The battle over opening a charter school in Peekskill could be headed for round two, this time led by a deep-pocketed, 20-year-old Bronx charter instead of a small group of local parents.

In a post on their Facebook page a month ago, the South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures & the Arts (SBCSICA) announced its plan to come to Peekskill and open what would be a fifth charter school in Westchester County.

“Exciting News! We’re thrilled to share that SBCSICA is applying to open a new school in Peekskill in the Fall of 2026!” the post reads. 

And on her LinkedIn page, Evelyn Hey, the executive director of the school wrote “Stay tuned for updates, announcements, and proposal links as we move forward with this exciting new chapter.”

Winning a charter to open a school in New York is a drawn-out process requiring numerous submittals from the organizers and public hearings in the community.

Public charter schools in New York are tuition-free to students and funded from money taken primarily from the local public school district. They are independent from the local school district and set their own curriculum and policies, but are still supervised by the state. They have to win their “charter” to operate from either the SUNY [State University of New York] system, the state Board of Regents, the New York City Department of Education or the Buffalo Board of Education.

Charter schools receive tuition payments from the school district where the student resides. The tuition is based on the district’s Approved Operating Expense (AOE), which reflects day-to-day operating costs but excludes capital outlay, debt service, and certain other expenses. The charter school raises additional revenues by winning grants and holding fund-raising campaigns.

Given the intensity of the opposition to the proposed Guardian Academy in Peekskill 11 years ago, and its ultimate failure to open, expect the local teachers’ union, outside political forces and parents who support the Peekskill public schools to wage an organized campaign to fight this latest proposal.

November 2025 Facebook post by South Bronx Charter School announcing future Peekskill location. (South Bronx Charter School)
Bringing the South Bronx charter model to Peekskill

The South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures & the Arts opened in 2005. Originally authorized for kindergarten through 5th grade, the school added grades 6 through 8 in 2018 and then grades 9 through 12 in 2021. Teachers at the school are not members of a union.

According to statistics from the 2023-24 school year, 88% of students are Hispanic or Latinx. English language learners comprise 39% of students, 16% have Individualized Education Programs and 93% are counted as Economic Need Index students. Test scores show that 73% of students met standards on the state English test and 67% on the math tests. 

In an email to the Peekskill Herald this week, school spokesperson Bob Bellafiore wrote, “South Bronx Charter School for International Culture and the Arts is a very successful, tuition-free public school that for 20 years has helped thousands of mostly lower-income, English language learners achieve in academics and the arts. 

“It’s a dual-language program that teaches in both English and Spanish and helps its students grow in math, science, technology, language and all the arts – from painting and drawing to music and dance. This past year, 77 percent of students scored “proficient” in state ELA [English Language Arts] tests.

“Our goal is not to compete but to help fill a need and give parents an option of a school that knows and understands their experiences and challenges, and to bring the beauty of an arts-and-academics focused curriculum to a new generation of students,” Bellafiore wrote.

South Bronx Charter School Executive Director Evelyn Hey. (South Bronx Charter School)
Two sites in the Bronx, another planned

According to an October 2025 school report, SBCSICA has 332 students enrolled in grades kindergarten through 11. However, attendance has been declining, dropping to 386 from a high of 473 students, according to minutes from a January 2025 Board of Trustees meeting.

In a document filed with the state, the school reported that it failed to reach its target of meeting or exceeding 85% of its total authorized enrollment. “For the 2025-26 school year, SBCSICA has replaced the director of student recruitment and has expanded efforts to partner with feeder schools for our middle and high school grades,” the report states.

According to a tax document, in 2023 the school reported $11.8 million in revenue and $10.2 million in expenses. Hey, the executive director, received compensation of $334,746. The high school principal received $227,231 and the assistant principal made $171,685.

The school held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 3 at its Annex location at 2403 Third Ave. in the Bronx for grades 6-12. The annex was originally scheduled to open in November 2024, and the year-long delay due to construction issues was blamed on the landlord and caused problems with enrollment and revenues, according to the school.

There are plans in the works to develop a Bronx property at 2510 Park Ave. to open eventually as the new middle school/ high school location. The property was purchased two years ago for $9.8 million.

The school’s main location is 164 Bruckner Blvd., a five-story, 39,000-square-foot building. Friends of SBCSICA Inc., the non-profit, affiliated corporation connected with SBCSICA, borrowed $19 million with a mortgage against that property in November 2023. The mortgage was financed with bonds that were sponsored by Build NYC Resource Corp. The money was lent by the Bank of New York Mellon.

The Assumption Church building was home to a Catholic school for over 100 years before closing in 2013. (Church of the Assumption website)
The battle over the failed Guardian Academy

Eleven years ago, a small group of local parents, led by Audrey Warn, submitted a second proposal to the New York State Education Department to open Guardian Academy in the classrooms at Assumption Church, after a first attempt was rejected the year before. The Catholic school there had recently closed after operating in Peekskill for over 100 years.

Asked if SBCSICA is considering the former Assumption school classrooms as a location in Peekskill, Bellafiore said, “ I would say we’re in an ‘exploratory phase’ of the application. No decisions have been made on a possible location.”

Published news articles in 2014 reported on two public hearings held to examine the proposal for the Guardian Academy charter school, one at the Elks Lodge and one at the Middle School.

Opponents turned out in force to speak against the plan, while supporters urged that the school open to give residents a choice where to send their children.

Interior of South Bronx Charter School on Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx. (South Bronx Charter School)

“The proposed charter school would have decimated the local district, resulted in huge property tax hikes, and would have provided no additional service to our students,” opponent Mike Morey, a parent and co-founder of Peekskill Community for Schools, was quoted in a news report. “We urge the organizers to work with parents in this community to support our school district and our children.”

After winning an initial go-ahead to submit their application, the organizers were informed by the state that their charter proposal would not be recommended for approval and they withdrew their application.

In a post following the withdrawal, opponents wrote, “ Today’s news would not have been possible without all of the support of the community who stood up to #ProtectMySchool and let their voices be heard. Be proud of the effort you put in and be proud of the result!” The post was signed by Morey, Branwen MacDonald and Kari Mavian.

In an email to the Herald this week, Warn, the Guardian Academy’s lead organizer, recounted her perspective of the controversy.

“The Peekskill School District went at us with everything their ‘machine’ could bring to bear,” Warn wrote. “They had the resources to do full on, organized PR campaign against any efforts to open a charter school and that campaign contained falsehoods about the financial and educational impact to the district.  

“They used their access to parents to include time in their individual parent-teacher conferences to discuss the ‘dangers’ of a charter school and engaged the teacher union machine as well.  As we got closer to being approved, the district and the union became more vocal, the falsehoods became more prevalent…in short, they were becoming desperate,” Warn wrote.

Bronx charter invites Peekskill residents
Interior of South Bronx Charter School on Bruckner Boulevard in the Bronx. (South Bronx Charter School)

Regarding the new proposal from SBCSICA to open a charter school in Peekskill, school spokesperson Bellafiore said, “As we move forward, we’ll be reaching out to anyone and everyone to ensure the community knows who we are, what we can do and what we hope to bring to entire region. And we’d invite anyone with an opinion on this idea to come see our existing schools in the Bronx before rendering a judgment.”

A total of 370 charter schools are either currently operating or have been approved but not yet in operation in New York state,  the overwhelming majority in New York City. In Westchester, charter schools operate in Mount Vernon (Amani Public Charter School, opened 2011, and Intellectus Preparatory Charter School, 2022); New Rochelle (Capital Preparatory Charter School New Rochelle, 2025) and Yonkers (Charter School of Educational Excellence, 2005).

North of Peekskill, another charter school, Little Water Preparatory Charter School, opened in Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County in 2022.