The Department of Education has canceled 105 community pre-kindergarten schools that applied to continue programs this fa🌌ll, The Post has learned.
That’s 11 percent of the 997 current sites serving families citywide.
The Brooklyn Archdiocese, which will be forced to close pre-K programs at three Catholic schools in Queens and two in Brooklyn, sent a letter to Mayor dꦚe Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza last week protesting the decisions.
“It is inconceivable that successful, long-term programs hang in the balance and that families will once again have to try to find suitable options for their children” wrote schools Superintendent Thomas Chadzutko.
The city’s $860 million-a-year universal pre-K program, free to all parents, is considered de Blasio’s signature achievement.
DOE letters rejecting the applications do not specify reasons, saying only: “Your proposed site location was not selected because the need for services in this area was met by proposalꦜs that received higher quality scores.”
Th🙈e diocese has received no response to its appeals and requests for a more thorough evaluation, Chadzutko 🅠wrote.
Catherine Sanchez, who has two children in first and third grades at St. Joseph Catholic Academy 🌞in Long Island City, hoped to enroll her y❀oungest, who turns four in June, in the school’s pre-K program.
“To throw this at parents in the middle of a panꦜdemic causes additional stress on top of everything else going on,” Sanchez told The Post. “It’s very hard for parents who alreadℱy have children invested in the academy, forged friendships and built educational communities.”
Sanchez will have to juggle dropping off and picking up kids from different schoo🌳ls while her husband is at work, she said.
Her two older kids attended pre-K at St. Joseph and “came out knowing more than the New York standards required them to know,” Sanchez said, citing numbers, the alphabet and how to write their full names. Books are rea🌼d aloud daily, she added.
“It’s an excellent program,” said fellow mom Tonia Vailas, whose daughter is currently in St. Joseph’s pre-K program, following her son, now in second grade.
“My daughter knows how to count and do basic addition,”𝐆 Vailas said. “The teachers are loving.”
The school also of🐲fers in-person classes, five days a week, as well as remote or mixed schedules.
“Even du♔ring COVID, she’s in full-time,” Vailas said of her four-year-old. “Since September, she has not missed a day of school,”
Another Catholic school rejected by the DOE, Sacred Heart Academy in Glendale, serves 75 kids𝔍 an🌄d has a waiting list, said Queens City Councilman Robert Holden.
“Arbitrarily canceling popular and successful private school pre-K programs is another example of 𝓰Chancellor Carranza’s warped socialist agenda of gaining total control of our children’s education as early as possible,” Holden said. “I’m automatically suspicious of his purposely vague edicts.”
The five Brooklyn diocese schools with pre-K canceled by the Dᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚOE had a total 252 contracted seats. The other three are Sacred Heart in Bayside, St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy in Greenpoint, and St. Catherine – St. Terese Catholic Academy in Flatbush.
T.J. McCormack, a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, which runs schools in Manhattan and the Bronx, said all its proposals for pre-K and 3-k programs to begin in July 2021 “haꦏve advanced to the next stage of the approval process.”
The DOE said every pre-K program had to re-apply for the 2021-22 school year. Nearly 700 organizations offering close to 60,000 seats for children from birth to age five received contracts, ⛄said spokesw𓆉oman Sarah Casasnovas.
“We awarded more preschool seats in every borough than there are currently enrolled students, and 90% of contracts went to current providers,” she said.
The D💞OE used a team of 100-plus early childhood experts to evaluate proposals, she added. “Whether a program is housed in a Catholic school would not factor into whether they received an award.”
T🙈he DOE would not say which Pre-K schools, public or private, would replace♊ St. Joseph’s or other canceled programs.
“Queens and Brooklyn families will continue to have strong access to early childhood opportunities, including a free, full-day, high-quality pre-K seat for every 4-year-old,” Casasnovas said. “When the pre-K application opens for the 2021-22 school year, families will be able to explore a▨ll available options in their community.”
