Lawsuit aims to block charter school from co-locating

Published: June 15, 2015

Publication: NY Post

By Carl Campanile

The war against the Success Academy charter schools network of Eva Moskowitz continues with a vengeance.

A Manhattan federal suit filed Friday aims to block Bronx Success Academy 3 from co-locating at an under-used building at 1000 Teller Ave. shared by four other small schools.

The suit claims allowing Bronx SA3 into the building will violate the rights of special education students under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act. About a quarter of the students are identified as having special needs and have individualized education plans, according to plaintiffs’ lawyer, Arthur Schwartz.

“Arthur Schwartz has a long history of bringing frivolous lawsuits against Success Academy, and he has lost every one. This is a waste of judicial resources and an abuse of the court system for politics,” said Success spokeswoman Ann Powell.

The legal challenge, initiated by parents of kids currently in the building, comes just days after Mayor de Blasio’s Panel on Educational Policy blocked a new Success Academy elementary school from sharing space in a Midwood, Brooklyn, school building.

But the PEP approved the Bronx co-location in a 7-5 vote in April.

The schools already in the Teller Avenue facility are JHS 145, Urban Science Academy, New Millenium Academy MS and the Alternate Learning Center. In supporting the space sharing, the de Blasio administration projected the building would be at less than 75 percent capacity even after Bronx SA 3 moved in.

http://nypost.com/2015/06/15/lawsuit-aims-to-block-charter-school-from-co-locating/