Hundreds Protest Cobble Hill Charter at Hearing

By all accounts, the DOE hearing last night over the proposal to co-locate a Success Academy Charter in the school building at Baltic and Court was a rowdy affair. According to the Eagle, there was a much bigger group assembled to protest the plan than to support it: “While hundreds of parents and officials were firmly and vocally against the co-location of Success Academy at the site, roughly a half-dozen supporters held a press conference before the hearing.” The paper also notes that the people in the crowd at the hearing booed and cried “Shame!” as testimony was given, and that one man was escorted out by police. McBrooklyn reports that one of the main concerns voiced by opponents has to do with the amount of space in the building, which is already home to the School for Global Studies and the School for International Studies: “Parents and teachers said the facilities are maxed out already…Teachers said that there was barely enough time in the gym for the middle and high schoolers to get their mandated PE in before they graduated.” Patch, meanwhile, notes that many politicians have come out against the charter taking space in the building, including Assemblyman Jim Brennan, City Councilmembers Brad Lander and Steve Levin, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Joan Millman. Meanwhile, the Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled to vote on the matter later this month at Newtown High School in Queens—the vote was originally supposed to take place in Midtown—and some parents have started an online petition demanding that the vote take place at Brooklyn Tech instead.
Hundreds Attend Heated Hearing on Success Charter [Patch]
Explosive Cobble Hill Success Academy Hearing [McBrooklyn]
Emotions Explode at Raucous Cobble Hill Charter School Hearing [Eagle]
Protesters Disrupt DOE Hearing On Proposed Brooklyn Charter [NY1]