily have a good four-year graduation rate since this is never a student’s first high school and because of what our students are up against. But we work hard and we never turn them away, no matter how many years later they may return looking for some help,” Tabano told us.

The school also incorporates work internships into the curriculum so that most students alternate between one week of work and one week of school. Wild-cat has even established its own culinary school and hydroponic garden.

“We do even have more and more kids going to college. Many will try a two-year school first and then transfer into the city and state system. But we see an increase of students going into four-year colleges as well.”

Here’s where Wildcat Academy really differs from most schools we’ve profiled. Students come back years later and they still aren’t turned away if they need help.

“We have students who come back eight years after graduating to get help in going to college. Our students are like family members. We don’t turn them away if they come back for help.”

The school really has an open door policy. Despite its immensely hard work and the dedication of its staff in keeping kids off the street and on the right path toward attaining a diploma, Wildcat Academy does not get a dime of state aid for its buildings.

“The facilities funding issues forces us to keep our staff down. We’d love to be able to hire more staff. We can only bring in new people through grants, which is great, but they are few and far between,” Tabano said.

He went on, “We looked at our projections. We are going to be losing money every year. We pay $1.8 million for our buildings. Rent escalates, costs go up, and our per-pupil stays flat, and we don’t get facilities help.

“We are hoping that this turns around.”

Tabano’s message to lawmakers is a powerful one: “We take students who have already been dropped by the system. If we don’t help them, they are going to wind up in other systems – the criminal system or the welfare system. It’s penny-wise and pound foolish not to invest in them now. If our kids don’t have this system to pick

them up, where will they go?”

JOHN V. LINDSAY WILDCAT ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

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471 Broadway, Newburgh, New York 12550 (845) 565-4040 newburghprep.org

“Many of our kids were victims both at school and at home, and we have become a safe haven for them.”

This is what Newburgh Preparatory Charter High School Executive Director Russ Gilmore says about the school he runs. The Hudson Valley’s only charter high school educates many students who were previously considered drop-outs.

The school’s founder, Tom Fitzgerald, worked in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District for many years and was a charter school consultant for schools in New York City before opening the school. During Fitzgerald’s consultant work he soon realized that Newburgh had an educational void that a charter school could fill.

“The Newburgh School District had established a number of alternative schools during my tenure in the district, none of which could be sustained for a variety of reasons,” said Fitzgerald. “I thought that the answer might be an alternative charter school managed independently of the school district with its own board of trustees and its own staff. It seems to be working for many students.”

Newburgh Prep serves over-aged and under-credited students. Their students range in age from 16-21 years. Many live in poverty, some are ELL, and some are special needs. The school provides them with the educational, as well as social and emo-tional support, that they need to earn a diploma and become college or career ready.

The school is small, serving 81 students currently. The school’s charter allows for more but there are building and facilities constrains limiting the number of students the school can take right now.

Since the school is small, it enables teachers to give a lot of attention to each student to focus on their individual needs.

“Kids feel safe here,” Gilmore said. “They know there are adults who care about them here. We give them a quiet place to learn when sometimes their home life is not so.”

2014 was a big year for Newburgh Prep.

“We graduated our first students last June. It was covered in the local news – it was all over. This was a big deal. Some of these kids never thought they’d see this day.”

Gilmore said of the first five graduates they had last year, three have gone on to college, one joined the military and one is full-time employed.

“It’s extremely rewarding to get young people on the right path,” he said.

FACILITIES FUNDING CHALLENGES

The school is in a private space and does not receive any facilities funding.

“We want to expand but we are stuck in this building. We don’t have a gym in this building so we rent from a church across the street. 10% of our budget goes to rent and facilities,” said Gilmore.

He went on, “Our space affects us because we don’t have enough room to do what we want to do. We should have more teachers. We truly want to employ and use the local community for our school.

“I spent 24 year working for special education schools in New York. The state would go in to each school and work to remodel it and bring it up to code. Here, because we’re a charter, we’ll never see anything like that from the state.”

Gilmore sent a letter to Governor Cuomo before the holidays asking him for help.

His message to lawmakers is: “We want to reach more kids. We want to help them get back on the right path so that they can have a good life. That’s what all adults should want for our state’s kids. But this can’t happen for our students without a great education and a high school diploma. We are helping our stu-dents get there, but we can’t do it alone. More funding, especially facilities funding, would help us reach more children. We hope lawmakers and Governor Cuomo hear our message.”

NEWBURGH PREPARATORY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL

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65 Krank St & 42 S Dove St., Albany, New York 12202 (518) 433-1500 albanycommunitycs.org

NEWBURGH PREPARATORY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL

Before Albany Community Charter School was founded in 2005, Albany families, especially in low-income neighborhoods, did not have options for their children’s education. The school is providing the type of education its students may not otherwise have.

“With this school, we have the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our kids,” said Executive Director, Neal Currie.

Albany Community opened in 2006 and serves 650 students in grades K-8. Almost all are students of color and most qualify for free or reduced lunch. There are approximately 200 kids on the waiting list. The school is a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School.

“Our school gives families a choice,” Currie said. “Prior to charters like this one opening in Albany, families were forced to use district schools, no matter how much the schools were struggling. Albany Community provides families and students a high-quality choice.”

Each classroom has two teachers, giving students more close attention. Tutoring is available to them, as well as homework help. Parents say that the principal greets each child at the door every morning – and that that kind of positivity continues throughout the day.

“Smaller class size make a tremendous difference,” Currie said. “We also focus on character and being good citizens. Our students have pride and they love coming to school.”

This model is paying off. On the most recent Math and ELA exams, students at Albany Community outperformed their district peers by impressive margins. (Test scores here.) It’s no secret that Albany City schools are struggling – options like Albany Community Charter give children an alternative and a means to succeed academically.

Currie also said the school always feels alive, and that there are children and families in the building at all hours. There are extra-curriculars like the military-style drill team that performs all over New York State. The school also has a drama club where kids write their own improve drama skits and perform their own plays.

“Something else that makes our school special is that most of our events are very well attended by the parents and community. At some, there is standing room only. Our Festival of Nations is now held at the state convention center because it became so large and popular with our families,” said Currie.

Despite the school’s success, it doesn’t receive the state facilities funding that all other traditional public schools receive. Fully half of the state’s charter schools are denied this funding because of an omission in state law.

“If we had facilities funding, we wouldn’t have to take money out of our operating budget. We could pay for more teachers and staff – and provide other opportunities for them. We could hire more academic intervention teachers, and those who can provide more specialized instruction,” Currie said.

Currie’s message to lawmakers: “We’re sending a message on behalf of our students. We want them in up-to-date facilities that are clean, safe, and warm where they can come and learn. I want to make sure charter and district students are treated equally because they are all public school students.”

ALBANY COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL

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30 Watervliet Ave. Albany, NY 12206 (518) 432-4300 hjcslearn.org

Henry Johnson Charter School is named for an Albany hero – a decorated African-American solider who served in World War I. In his honor, the school works to ensure that its students reach high levels of academic achievement and strong character.

Henry Johnson opened in Albany in 2007 and serves 390 students in grades K-4. It’s modeled after a highly successful college prep charter school in Wisconsin. Demand is high - there’s a waiting list between two and three hundred children.

Prior to charter schools opening in Albany, many parents did not have a choice in where they sent their children to school. Places like Henry Johnson give them options.

Executive Director Neal Currie, “Henry Johnson is known for its great intervention and enrichments programs. There is also good one-on-one instruction, with two teachers in each classroom. This really helps our scholars succeed.”

The school’s emphasis on academic rigor is paying off. In the most recent state exams, Henry Johnson’s students scored 54 percent proficient in math, compared to the district’s 12 percent. And in ELA, Henry Johnson scores 14 percentage points higher than the district. (State test scores here.)

Henry Johnson accomplishes this without a lot of the basics that most other public schools have. They don’t have science labs or computer labs.

“We want to bring our scholars into the 21st century. These are things they should have. Our students could use more books, and more space for their library.”

Currie went on, “Our building restrains us from doing some of the enrichment that we’d like to be able to provide. Not to mention, the denial of state facilities funding prevents new schools for opening. State lawmakers should consider the impact their support would have on growing successful schools.”

Currie’s message to lawmakers is: “The buildings that our children learn in show them how they are valued. All our kids should have great spaces for learning. Funding should be equal for all public school students. I want to make sure that charter and district students are both treated equally.”

HENRY JOHNSON CHARTER SCHOOL

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1 Monroe Street, New York, NY 10002 (212) 233-5152 greatoakscharter.org/schools/newyorkhjcslearn.org

HENRY JOHNSON CHARTER SCHOOL

The President of the Great Oaks Foundation Michael Duffy says the school network has discovered a formula for motivating its students to attend college – and it’s being used at Great Oaks Charter School in New York City.

“The secret sauce of our approach to preparing our kids for college success is individualized tutoring. Our students show huge gains in their academic achievement by using this model,” Duffy said.

The school serves grades 6-7 but will grow to eventually serve 6-12. Great Oaks uses a unique model of tutoring by using what Duffy called a “cadre of recent college graduates who work at our school”. The school provides them with a modest living allowance, subway passes, and housing in exchange for their in-school tutoring services that provide each child his or her own tutor throughout the year. Each child receives two hours of tutoring per day.

The success of this model and the efficacy of tutoring was profiled in a New York Times article.

“By using tutors in this way, our teachers are freed up to focus on lesson plans and curriculum. It’s a great system,” Duffy told us.

He also said the tutors have secondary jobs in the school such as running after school events or clubs. The tutors were responsible for the school’s spelling bee.

There is something else unique about Great Oaks – one that dispels a common charter school myth. The school serves a large ELL population. In fact, 25 percent of the school’s lottery is set aside for English Language Learners. Additionally, 30 percent of Great Oaks’ students have IEPs – that is more than double the district average.

“We are proud that we attract a diverse student body and can reach traditionally under-served students,” Duffy said.

Last year’s state budget made tremendous in-roads for some of New York City’s charter schools. It provided any new or expanding schools to receive facilities funding or co-located space. Great Oaks applied for co-location but was turned down. The school filed a petition seeking facilities aid for its buildings and was victorious.

“They ruled favorably on our petition. This is groundbreaking. It’s a huge victory for our students,” Duffy said.

The school recently sent a letter to Chancellor Carmen Farina saying that the school is entitled to receive 20 percent of the current lease or 20 percent of our per pupil funding.

“These conversations with the city have been extremely productive. We’re very happy with how the process has gone so far.”

Duffy said, “We are a school that benefitted from work that advocates did last session. We got very lucky.”

His message to lawmakers is: “It’s essential that any charter school in the state not to take dollars out of the classroom and spend it on real estate. What we are getting is what every school should be able to receive for its students. We are hopeful lawmakers find a solution this year.”

GREAT OAKS CHARTER SCHOOL

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