As the city heads into summer, where exactly this fall’s crop of new charter schools will open remains in limbo. But that doesn’t mean more schools aren’t planned for the future.
Earlier this month, SUNY’s Charter Schools Institute approved a dozen charter schools to open in the city in the fall of 2012. Each of the new schools is planned for a specific school district within the city, but the institute’s announcement gives no indication of whether the schools will pursue public or private space.
The new schools include some unusual arrangements for the city, such as a partnership school with the Children’s Aid Society that will provide social services to students and a school that will reserve 30 percent of seats for students for English language learners. That school is set to open in Elmhurst, Queens, and has as a partner a nonprofit that works with Asian immigrants.
But the list mostly contains schools that replicate models already in place in the city. The sixth and seventh Carl Icahn charter schools are on the list, as are a second Family Life Academy Charter School and a second Manhattan Charter School. The Explore network has been given the green light for another school that would give preference to students zoned for a school the city wants to close; the first is supposed to open this fall, although the lawsuit filed by the UFT and NAACP has thrown that plan into question.
And the Success Charter Network, which already operates seven schools and is set to open two more this fall, had three new schools approved, all for Brooklyn. The network’s first Brooklyn school is set to open in August in the IS 33 building. Students from the network’s first school, Harlem Success Academy 1, are entering sixth grade this fall.