Red Hook residents fuming over proposed $23K-per-year private school — blocks away from housing projects
An Arizona-based educator has plans to open a private school charging $23,500 tuition per year – blocks away from the Red Hook Houses, one of the city’s largest housing projects. Locals are seeing red over the announcement, where the median income is only $16,784.
Comments (2)By Natalie Musumeci / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, December 5, 2013, 6:10 PM
Basis Independent Brooklyn
A rendering of Basis Independent Brooklyn, a pricey new private school proposed for a lot (below) near the Red Hook Houses on Columbia St. Courtesy Basis Independent Brooklyn
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They're seeing red in Red Hook, where residents are fired up over a plan to open a top-dollar private school just blocks from one of the city’s largest housing projects.
An Arizona-based educator plans to open its first private school, called Basis Independent Brooklyn, on Columbia St. next fall. The company runs 12 charter schools in Arizona, Texas and Washington, D.C.
RELATED: YOUR GUIDE TO CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 38 — RED HOOK AND GREENWOOD HEIGHTS
The tuition will run $23,500 per year, and some residents say that is way too pricey for most families in the slowly gentrifying industrial neighborhood.
“Our children will not be able to attend that school,” said Lillie Marshall, president of the tenants association in the west wing of the Red Hook Houses. “We don’t need it here.”
RELATED: RED HOOK KIDS PITCH IN TO HELP BANKSY
In the immediate area surrounding the proposed school — which includes the Red Hook Houses — the median household income is $16,784, according to the most recent census data.
“Most people here are just trying to survive paycheck to paycheck,” said Mickey Rivera, 33, a mother who lives in the Red Hook Houses.
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The 1,000-seat school, which will teach children from kindergarten through 12th grade, does plan to offer scholarships, but just not in the first school year, said Mark Reford, the CEO of Basis Independent Schools, the company running the school.
“The scholarship program that we will run is very important to us,” Reford said. “We will be able to give some of those kids access to a world of quality education that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to have access to,” Reford said, though he was unable to say how many scholarships will be offered.
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Reford said the Red Hook is the perfect location for the STEM-focused school, which will be located across the street from a park and a community farm.
To operator needs a special permit from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals before it can build the five-story school on a block-long lot, between Bay and Sigourney Sts.
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Red Hook’s community board will decide whether to support the school’s application to the Board of Standards and Appeals at its meeting next week.
Some residents — also worried about traffic — say that a school has no business opening along such a truck-heavy route that leads into Ikea, Fairway Market and other high-trafficked businesses.
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“This portion of Columbia St. functions like the neck of an hourglass, where all industrial traffic north and south of here must funnel through,” said local businessman John Quadrozzi Jr., of Gowanus Bay Terminal. “The thought of having a concentration of children assembling and crossing here defies logic.”
But not everyone sees the private school as a negative for the Red Hook community.
“It has great potential,” said Carolina Salguero, director of the Red Hook-based marine organization PortSide NewYork. “Many schools have proven to be really helpful to a community.”
Red Hook Community Board 6 general meeting, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St., near Court St. in Brooklyn Heights, on Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m.
nmusumeci@nydailynews.com
An Arizona-based educator plans to open its first private school, called Basis Independent Brooklyn, on Columbia St. next fall. The company runs 12 charter schools in Arizona, Texas and Washington, D.C.
RELATED: YOUR GUIDE TO CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 38 — RED HOOK AND GREENWOOD HEIGHTS
The tuition will run $23,500 per year, and some residents say that is way too pricey for most families in the slowly gentrifying industrial neighborhood.
“Our children will not be able to attend that school,” said Lillie Marshall, president of the tenants association in the west wing of the Red Hook Houses. “We don’t need it here.”
RELATED: RED HOOK KIDS PITCH IN TO HELP BANKSY
In the immediate area surrounding the proposed school — which includes the Red Hook Houses — the median household income is $16,784, according to the most recent census data.
Natalie Musumeci for NYDN
Some Red Hook residents say that a school does not belong anywhere near truck-heavy Columbia Street.
The 1,000-seat school, which will teach children from kindergarten through 12th grade, does plan to offer scholarships, but just not in the first school year, said Mark Reford, the CEO of Basis Independent Schools, the company running the school.
“The scholarship program that we will run is very important to us,” Reford said. “We will be able to give some of those kids access to a world of quality education that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to have access to,” Reford said, though he was unable to say how many scholarships will be offered.
RELATED: PRIVATE NY SCHOOLS PUSH FOR LOWER POWER BILLS
Reford said the Red Hook is the perfect location for the STEM-focused school, which will be located across the street from a park and a community farm.
To operator needs a special permit from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals before it can build the five-story school on a block-long lot, between Bay and Sigourney Sts.
Natalie Musumeci for NYDN
The new $23,500 a year private school will be built on a lot on Columbia St. between Bay and Sigourney Sts. in Red Hook.
Red Hook’s community board will decide whether to support the school’s application to the Board of Standards and Appeals at its meeting next week.
Some residents — also worried about traffic — say that a school has no business opening along such a truck-heavy route that leads into Ikea, Fairway Market and other high-trafficked businesses.
RELATED: FEDERAL MONEY FOR NY POOR WENT TO LUXURIES: AUDIT
“This portion of Columbia St. functions like the neck of an hourglass, where all industrial traffic north and south of here must funnel through,” said local businessman John Quadrozzi Jr., of Gowanus Bay Terminal. “The thought of having a concentration of children assembling and crossing here defies logic.”
But not everyone sees the private school as a negative for the Red Hook community.
“It has great potential,” said Carolina Salguero, director of the Red Hook-based marine organization PortSide NewYork. “Many schools have proven to be really helpful to a community.”
Red Hook Community Board 6 general meeting, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St., near Court St. in Brooklyn Heights, on Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m.
nmusumeci@nydailynews.com
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2 days ago
Gregor Samsa
Unmentioned in the article is that those "scholarships" will solely be "merit" based and NOT "means" based. Thus, the chance that Red Hook project children will gain access to the school is even further reduced. Also, you might have mentioned that according to its website, the school plans to run a ferry service to Manhattan. You think that might have influenced the one "community supporter"> Do you think that vested interest might have been worth mentioning?
2 days ago
Anni S
If this is all privately funded, then I have no objections (though I do see that its location is not an ideal one for small children). I WOULD be really unhappy, though, if there were tax breaks, writeoffs or other incentives being given to this company. To Ms. Mucumeci - I se the name of the school, but not the operator of it. Could you please update the article to include this?
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