Brentwood charter schools will delay opening 1 year amid legal challenges
The Academy Charter School in Uniondale. Academy officials say the opening of two new schools in Brentwood has been delayed for one year. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
Two Brentwood charter schools will not open as planned this fall, as the legal battle over their approval continues.
The Academy Charter School, which runs two K-12 campuses in Hempstead and Uniondale, was authorized last October by State University of New York trustees to open an elementary school and a middle school in Brentwood this September. SUNY also greenlit Academy’s request to open a high school in Central Islip in 2027.
Academy officials said the Brentwood plan has been delayed because SUNY’s approval of the schools has been challenged in court.
The Brentwood and Central Islip school districts and New York State United Teachers, the state’s largest teachers union, filed separate lawsuits earlier this year to annul the authorizations of the schools in the two communities.
Academy officials sought a one-year extension with the SUNY Charter Schools Institute while the litigation is ongoing to allow time to hire teachers and “create the academic environment that has allowed students on our other campuses to excel,” Wayne Haughton, president of the Academy system, said in a statement.
Their request was granted in March but has not previously been reported.
Academy said more than 1,500 families expressed interest in the 275 seats available at the two Brentwood schools in the first year. The system, however, did not enroll any students for the 2026-27 school year due to the lawsuits. Haughton said interested families were provided with advance notice so they could plan for the coming school year.
“We regret that the litigation has in effect denied parents the opportunity to provide their children with a high quality education this fall,” Haughton said in a statement.
Haughton said Academy is confident the lawsuits will be dismissed.
Brentwood district officials declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Central Islip school officials could not be reached for comment.
A spokesperson for NYSUT did not respond to a request for comment.
Academy officials said they are finalizing a prospective site to host the Brentwood schools and are “actively preparing to receive students” in September 2027. The high school planned for Central Islip remains on schedule to open next fall, Academy said.
Charter schools are independently run and do not charge tuition to families. Most of their revenue comes via tuition reimbursements from the districts where they draw students.
Their expansion on Long Island has been controversial. Supporters say they offer a tuition-free alternative for parents dissatisfied with their traditional public schools, but opponents argue they threaten the quality of education those districts can provide by draining resources.
NYSUT earlier this week sued another charter system, Diamond Charter, in an effort to stop it from opening a school this fall in West Hempstead.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
