Parents of Success Academy students in Far Rockaway will soon get an answer to where the Department of Education will propose a new middle school location.
“The good news is, we are engaging on two temporary co-location proposals,” said Chancellor Carranza during a town hall at I.S 5 The Walter Crowley Intermediate School’s auditorium on Monday, March 2. “We are going to continue to work with Success Academy on the long-term option we recommended back in November, which we think is a great option for them, and we are also ready to work with them to secure a long-term plan for the Rockaways and we expect to post proposals later this week,” said Carranza.
The posting deadline for the next Panel for Educational Policy meeting is Friday and if no proposed locations are posted then Success Academy will not be able to co-locate for the 2020-21 school year.
Last November, the DOE proposed a defunct Catholic school in Ozone park as a permanent southern Queens location for Success Academy’s middle school. But the choice was met with push back from parents and school personal who argued the site was too small, to run down and too far away from the Far Rockaways to be a reasonable commute. Since then, parents of Success Academy students have rallied at City Hall, town halls and Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meetings to pressure Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza to find what they deem to be a more adequate location. Success Academy parents turned out in droves at the last PEP meeting in Chinatown last week and last night’s town hall was no different. At least 50 people associated with Success Academy attended the town hall.
Possible proposed sites include M.S. 53 Brian Piccolo which currently houses Success Academy’s elementary school or Susan B. Anthony or I.S. 238 Susan B. Anthony School in Hollis, a source familiar with the situation said.
