Ball said Harlem Children’s Zone is asking for too much space and control. “Harlem Children’s Zone had proposed a takeover right over there,” Ball said, pointing toward an open area within the housing complex. “And it was going to be for Kindergarten, and everybody was fine with that. But then it became about charter schools, and it was like, ‘Well, hold up,’” he said, before launching into his imitation of HCZ’s allegedly increasing demands. “Then it became, ‘Well, we’re gonna put in a charter school; We’re gonna put it right here; We’re gonna tear up the street and we’re gonna take out the parking lot, the park, that whole grass area right there and part of the area right next to it and next to that.’”
Some attendees said they would welcome the school if it were proposed for a different site. Some said they worried that the construction would diminish their air quality and bring rodents to the buildings.
Ernestine Augustus, a public school special education teacher and part of the Coalition for Public Education, opposes the school because it’s a charter school, saying it will undermine parental authority. Her two kids have both attended HCZ schools and she was not impressed. “It doesn’t look like a miracle to me,” she said.
Those schools have garnered national acclaim and are the model for President Obama's national anti-poverty program, called Promise Neighborhoods.
During the second half of the meeting, attendees signed up to perform tasks such as contacting politicians, canvassing St. Nicholas Houses to collect signatures and coordinating a tabling schedule for Family Day, an upcoming residents’ event.
The key to defeating HCZ at St. Nicholas Houses is to stay focused, Ball said after the meeting. “People actually knew [about the plans for the school], but the prevailing feeling was, it was a done deal, ‘Oh, we can’t stop it,’” Ball said. “So a lot of people just gave up. But there’s a bunch of us who never did give up.”
**An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that NYCHA would receive $100 million for this project. A NYCHA spokesperson has now clarified that NYCHA's fee for transferring land to the project has not been determined. The school will cost $100 million to construct.
