#Success Academy protests NYC’s field use fees for athletics

Dozens of Success Academy charter school backers gathered at a field in Harlem to protest the city’s demand of $500,000 to use their athletic facilities on Tuesday.

Citing coronavirus budget cuts and maintenance costs, City Hall wants permit fees for all city schools — including traditional public schools — to use public fields for extracurricular activities.

The charter network has pushed back on the demand and said that city workers have shut them out of facilities that they’ve used without cost for years.

“We’re here because the mayor locked us out of our own fields,” said Success Academy CEO and founder Eva Moskowitz at one of the contested grounds in Harlem. “It’s illegal. He wants to charge us a half a million dollars which he is not permitted to do.”

Success Academy said that they have been barred from using seven facilities in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan.

“We didn’t even know it was happening,” Moskowitz said. “We came and the fields were locked. And we tried to get the key and they changed the locks on us.”

The charter network said the move has halted practice for more than 300 elementary and middle school athletes in soccer, basketball, and track.

The fields are connected to buildings where Success Academy shares space with traditional public schools.

The network says it sent Chancellor Richard Carranza a letter about the impasse one week ago but has yet to hear back.

The DOE said Monday that they hope to work towards a resolution on the matter and cited costs associated with cleaning and maintaining facilities during a budget crunch.

“My friends and I love the game of soccer. We have big dreams — I want to be a pro player,” said Moussa Daho, an eighth grader at SA Harlem North Central. “I need to train to make that happen. We can’t lose an entire year.”

The charter school, which currently enrolls roughly 20,000 students at 47 schools, elected for a fully-remote model until next year when they will review their format.