Community Roots Will Not Expand

In an abrupt change of course, Community Roots Charter School has canceled plans to expand into a middle school.

Parents were shocked by the sudden reversal, as there were that Community Roots had already begun hiring teachers for the upcoming school year.

"The parents are absolutely devastated by this," said parent Leslie Rubin. "Especially the fifth grade families who were counting on continuing at Community Roots for the sixth grade."

A letter sent to Community Roots parents by the school administration cited three reasons for the decision: issues with how space would be allocated within the school building it shares with PS 67 and P369K, by the Department of Education, and the influence of "Anti-charter/anti-school choice entities."

"Perhaps naively, we thought that the response from the community for our efforts [to open a middle school] would be overwhelmingly positive," wrote Co-Directors Alison Keil and Sarah Stone. "The reality of that response was unexpected and frankly unsustainable."

The administrators added, "This decision was the hardest one we have made in our history."

Still, the pair did not leave out the possibility of the school growing in the future.

"We do not know yet how we will proceed on possible expansion for Community Roots, but we clearly have a much better idea as to what it will take to overcome the obstacles we faced this year," they wrote.

The original expansion plan had authorized the charter school to add 150 middle school students to the building on St. Edwards Street and take over six classrooms currently occupied by PS 67 and P369K. 

began mounting in recent weeks among concerned parents, teachers and community leaders, arguing that the expansion would negatively effect the other two schools.

The Department of Education was unavailable for comment.