Nestled within a shared building on 111 East 33rd Street in Murray Hill, a charter high school faces a unique predicament. While it coexists with three traditional public high schools, each accommodating fewer than 300 students, the charter school caters to nearly 900 young learners. This disparity in student population has resulted in a significant space crunch for the charter school, as reported by city data cited by Success Academy.
The charter school finds itself operating at almost full capacity within its limited premises, with an average class size of 26 to 27 students. In contrast, the other schools in the building enjoy smaller class sizes, averaging around 16 students. This spatial challenge has forced innovative solutions within the charter school, with extracurricular activities like choir practice occurring in unconventional locations such as stairwells and cramped storage rooms.
Despite these constraints, the charter school continues to strive for academic excellence within its challenging environment. With only one science lab to accommodate its myriad students, educators and students alike demonstrate remarkable adaptability and resourcefulness. The school’s principal, Kenneth Zhang, acknowledges the resilience of the faculty and staff in making the most of the limited space available.
Part of the renowned Success Academies network, the charter school boasts an impressive track record of academic achievement and college acceptance rates. As the student body grows and space becomes scarcer, the school navigates the complexities of scheduling classes and maintaining a diverse range of elective options.
In the face of these challenges, students and educators at the charter school exhibit unwavering dedication to their academic pursuits, embodying resilience and creativity in the pursuit of educational excellence.
“There are a lot of classes that are highly impacted by the space constraints,” he said, adding, “We have been able to make it work” — with lots of resourcefulness. The biggest challenge is finding room for the performing arts programs — dance, choir, band, and theater, Zhang said. “That’s really where the spacing issues happen. We have a theater teacher who can’t teach in a specific room consistently because she doesn’t always have the auditorium space to do practices and things like that,” he said. “We’ve gotten creative with solutions. We have office spaces, hallway spaces that kids are able to use to have class. And again, they make it work, but it is a lot of kind of shuffling, maneuvering things that we really, you know, shouldn’t have to do because the kids deserve the space to have class.” The school’s parents have launched a petition, which currently has 259 signatures, calling on the DOE “to fairly allocate space to us in the building we share with three other high schools. Students try to practice singing in the hallway. “Our high school scholars are highly capable and hard-working. The inadequate space they are receiving unfairly hinders them in developing their talents and meeting Success Academy’s rigorous standards,” the petition said. “As ever more students at Success Academies middle schools choose to attend its Manhattan high school rather than accept offers at other schools, it is imperative that the allocation of space be adjusted accordingly.” Charter schools are publicly funded, privately managed schools that mostly employ non-union teaching staff. Many of the charters have a longer school day and school year than traditional public schools, and studies show their students outperform their peers on standardized math and English exams. There are now 282 charter schools serving nearly 150,000 students in the city. The charters make up about 15% of publicly funded Big Apple schools. Despite achievements, the charter school sector has faced resistance from New York’s Democratic-dominated establishment. The city cannot open any more charter schools because of a cap imposed by the Democratic-run state legislature, which has deep ties to the anti-charter teachers’ union that opposes the competition. Gov. Kathy Hochul did not recommend lifting the cap in her recent $252 billion budget proposal. Zhang said the decision for his school to get more space is squarely in the hands of DOE, which is aware of his appeal. He complained DOE officials have been dragging their heels in finding an equitable solution. The DOE dismissed the charter’s space gripe. “Success Academy is a charter school — please reach out to them directly!,” a rep told The Post. -Additional reporting by Aneeta Bhole
