Judge Denies UFT/NAACP Injunction; DOE Moves Forward With School Closings

Whether critics of the New York City charter school co-location debate feel the NAACP is or against the Department of Education, it may not matter.

Late last Thursday night, a new York Supreme Court Judge denied a joint request made by the NAACP and the UFT in early June for a preliminary injunction to prevent the DOE from closing 22 failing schools.

Justice Paul Feinman ruled to allow the DOE to move forward with the closings and also the co-location of 15 public charter schools into DOE buildings.

"Because plaintiffs have failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits on their claims for a declaration that would enjoin the closure or phase out of the designated schools, or would bar the co-locations of the charter schools in the designed public school buildings, their motion must be denied," stated Feinman.

Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott said he was incredibly heartened by the Court’s decision. From the beginning, the focus of the Bloomberg Administration has been to reform schools by phasing out those that have failed and replacing them with newer, high-quality options, he said.

"The court clearly stated that ‘if the failing public schools are not closed, students may be subject to substandard educational environments which will obviously cause them to be considerably harmed,'" said Walcott. "I know this decision will come as great comfort and relief to the thousands of children who have been in limbo, wondering what the outcome of this case would be, and for that I am very happy."

However, the UFT, backed by the NAACP, along with tens of thousands of public school parents borough-wide sharply condemed all DOE co-location efforts, calling them discriminatory and dismissive of the needs of the children who remain in the pubic schools.

In Bed-Stuy,P.S./I.S. 308 (The Clara Cardwell School), the schools on campus I.S. 33, and Paul Roberson High School .

In February, after a tour of the P.S. 308, City Councilmember Al Vann wrote a to the Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg, urging the Panel for Educational Policy to reconsider co-location of P.S. 308, stating that  the common spaces at the Pre-K through 8th grade school simply were too small to add another charter school, and it would be a health and safety hazard.

Vann said that while Thursday night's decision was disappointing, it should not be overstated or taken out of context. He further pointed out, the decision did not answer the ultimate questions presented by the lawsuit: "It must be noted that the judge conceded that it is not the court’s role to evaluate the ‘wisdom of educational policy decisions,’” said Vann.

The denial of the preliminary injunction with respect to the co-locations did not address the lawsuit’s substantive claims, particularly that the school closures and charter school co-locations would introduce inequities. The decision only affirmed that the DOE’s accompanying documentation met the standards of the state education law.

“While the decision will allow the DOE to move forward with its plans for now, I continue to believe that it is neither in the best interests of the existing traditional public school students nor the future charter school students to co-locate schools at P.S. 308 and within the I.S. 33 school building," said Vann.

“The court notes that the question of where the equities lie is not clear-cut, and the facts do not lean inexorably in the direction of either party,” Feinman wrote.

The United Federation of Teachers said it did not plan to drop its suit, particularly because of the equity claims that Feinman did not assess.