Charter school proposal stirs up anger

A third charter school hopes to open in Hempstead, and community leaders and local residents are not happy with the idea.

Residents of Hempstead, Uniondale, Baldwin, Roosevelt, and other nearby communities packed the band box, a large space at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead, on Monday night for a public hearing to voice their opposition to the proposal.

“We’re producing remarkable outcomes for children of color,” Monique Darrisaw-Akil, superintendent of the Uniondale school district, said. “We do not need Superman or anyone else to come and save us, because our schools are quality.”

The New York-based Diamond Charter School submitted a proposal earlier this year to build its first school in Hempstead. The goal is to have it up and running by September 2026, founder and Executive Director Mark Crusante told the Herald, starting with kindergarten and first grade and adding a new grade each year until it becomes a kindergarten-through-fifth grade school by 2030. This would be the third charter school in Hempstead, along with the Evergreen and Academy schools.

A major concern expressed by nearly 20 speakers at the 90-minute meeting was that a third charter school in Hempstead would take public funding away from public schools and put more of a burden on taxpayers. Charter schools, like public schools, are publicly funded and tuition-free, but in New York state, funding comes from money allocated to local school districts, which in turn largely comes from local tax revenue.

Nassau County Legislator Siela Bynoe spoke in opposition to the charter school, and detailed the additional costs and concerns the facility would bring with it, including the cost per pupil, zoning issues with the construction of the building, and even the cost of additional crossing guards.

“What are the school board members left to do to make sure children have resources, to make sure teachers have resources, to make sure that they can attract and retain teachers?” Bynoe said. “They either have to cut services or raise taxes. That is unfair and creating inequity here in our districts.”

Charter schools in New York state have more freedom to individualize their curriculums, academic focus, rules and policies, student bodies and staff, which in the case of public schools are generally overseen at the district or state level.

Public school staffs, Darrisaw-Akil said, are “held accountable by our boards of education, held accountable by the public, and also held accountable by the New York State Department of Education. So if any entity were to come into our school district to take our children, they should meet those same qualifications.”

Crusante told the Herald that his vision for the school is to give parents a chance to choose which school is best for their children.

He said he understood the community’s concerns, but added that charter schools have smaller budgets than public schools, so his facility would not take too much funding away from the public school district. And a charter school only has five years to “have their mission, have their vision, and really help those kids,” he said, or it can be shut down, so it must benefit the community in order to succeed.

“I actually want to be integral and help and work with our school districts and work with our community partners,” Crusante said. “My true goal is to really service the students of Hempstead, and work with families and really get them from point A to point B.”

But many who spoke at the meeting said that the community has seen repeated success in its public schools, and that a new school would only detract from those achievements.

“We are proud of what our children have accomplished, and yes, we have more work to do, but the answer is not taking funds away from our school districts,” Darrisaw-Akil said.

The hearing was recorded and sent to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute in Albany, which is expected to approve or deny the proposal by Sept. 15.

Have an opinion on the Diamond Charter school proposal? Send a letter to kradziski@liherald.com.