Local charter school faces resistance

Three pile drivers, tall metal shafts higher than most buildings in the area, drill holes and pound into the earth at the gated construction site on 40th Street and Fourth Avenue on a recent early spring day. When construction is complete in July 2027, Brooklyn RISE Charter School plans to move into the finished new building, which will have capacity for 468 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

But some residents of Sunset Park object to a charter school moving only blocks away from about half a dozen public schools run by New York City Public Schools.

“Why is it being sited at that location?” Ian LeBlanc, a public school teacher since 2003 and a Sunset Park parent, said. He pointed out that the location is directly across Fourth Avenue from IS 136, Sunset Park Prep, and two blocks from P.S. 516, among others.

LeBlanc questioned whether there is a need for more seats in this section of District 15. “If these schools are indeed under-enrolled, is this charter going to just exacerbate that issue?”

According to New York City Public Schools’ District 15 data summary, the number of elementary school-aged children in District 15 declined by 17 percent over five years.

Both district public schools and charter schools receive funding based in part on enrollment. More students generally means more funding, while fewer students can mean less. Community Board 7 passed a resolution on June 18, 2025, opposing Brooklyn RISE’s relocation to the proposed site, according to the article and publicly available board materials.

Another objection is the new building’s drain on public funds. According to the resolution cited in the article, the new building’s 35-year lease would initially cost $2.5 million a year in taxpayer funds. Jeremy Kaplan, a CB7 member who attended that meeting, said, “To lease out the building is basically money that’s coming from the DOE and education money.”

Kaplan connected that concern to changes at his own child’s school. “We’ve actually lost resources,” he said. He explained that the school once had a dedicated STEAM teacher who had to be placed elsewhere in the building. “And now there’s no dedicated science teacher,” Kaplan said. “That’s a direct result of the school dealing with the lack of funding because of under-enrollment.”

But this was not always the case in Sunset Park. About 10 years ago, Javier Salamanca, a Sunset Park parent of three who grew up near 43rd Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway, saw students in local schools eating lunch at 10 a.m. and schools lacking space for libraries because they were over capacity. Along with other parents and activists, Salamanca pushed the city to expand neighborhood school capacity.

After years of organizing, new local schools were built, buildings were converted into schools, and other schools were expanded.

Back in 2018, when Sunset Park schools were still overcrowded, Cary Finnegan, an educator and longtime teacher, received permission to start Brooklyn RISE, a charter elementary school in Sunset Park. State records show the school’s initial charter date was November 2018, and the school first opened for instruction in 2019.

The school opened in 2019 on 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, below United Senior Center, Finnegan, founder and executive director of Brooklyn RISE Charter School, said. The school has since expanded through eighth grade.

“When I first had the idea to open Brooklyn RISE, there was a need for a small-school option in this community,” Finnegan said. She added that the school landscape has changed and that families now have more options.

The school quickly outgrew its original space, and Finnegan began looking for a larger location. Three years after opening, Brooklyn RISE moved to Downtown Brooklyn. With many of her students living in Sunset Park, she felt a commitment to return, and, according to Finnegan, the school’s charter required it to remain in District 15.

After a long search, Finnegan said she learned how difficult it is to find a school site because of zoning and real estate costs. In 2022, she signed the lease for the new building at Fourth Avenue and 40th Street, to take effect once construction is complete.

The new school ended up clustered among other schools for the same zoning and transportation reasons those schools are also in that part of Sunset Park, Finnegan told the Sunset Post. She said she regrets that the site is so close to several existing schools, which has helped fuel the controversy.

“I totally understand why it feels like it doesn’t make sense to put a school where there are so many other schools,” she said. Finnegan added that Brooklyn RISE already has most of its student body and would bring those students with it, recruiting only 52 new kindergarten students for the additional class.

LeBlanc also raised concerns about charter schools as non-union workplaces. But he added, “Not every charter is the same. There is a high diversity. I’ve heard very good things about some.” He pointed to young relatives who had a positive experience at a Harlem charter school.

Finnegan, who also lives in Sunset Park, said, “I hope to just prove to the schools in the neighborhood over time that maybe aren’t thrilled with where we are in our location, that we can be good neighbors and collaborators and partners.”