Save the Nest

On Friday, 500 students and parents angry at the New York City Department of Education’s plan to house the Ross Global Academy Charter School in a building they already occupy staged a demonstration at City Hall. Some of the parents, whose children attend New Explorations in Science Technology and Math, a school for gifted and talented students, also plan to hold a rally at the Ross School in East Hampton on Monday.

Parents whose children are enrolled at NEST+m, as the school is commonly known, are unhappy that the Global Academy, which will be run by the Ross Institute and New York University, is supposed to begin sharing their building at 111 Columbia Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the fall.

“It’s like if you rented an apartment, and then the landlord arbitrarily decides to put another family in there. The whole thing just smells,” Lou Grasco, a representative of the school’s PTA, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Courtney Sale Ross, the founder of the Ross Institute, said yesterday that the Department of Education chooses the location for all charter schools in New York City. “We’re in the middle of this debate,” she said, explaining that the Department of Education owns the building, and suggested it as a site for the Global Academy.

“We wouldn’t put the [Ross] school there if we thought it would do irreparable harm to the NEST+m students,” Garth Harries, chief executive of the Department of Education’s Office of New Schools, said yesterday.

Mr. Grasco said he wants to force Ross Institute officials to consider moving into another building on the Lower East Side, despite the fact that the Department of Education is the only organization authorized to decide where charter schools go.

Sheldon Silver, speaker of the State Assembly, said last week that he opposes moving the Ross Global Academy into the building. Mr. Silver has said that a reliance on charter schools, which are paid for with public money but run by private organizations, is simply a way to avoid the difficult problem of improving traditional New York City public schools.

The argument between NEST+m and the Department of Education centers on the school’s enrollment and the building’s capacity. The school has about 730 students in kindergarten through fourth grade and sixth grade through 12th grade. Next year, it is expected to have 1,050 students, with increased enrollment and the addition of a fifth grade, according to Mr. Grasco, who teaches fencing there.

School administrators claim there is little extra space, especially in the school’s cafeteria and gymnasium, which must accommodate kindergartners through 12th graders.

New York City Department of Education officials disagree. They claim the school can house up to 1,400 students. And on Monday, Mr. Harries said in a letter that the school is providing false enrollment numbers.

“NEST+m administrators and teachers sought to mislead Department of Education visitors on our recent walk through the school building,” he wrote, claiming that the school divided classes so that more rooms would appear to be in use.

The Department of Education has capped the school’s enrollment at 899 for 2006-7, according to Mr. Grasco, who said that the department has pressured parents of students accepted for fall admission to NEST+m to withdraw their applications.

NEST+m advocates have obtained legal counsel and will seek an injunction if the Ross Global Academy does move into the building, Mr. Grasco said.

“This is the fourth time in four years that the Department of Education has tried to put a charter school in the school,” said Liz Schultz, a NEST+m parent. In three previous instances, Ms. Schultz said, officials have said that there is room for a charter school, but have then changed their minds and decided that NEST+m needed the space for continued growth.

Diana Aceti, a Ross School spokeswoman, said that it is not unusual for charter schools to be placed within other school’s buildings, and that the Department of Education has done so with over 20 charter schools. Ross School officials said that the building at 111 Columbia Street would provide a temporary base as the Global Academy grows toward its projected enrollment.

The academy, which is to open in the fall with 160 students in kindergarten, first, fifth, and sixth grades, is expected to eventually enroll 585 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. If over 160 students apply to enter the school this fall, admission will be determined by lottery on May 5, as it is for all New York City charter schools.

The proposal for the Ross Global Academy was taken especially poorly because of what NEST+m parents called the secrecy of the plans. Members of the PTA first heard of the proposal about two weeks ago while attending a rally in Albany, and confirmed it with the Department of Education on April 3.

Some parents said they felt duped because Ms. Ross and other Ross Institute representatives had visited NEST+m last year to observe its techniques. “They were scouting it out,” Mr. Grasco said.

Ms. Ross denied any such motive. She said that she and New York University representatives had toured several city schools with different educational models as the Ross Institute developed the charter school. “I had no idea that months later the Department of Education would request that we be in the building,” she said. “We did not pick that location.”

The state granted Ross Global Academy one of the four final charters available in New York City in January. The school, which will be run on the model of intercultural and interdisciplinary education practiced at the Ross School in East Hampton, will also be a teaching school for the Steingart School of Education at N.Y.U.

Ms. Ross said that the Department of Education will officially announce the school’s location by the first week in May. “We intend to be a good partner,” she said.

Ms. Schultz said that Ross students and staff would face animosity if the school were housed in NEST+m next year. “Ross will not be happy in a school where they will not be welcome,” she said. “You don’t want to start a school in an unwelcoming environment.”