Network Announces School Year Will End Early, on May 28; New Year Will Start August 2

Today, Success Academy announced to parents, students, and staff that remote  learning would continue through at least the end of the network’s spring break in mid-March.

Less than ten days before they are to take SAT exams, Success Academy High School juniors learned that Mayor de Blasio had put in motion plans to block them from taking SAT exams. In the midst of a terrible pandemic, with many issues plaguing his own district students, Mayor de Blasio had gone out of his way to disrupt the futures of hundreds of low-income Black and Hispanic charter school students — kids who have spent the past several months diligently preparing for this important test.  

Today, Success Academy filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County to request a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to stop the New York City Department of Education from preventing 300 scholar athletes to access their own playing fields, in rebuke of the city’s unlawful demand of several hundred thousand dollars in fees.  

Moussa Daho, an 8th grade captain of Success Academy’s U14 Boys Network Soccer Team has been playing soccer since first grade, and he dreams of playing professionally. Those dreams turned to nightmares in early October, when Mayor de Blasio moved to block him and 300 other SA athletes from using their own fields and basketball courts for practice.

Today, Eva Moskowitz led a protest march in Harlem with dozens of Success Academy parents, coaches, teachers, and students to demand that Mayor de Blasio unlock the gates of their schools’ athletic fields and courts, and let them practice.

Today, three Success Academy scholars received the Daniel Feinberg Success in Chess Award. The award recognizes a scholar from elementary, middle, and high school who has demonstrated significant progress in chess and reached ambitious ratings benchmarks. SA High School of the Liberal Arts tenth grade scholar, Jessica Hyatt received $40.000 in college scholarship, contingent upon her remaining at SA High School of the Liberal Arts through graduation. SA Bed-Stuy Middle School seventh grade scholar Isaiah Brewster and SA Hudson Yards fourth grade scholar Gabe Bencosme-Lee each received $500 in private grandmaster lessons.

Today, Success Academy is bringing hundreds of scholars in grades K-2 to the Big Apple Circus, virtually! The performance will begin at 2:00 pm and include clowns, juggling, trapeze artists and more. In years past, Success has brought scholars to the circus in person, however, this year’s performance will be offered via Zoom due to the pandemic. 

Today, Success Academy announced to families and staff that “Remote 2,0” will  continue through December. All 20.000 students have been equipped with personal laptops or tablets and are receiving a full schedule of live instruction five days a week via Zoom. Classes started on August 4 for high schoolers and August 24 for K-8 students, and all work, from math and writing to assessments and homework, is fully digital. 

This Spring, when many schools and communities across the country were struggling with various versions of remote learning, some of them on the verge of giving up altogether, 445 Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts (HSLA) students — most of them Black — were sheltering in and studying up for Advanced Placement exams in 10 subject areas.