By Andrew Coen
Racing a Sept. 30 deadline to submit an application to create the new school for the beginning of the 2006-07 year, neighborhood leaders collected signatures and several donations after the meeting.
The Atlantic Beach Charter School Committee has met weekly throughout the year with Gerry Vazquez, president of the New York State Charter School Resource Center, to find out more about how to form a charter school. Atlantic Beach resident Nancy Piccirillo, a past District 15 PTA president who is a member of the committee, said that after the meeting, many of those who attended either gave checks or offered their signatures in support of the plan. The group is closing in on the necessary $12,500 required to submit an application. "We're pretty confident the application will go through," said Piccirillo.
85 charter schools approved
According to Vazquez, the state has approved 85 charter-school licenses since 1998 and is permitted to give out only 15 more. Therefore, if parents decide to wait until the 2007-08 school year, they may risk losing out. Vazquez has said that to get a charter school approved in the area, documentation needs to be provided showing community support for the idea as well as the establishment of sufficient startup funds.
A charter school is a nonsectarian public school of choice that operates with freedom from many of the regulations governing traditional public schools. If approved, the school, according to Vazquez, would be funded through a combination of state aid and federal money set aside for the charter-school program. In addition, roughly 70 percent of the money a public-school district spends per child would be earmarked for the charter school, which would equate to $16,000 per child in District 15 for parents who send their children to the new school.
K-4th grade planned
Atlantic Beach community leaders are contemplating a kindergarten-through-fourth grade charter school at the current site of the Sportime tennis and fitness building, at 60 The Plaza, which is owned by the village and leased to the fitness center. Sportime's lease runs out in September 2006, according to village officials. Community leaders hope to offer a competitive bid for the property and, if successful, redesign it to accommodate a charter school. If the school were permitted to operate on land across from Atlantic Beach village hall, the property would be taken off the tax rolls, since educational institutions are exempt from property taxes as not-for-profit agencies.
Opposition heard
While the standing-room-only crowd at last week's meeting at Atlantic Beach Village Hall featured a majority in support of creating a charter school, some District 15 employees and residents expressed concern that the new school would "deplete" district resources for students unable to attend the school. "If you do this, you will destroy the Lawrence Public Schools," Steve Clements, Lawrence Teachers Association president, said.
Clements urged the large crowd to channel their anger at the state of District 15 by organizing efforts to elect public-school candidates to the school board and supporting the proposed budgets. "The problem in District 15 is not educational, it's political," said Clements. "Let's get active in getting back our public-school system."
In response, Piccirillo said that while as PTA president she has strongly supported the teachers association president, his opposition stems from the possibility that jobs might be in jeopardy should the charter school be approved.
Clements said in a phone interview after the meeting that a small kindergarten-through-fourth grade charter school would probably result in the elimination of around five teaching positions and would drain valuable resources for students who remain in the public schools. "Clearly, what's left for everyone else will be diminished," he said.
Atlantic Beach Deputy Mayor Janice Goorland, a member of the charter-school committee who led the meeting, has said she is pushing for an alternative to Lawrence Public Schools as a resident and not as a public official. "I have grandchildren in the village, and I want them to get the same great education my children and my brothers got," said Goorland, who has been active in the Lawrence PTA for more than 30 years. Her youngest child graduated from Lawrence in June. "I'm going to do the best I can for the children of Atlantic Beach."
Jay Silverstein, who was recently named assistant principal of Lawrence High, was allowed by Goorland to present an opposition viewpoint at the meeting, and said he was speaking as an Atlantic Beach resident and not as a District 15 administrator. "[The Lawrence Public Schools students] would be going to a district depleted of resources," said Silverstein, a Lawrence High alumnus who has children in district schools. "It would likely be the final blow to the district."
The district would lose jobs and receive less state aid with the reduction of students attending the Lawrence Public Schools, he said.
Parents express frustration
A major reason Atlantic Beach parents are taking the initiative to start an alternative school is frustration with the closing of the Number One School in Lawrence last June as part of a consolidation plan to save the district money. Atlantic Beach children are now being bused to the Number Six School in Woodmere, four villages away from Atlantic Beach. Area parents have also expressed frustration with a school system on a contingency budget for three straight years and facing increased class sizes and more cuts in programs and staff.
If a charter school were established in Atlantic Beach, it would have to accept students from the entire district and throughout the county, if seats were available. Students in the Lawrence school system would get first priority, and if there are more applicants than spots available, a lottery system would be used to determine who would get the remaining spots, according to Vazquez.
Goorland said she feels that there would be more interest in the school among Atlantic Beach residents than the rest of the Five Towns because of how close it would be, and because many parents would not want to send their children across the Atlantic Beach Bridge to elementary school. However, Joel Leaf, a longtime District 15 resident who has lived in Atlantic Beach for nine years, said after the meeting that he would love to send his grandson, who is entering kindergarten, to the new charter school, but is concerned that he would get shut out if there were many applications. "I think you'll be flooded with kids from Inwood and Lawrence, and our kids won't get in," said Leaf.
Goorland said the plan would be to start off as an elementary school, through fourth grade, and then expand by a grade each year up to eighth grade. According to Goorland, there are a total of 340 students, for all grades, in Atlantic Beach who are transported to Lawrence Public Schools, with 116 attending the Number Six School this fall, meaning the area would show strong support for the charter school.
Multi-intelligence approach
While many of the more than 3,400 charter schools nationwide provide for specific needs or programs, Goorland has said that parents would like to see the multi-intelligence approach used in the Atlantic Beach school, incorporating a variety of teaching strategies depending on students' needs. Clements said that many Lawrence teachers are trained for the multi-intelligence approach and incorporate it into their curriculum.
Community leaders have also studied the idea of joining the neighboring Long Beach school system or starting a separate Atlantic Beach school district, but have determined recently that neither idea is realistic, since, according to the State Education Department, the reorganization of a school district requires the consent of both the superintendent and the school board.
The $12,500 required to apply for a charter school includes a $5,000 deposit, $4,000 for when the application is filed and an additional $3,500 if the school is approved. It takes the state a few months to decide which charters to approve, according to Vazquez.
Comments about this story? ACoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
