Brooklyn Dreams Charter School Dreaming Of Shell Bank Junior High

(Image courtesy of the NYC Department of Education website)

UPDATE: Please see our post dated July 8, 2009 for an update about the meeting agenda: Brooklyn Dreams Charter School Not Seeking Public Space

Education Notes Online, a blog dedicated to issues in public education, reports that the Brooklyn Dreams Charter School is looking to set up shop at Shellbank Junior High School (J.H.S. 14).

The Brooklyn Dreams Charter School has managed to stay just under the controversy radar, compared to the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School (HLA), when it tried to take over classroom space at the Marine Park Junior High School (J.H.S. 278). It seemed as if every parent in the district showed up at the HLA public hearing. With so many area residents voicing their outrage at the HLA’s planned invasion, the Department of Education (NYC DOE) had no choice but to ask the charter school to find a different building.

Now, the Brooklyn Dreams Charter School is threatening to move in on Shell Bank when parents and school children are on summer vacation. One commenter to the article on Education Notes Online says:

I have every intention of attending this meeting but I doubt that the hordes that attended the I.S. 278 hearing will appear here. The DOE very sneakily planned it for a time when many families are on vacation or otherwise occupied.

The first media attention given to the Brooklyn Dreams Charter School appeared to be in a Daily News article on in 2008, when it was announced that the school was intending to take up public school space in Bay Ridge. The parent-run School District 20 Community Education Council (CEC 20) spoke up against the charter school, leaving them with sights set on Sheepshead Bay.

An article in YourNabe.com posted yesterday says that the official application for use of public school space was filed in District 21 (Coney Island and Bensonhurst), but because the school was not welcome in either District 20 or 21, they have decided to come to District 22. The Brooklyn Dreams school has been dreaming so much about their new space that they haven’t had a chance to fill out new paperwork for District 22.

Could this bureaucratic discrepancy in the filing of paperwork be the factor behind why more people are not talking about squashing the dreams of the Brooklyn Dreams? Whatever the reason why there is not much attention given to this charter school, those interested in public education space allotment issues are calling out for residents to attend the meeting.

Has the current economic situation meant this summer’s vacation is a staycation? Has your living room couch been turned into a substitute for your kids’ summer camp? Well, then, there is a good side to the downturn in the economy — you can be here on July 16 to speak up on behalf of your children and neighbors who want to protect public school space.

Here are the meeting details:
Charter Applicant Hearing – Brooklyn Dreams Charter School
Thursday, July 16, 2009
7 p.m.
Shell Bank Junior High School (I.S. 14 or J.H.S. 14)
2424 Batchelder Street
Brooklyn, New York 11235
(Between Avenue Y & Avenue X)
Phone: (718) 743-0220
Fax: (718) 769-8632
Link to e-mail

Mass transit:  B, Q trains to Sheepshead Bay Road Staion; B36, B44 & BM3 Express bus; or call the MTA for travel directions at (718) 330-1234

Contact:
Christopher Spinelli, President
District 22’s Community Education Council (CEC)
5619 Flatlands Ave, Rm. 115
Brooklyn NY 11234
Phone: (718) 968-6111
Fax: (718) 968-6256
Link to e-mail.