The Brooklyn Dreams Charter School is eyeing a parochial school building — but the Diocese of Brooklyn’s refusal to allow sex education instruction in its facilities may quash the deal.
The Dreams team is currently in negotiations with the diocese for the St. Rose of Lima School building at 269 Parkville Avenue.
The building can hold grades K-8, which are the same grades that Brooklyn Dreams plans to offer if approved to open by the State University of New York (SUNY) Charter Schools Institute.
But there’s a wrench in the plan.
The state HIV/AIDS curriculum mandates the teaching of sex ed, which includes instruction in safe sex practices such as condom use, beginning in grade seven.
The Diocese of Brooklyn has said it will not allow sex ed classes in its buildings.
Bishop Frank Caggiano, vicar general to Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, has told this paper, “If the charter schools are forced to follow the state curriculum in health and sex education — we find some of that material objectionable — then we could not proceed in any way, shape or form.”
As a result, if negotiations between the diocese and Brooklyn Dreams fall through, the charter school will be back to square one — searching for a suitable site.
William Girasole, co-lead applicant for Brooklyn Dreams and the owner of Girasole Real Estate in Dyker Heights, says there is currently no backup location.
Dreams plans to find a private facility and is not interested in sharing space in a public school building, Girasole insisted.
“We are not looking to go into a public school,” he said. “I think that’s wrong.”
