Public Advocate Letitia James, pictured here at Richmond Hill High School, is moving forward with her lawsuit against school co-locations, saying they often result in overcrowded classrooms, as well as a loss of space for special education and physical education. Photo by Anna Gustafson
While Mayor Bill de Blasio and city Public Advocate Letitia James often live on the same political page, the two seem to have split on the matter of school co-locations, with lawyers for the mayor recently defending the city’s plans to co-locate dozens of schools in response to a lawsuit James filed to stop the co-locations approved under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In an abrupt about-face from de Blasio’s original rhetoric regarding co-locations – when at least one school moves into the same physical building as another school – city attorneys argued in court papers filed last week that the 36 co-locations being challenged, including one impacting Richmond Hill High School, were approved in “full compliance with education law.”
Such a statement is markedly different than what de Blasio said during his campaign, when he panned the approval of numerous co-locations by the city Panel for Educational Policy – a decision-making body dominated by mayoral appointees. At that time, de Blasio, along with host of Queens elected officials – and legislators from across the city – slammed the move as an attempt by the Bloomberg administration to sweep in last-minute plans before the ex-mayor’s tenure ended.
The former mayor’s “proposals are a cynical effort to lock communities into permanent changes while ignoring community voices,” de Blasio said while campaigning.
The 37-page brief filed in court comes in response to a lawsuit filed by James and a number of other elected officials, including City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) and Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica), who argued that co-locations often result in overcrowded classrooms and disparities in resources.
“Public Advocate James’ principled position remains consisted: Forced co-locations must not move forward without parents’ input or they result in overcrowding, students being warehoused in trailers, loss of space for special education and physical education, and elementary students being mixed with high school students,” James’ office said in a statement this week in response to the city Law Department’s filing.
City attorneys even took a jab at James in their filing, saying the public advocated “campaigned for her current office as a strident foe of charter schools, and merely seeks to continue her political advocacy here.”
Some of the co-locations that are being challenged include a charter school moving into the same building as another public school.
Among the Queens residents who are impacted by this lawsuit are students at Richmond Hill High School.
Last year, the city PEP voted in favor of the city’s plan to open a new high school in Richmond Hill’s annex, a facility located a couple blocks from the main campus that was opened to address overcrowding at Richmond Hill. While the DOE has argued that opening the new school in the annex would result in smaller class sizes at the previously notoriously overcrowded Richmond Hill HS, students, parents and elected officials have said the move would do the exact opposite.
By Anna Gustafson
