Booker T Plans Longer Wooster Square Stay

A new charter school’s relationship with wary neighbors has improved — and the school is looking to stick around longer than originally planned.

That was the upshot of a community meeting held in Wooster Square at Booker T. Washington Academy (BTWA), a currently K‑1 charter that opened last fall at 240 Greene St.

The cozy conversation offered a contrast to a neighborhood meeting held mid-August last year, when a crowd of neighbors expressed concern and skepticism about the school’s plans.

This time just three people showed up to talk with Principal John Taylor last week. Neighbors brought a long list of questions about the school’s progress, along with a sense that the situation has worked out better than feared. Taylor also revealed that BTWA plans to stay in its building through the next academic year.

Gaining A Footing

Wooster Square neighbors Elsie Chapman and Ruth Koizim — as well as Alder Aaron Greenberg — met with Taylor in a basement classroom at the school for tea, animal crackers and the informal chat last Monday afternoon.

They discussed the school’s funding stream, plans for expansion, disciplinary tactics and connection to Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, whose pastor founded the school. Neighbors urged Taylor to get out into the city, inviting him to Wooster Square’s Cherry Blossom Festival in April.

At last August’s neighborhood meeting, administrators dropped the news that the school would open on Greene Street in the following month. The school’s leaders had fired their scandal-plagued charter management partner months before planning to launch BTWA — and were forced to drastically scale back their plans for the new charter school. The State Board of Education green-lighted a new partner in July, but board members expressed concern that the school was doing too much in a short period of time.

Neighbors in August criticized BTWA leaders’ lack of communication with the district, especially since the school was one of two opening in Wooster Square this past fall. A district alternative school, New Light High, opened on Wooster Place, just behind BTWA.

BTWA subleases the building from charter network Achievement First (AF); Taylor reassured a nervous group of neighbors that the school would be on Greene Street until only December. BTWA was slated to move into permanent facilities at 495 Blake St. by the middle of the academic year. But school officials worried about completing the requisite renovations at Blake Street in time. Then AF slotted the Blake Street building for a new experimental school called Elm City Imagine, which needed Board of Education permission to go forward.

And the Board of Ed denied that permission, at least for now, in February. AF will move just fifth graders into 496 Blake St. as planned — but not new kindergarten and first grader students. So the network will reduce the overall square footage it leases over the next three years, said AF spokesperson Lenny Speiller.

Now BTWA leaders are seeking another academic year at Greene Street and a new building to house their burgeoning student body, which Taylor (pictured) said could expand by two grades in the next two years.

Monday’s meeting struck a different tone. Chapman and Koizim welcomed the school to the neighborhood. Taylor explained how BTWA had gained its footing after a rocky start—reading test scores are high, the after-school program is popular, attendance is consistent and parents are active participants in their children’s learning.

The challenge had been adjusting to working without charter management partner Family Urban Schools of Excellence, whose CEO was found to have a history of lying and embezzlement. After parting ways with FUSE, BTWA leaders ​“had to redefine how we approach teaching and learning” in a short period of time, Taylor said.

Neighbors in August had been worried that gaining both BTWA and New Light would affect traffic patterns near Wooster Square in the morning. Taylor told Chapman and Koizim that administrators for the two schools — as well as those for Conte/West Hills Magnet School a block away — meet quarterly to coordinate logistics, such as which building students at each school would head to in case of a fire.

“It’s been helpful to have both those administrators giving me feedback,” Taylor said. The schools have staggered the arrival and dismissal times of their school buses ​“on purpose” so as not to clog the streets, he said.

Next Moves Unclear

Taylor was closed-mouthed when asked where BTWA was looking to move, but said the school’s administrators were in discussions with the district and city. BTWA is chartered through eighth grade, but he said he was not sure whether it would add a middle school. In his personal opinion, he said, middle-school students ​“need access to a real comprehensive curriculum,” which is more likely in a larger middle school. Building a middle school up one grade at a time each year might ​“short” the sixth and seventh-graders of opportunities to explore their interests, he said.

“You’re looking for a space that will accommodate pre‑K through 5? Not 8?” Chapman asked.

“If it’s there,” Taylor said. ​“That’s a board decision.” The board will also consider whether the school can afford a building large enough for both an elementary and middle school. ​“We would have to grow into it. We may need a partner for a few years,” he said.

What percent of the board are educators? Two out of 10, Taylor responded. This month the board will vote a parent and a teacher onto the board, so that percentage will increase to a fourth.

“How’s the funding stream?” Chapman asked.

BTWA has raised $850,000 this year, Taylor said, and has $600,000 committed for next year. Foundations and individuals were worried about contributing in the early days of BTWA’s development. ​“I had a lot of people saying, ​‘We wanted to make sure this thing was going to stay open,’” Taylor said, with a laugh.

Going forward, administrators and the board are deciding which foreign language to introduce into the school — some are pushing for French, but they will likely choose Spanish, Taylor said. Students would start in kindergarten.

“Wonderful, that is wonderful!” Chapman said. ​“So by the fifth grade, they will be bilingual.”

“At least they will know how to approach learning a language,” said Koizim, who teaches French in Yale’s French department.

Alder Greenberg asked whether the two-year moratorium on new charter schools proposed by the state’s education committee affect BTWA’s ability to grow. (That proposed moratorium has since been voted down by the education committee.)

Likely not, Taylor said, since the bill would not affect existing charters. He said he understands the motivation at the state level to curb the momentum of charter growth, given the major deficit. But, he added, it would be difficult to banned from opening a new school halfway through the process of organizing a new charter.

Taylor invited neighbors to come by to take tours of the school when students are in class or to talk with administrators.