‘It is not the fault of CSEE parents and students
that the YPS are in financial crisis year after year.’ Sobeida Cruz, CSEE co-founder

Quezada Says No! Public Hearing May 15

By Dan Murphy

Last fall, the Charter School for Educational Excellence in Yonkers applied for a five-year renewal for its kindergarten through eighth grade school. In addition, CSEE also applied for an expansion to its school to include a grades nine through 12 Charter High School.

The New York State Education Department approved the renewal for CSEE’s existing school, but the charter high school request was withdrawn. A required public hearing on the charter high school was held last year in Yonkers, with supporters and opponents of the charter school coming out to express their views.

Now, supporters, teachers, parents and staff at CSEE are taking a second bite at the apple and have resubmitted their plans for the Charter Yonkers High School. The only significant change in the application is that it will be a regional high school, drawing half of its students from Yonkers and half from the Bronx and other parts of New York City, Westchester and Rockland counties.

The arguments for a charter high school from CSEE are the same: Proven results from CSEE students, in which they exceed the test scores of students in the Yonkers Public Schools, are fact-based proof that the existing CSEE students deserve and warrant a charter high school to continue their education.

“CSEE’s high success with the K-8 program has led to the demand from parents and local community for a 9-12 academic program of the same caliber,” said Dr. Eduardo LaGuerre, chairman of the CSEE board and co-founder of the school. “A high school expansion would allow CSEE to increase enrollment numbers, providing additional high-quality charter school seats to a community that has far too few.”

CSEE Principal Cindy Lopez added: “This really comes down to giving kids and parents a choice to go into a charter school. After the eighth grade, they don’t have that choice right now. We are doing a hell of a job teaching the same kids and getting better results. The current school system in Yonkers does not provide a good education for many students and nobody is doing anything about it. We want to build on our student achievement through the 12th grade and help them be prepared for college.”

Opposition to a Yonkers Charter High School was loud, and came from Yonkers Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada, all the members of the Board of Education, and many YPS parents, students and union members, who spoke out at the public hearing last year.

The only change to the opposition to a charter high school now is the intensity against it, which appears to have increased since YPS is facing a doomsday budget for the upcoming September 2018-19 school year.

Quezada had proposed eliminating 211 positions to help close a $45 million budget gap last month. This week, Quezada had proposed eliminating 251 positions to close the budget gap if the school district gets no additional funding from the state, or the mayor and City Council; $16 million in additional funding is required to have zero layoffs.

That dire, budget news appears to have increased Quezada’s opposition to additional spending for charter schools and a Yonkers Charter High School. All funding for CSEE comes out of the YPS budget; CSEE students are funded at $15,000 per year, while YPS students are funded at $18,000 per year.

In a letter to New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia dated May 2, Quezada wrote: “The purpose of this correspondence is to express the Yonkers Public Schools’ strong opposition to the CSSE request for high school expansion. It is with a high level of frustration that once again, the Yonkers Public Schools must defend that the City of Yonkers does not need a ninth high school.”

Quezada referred to his letter from September of last year in which he opposed the charter high school, writing: “These facts have not changed.” Higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates, increased SAT scores and three Yonkers high schools (Yonkers Middle-High School, Lincoln H.S. and Saunders H.S.) that are listed in U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best High Schools, are among the data that Quezada points to in his letter.

But Quezada also criticizes CSEE’s application for what he calls “void of research-based pedagogy… fails to demonstrate regional or Yonkers community need… and that CSEE’s ‘regional approach’ is flawed.”

In a phone interview with Yonkers Rising, Quezada disputed the fact that 50 percent of the charter high school’s students would come from outside of Yonkers.

“Ninety-five percent of their current school’s population comes from Yonkers,” said Quezada, who also questions whether the Yonkers community has analyzed the implications of a new high school. “Do the people in that neighborhood understand that 1,100 students will be attending the new high school? Have we done any studies? There is a lack of transparency, and a lack of understanding about the financial implications this will have.”

The financial implications remain the major concerning factor for Quezada. “I am preparing to abolish 250 positions, but the charter school will get the same amount of funding – $15,000 per student,” he said.

Quezada estimated that a charter high school with 1,100 students at $15,000 per student would cost $16.9 million to operate when the school is at full capacity.

He also challenged the claim that half of the charter high school’s 1,158 students will come from outside of Yonkers. “If New York City offers the most choice for students and parents interested in attending a charter school, why would those students and parents come to Yonkers?” he asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Quezada’s critiques were challenged by CSEE co-founder Sobieda Cruz. “One of the major objections to our charter high school was that we were draining too many resources from the Yonkers Public Schools,” said Cruz. “By creating a regional charter high school, fewer students will be attending from Yonkers, which will greatly reduce the financial burden on YPS.

“It is not the fault of the parents and students at CSEE, who want their children to attend a Yonkers Charter High School, and the 600 parents with students on our waiting list, that the Yonkers Public Schools are in financial trouble year after year. Don’t blame that on us.”

The charter high school application calls for the construction of the high school on property purchased on Lamartine Avenue at the site of an old Catholic school and church, with a 2019 possible opening date if the plan is approved.

The final decision on a Yonkers-Regional Charter High School will not be made by Dr. Quezada, or the Yonkers Board of Education, or the people of Yonkers. It will be made by the NYS Education Department and the NYS Board of Regents.

The next public hearing on this matter will be held Wednesday, May 16 at 5:30 p.m. at Saunders High School.