Thursday, February 9, 2012

Success Academy Builds Own 'Law Firm' as Cobble Hill Brooklyn Parents Sue

Parents in Brooklyn's District 15 are suing Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy charter school network, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

In spite of overwhelming local opposition, Moskowitz received permission in December from the Mayor's Panel for Educational Policy to put a charter schools inside the building at 184 Baltic Street.  The Brooklyn School for Global Studies, School for International Studies and P.S. 368 for special education children are already in the building. See here to learn about many of the issues parents have with this co-location.

Jim Devor, President of CEC-15, told the Eagle, "We do not rule out our members eventually joining the lawsuit or even initiating our own."

UPDATE: The NY Times weighs in on the lawsuit here.

Amassing Legal Firepower

Moskowitz isn't getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by her hedge-fund sponsors to not anticipate lawsuits.

Back in November, when local parents started demonstrating their opposition to "Success Academy Cobble Hill," Moskowitz built quite the legal department. Here are some of the ads she placed across the Internet seeking attorneys, law fellow(s), legal interns, paralegals and other staff:

Seeking Law Fellow(s) and Legal Counsel / Leadership Associate

Legal Internships (part1)

Legal interns work with both the Success Academy General Counsel and the Assistant General Counsel

Lots of paralegal openings

Exceptional hands-on experience.
Moskowitz also built an External Affairs Department focused on "ending the monopoly of public education."

According to the description on Success Academy's website, the External Affairs Department
- Develops grassroots campaigns at the community level;
- Lobbies public policy makers;
- Coordinates with other charter school management organizations on a common agenda;
- Mobilizes and leverages parents from Success charter schools and other charter schools to attend new school public hearings and forums en masse;
- Travels to Albany and DC;
- Develops relationship with local influencers;
- Manages an external team of independent contractors focused on advocacy.

Example: On Tuesday, more than 1,200 charter school parents traveled to Albany as part of Lobby Day.

Success Academy website says that there are nine schools in the network -- "soon to be 40 schools." That's a lot of lawsuits!

Cobble Hill Parents Sue To Block Success Academy Brooklyn Eagle

Past Success Academy posts:
- Success Academy Gets Prime Brooklyn School Buildings; NYC Parents Becoming Increasingly Radicalized
- Explosive Cobble Hill Success Academy Hearing
- Quite a Brew-Ha-Ha at Cobble Hill Success Academy Charter School Meeting
- Too Bad Chumps: Red Hook, Gowanus Parents Won't Be Able to Attend DOE's Ed Panel Vote On Success Academy Charter School
- Rally Against Cobble Hill Charter School Saturday - 'Success Academy Cobble Hill'


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any employer or user of interns, or an prospective intern for any program, should read the following about US Federal law on wage/hour issues:

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf

http://www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/FLSANA/2004/2004_05_17_05FLSA_NA_internship.htm

The legal colloquialism is a giant can of whuppass if you violate the rules and get caught. NY's law is just as harsh--Google Wage Theft Protection Act.

Anonymous said...

Why are out tax dollars going towards "ending the monopoly of public education?" We are paying to educate children in these charter schools and giving them free rent in public school buildings. They are enriching themselves off of our public tax dollars!