MESA, South Brooklyn’s first charter school, opens after 6-year wait

It’s a lesson in persistence.

South Brooklyn is set to open its first charter school Monday after waiting six long years because of the state’s charter cap — a feat eager students and their parents are celebrating.

Math, Engineering and Science Academy (MESA) Charter High School in Dyker Heights will open its doors to its very first class of 125 ninth graders, including Bay Ridge dad Michael Curcio’s daughter, Selina.

“There are a lot of kids who want to go to charter school but don’t have the opportunity so there should be more [charter schools],” he said. “It’s more individualized attention. They challenge the kids more.”

Selina, meanwhile, is eager to get straight to work.

“They focus more on you learning and growing from mistakes, instead of just a number on a notecard,” she said. “They want to make sure every student has a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset.”

Demand for MESA II, the school’s second location after it opened in Bushwick in 2013, has been through the roof — 445 students applied for 125 spots via random lottery.

Student Zahara Asberry, 13, a downtown Brooklyn resident, said she wants to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics — so the school’s curriculum is perfect.

“I’m honestly really happy to come here,” said Asberry. “This school offers a lot of STEM-related courses and they give a lot more outside experience rather than just giving you a packet and telling you to go along with your day.”

State lawmakers’ refusal to lift the cap on charter schools that can operate in New York City stymied MESA from opening in Dyker Heights since 2019. The powerful teachers’ union opposes the expansions of alternative charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded and mostly employ non-union staff.

It wasn’t until 2023 that the legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul approved a law to reissue unused “zombie” licenses for charter schools that closed or never opened, giving MESA and other charter schools the right to open.

“Seeing all the families here makes the wait worth it. It’s incredibly humbling that parents are placing their trust in us,” said MESA co-founder and co-executive director Arthur Samuels.

But he added, “It should never be this hard to give parents options.”

MESA’s Bushwick location boasted a 92% graduation rate last year.

The new high school, located at 1222 63rd Street, will eventually enroll 500 students when fully phased in, starting with this year’s first class of 125 ninth graders.

MESA II is in Community District 20, which encompasses the middle- and working-class neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and parts of Bensonhurst and Sunset Park. It also will provide sorely needed seats in a part of the city where the traditional public high schools are overcrowded, Samuels noted.

Black and Latino students account for nearly 90% of the students in charter schools in other parts of the city.

But MESA II will have a more diverse student body, with many Asian students coming from the growing Chinese community in southern Brooklyn.

All but two of the 125 students are from Brooklyn, 82 of whom live in District 20. Two other students are from Staten Island and Manhattan.

Other parents said they were thrilled to enroll their children at the Dyker Heights school.

Sammi Zhou’s daughter, Minqi, is attending MESA and wants the teachers there to “push her.”

“The teacher in the charter school will push the student to study. In public school, they only say your student is very good,” Zhou, 39, said.

Michelle Perez, 46, a Boro Park resident, prefers charters over public schools for her daughter Amber, 14.

“I like charter schools better. Academically, I feel like they are more engaged, the parents and the students,” Perez said.

New York City has 285 public charter schools serving about 150,000 students — or 15% of the pupils in Big Apple public schools, the largest district in the nation with some 1,800 schools.

Last week, The Post reported that the Success Academy for the Liberal Arts charter school was named one of the Big Apple’s top 10 public high schools by US News and World Report, along with the most selective institutions whose admission is based on entrance exam results.

Meanwhile, more than 90% of students in some charter schools in The Bronx’s poorest neighborhoods passed the state’s math and reading tests in grades 3 to 8, and the overall pass rates in the borough’s charter schools were 25 percentage points higher than surrounding traditional public schools.