Community Center? Why not a Charter School?

Today's New York Sun carries a story on the opening of five new Charter Schools, one will be run by outgoing councilwoman Eva Moskowitz.

Ms. Moskowitz officially announced yesterday that she will take control of the Harlem Success Charter School when she leaves the council next month.

The School will be located in central Harlem, historically one of the city's poorest performing districts. It is hope the school will serve as a model for 20 to 30 additional schools to open over the next decade.

Since we currently do not have a voucher program and have seen a large number of parochial schools close recently due to low enrollment, the expansion of Charter Schools is a good sign.

I've been thinking, though, about the recent victory for the community of Alphabet City with the old PS 64 school, used as a cultural center known as CHARAS/El Bohio until is was forced to close in 1998.

Why not convert this old school into a new school? A Charter School?

The Villager recently reported on the victory of neighborhood advocates who prevented the building owner from tearing it down and building university dorms. Though a community center sounds like a fine idea also, I still believe it should be a school. It was a school, make it one again. Renovatve it and make it into a Charter School.

It's a historical structure.

In its “statement of significance,” which the Landmarks Commission issues prior to calendaring a hearing, the commissioners cited P.S. 64 for its “rare Baroque-revival style.” Designed in 1903-’04 by famed architecht C. B. J. Snyder, the school was one of the first to introduce a ground-floor auditorium, which allowed it to function after hours as a community center. Among those to lecture there during the 1920s were former Mayor Jimmy Walker and governors Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

According to Landmarks’ prehearing assessment: “Snyder designed P.S. 64 when he was at the height of his powers, having mastered the technicalities of school design and construction. P.S. 64 is an unusually intact example of a school building retaining its original fence and sculptural seals and, unlike many H-plan schools, it has not had an addition.”

Let's return the building back to what it was originally intended for.