DOE switches course on process for PAVE extension request

Responding to protests that it was breaking the new mayoral control law, the Department of Education will hold a public hearing before extending PAVE Academy Charter School’s stay inside a district-owned building.

The law passed this summer requires the DOE to issue an “educational impact statement” and hold a public hearing on any proposed changes to the way school building space is used, and then to put changes to a vote before the city-wide Panel for Educational Policy.

Last month, DOE officials notified the principals of Red Hook’s PAVE Academy and P.S. 15 that the charter school would remain in the P.S. 15 building, even though PAVE originally agreed to leave the building at the end of this school year. At the time, DOE spokeswoman Ann Forte said that there was no need to follow the new rules since a hearing had been held before the charter school moved into the building two years ago.

But after protests from the district’s Community Education Council members, DOE officials said this week they will follow the new procedure after all.

CEC President James Devor drafted a resolution this week calling on the DOE to follow the new law in the case of P.S. 15. The resolution also states that if the DOE does not follow the new procedure in making space decisions regarding P.S. 15 and PAVE, the CEC would join any lawsuit designed to force the DOE to adhere to the law.

Yesterday the Office of Portfolio Planning’s Courtney McNally confirmed to Devor by email that the DOE would follow the new rules. In the email, McNally wrote that the DOE wants to put the P.S. 15/PAVE space sharing proposal before the PEP during its January 26, 2010 meeting and the DOE will need to post the educational impact statement by December 8.

(Devor said that he planned to put the resolution to a vote a tonight’s CEC meeting anyway to document the dispute. Update: The CEC passed the resolution unanimously, Devor said.)

The P.S. 15 building has emerged as one of the most contested fronts in the ongoing conflict about whether charter schools should be able to share district school buildings. When PAVE requested this summer to stay in the building past the two years in its original agreement, P.S. 15 parents were fearful that the charter’s expansion would increase their class sizes and take over their resource rooms.

In an email, and in the resolution being considered tonight, Devor emphasized that he and the CEC have not made a judgment about the space-sharing proposal and extension request on their merits. But the CEC has insisted that the DOE go through the reporting and hearing process required for major changes in space use before PAVE be allowed to stay.

A major question still unanswered for the schools is whether PAVE will be permitted to admit a new incoming class of students next year, thus using more space in the building. In June, a DOE spokeswoman said that it was too early to say whether the charter would be allowed to expand in the P.S. 15 building. The DOE has not responded to several queries as to whether officials plan to allow the school to grow if it stays in the P.S. 15 building.