Community, elected officials and unions urge Regents to reject New Dawn charter application

Deputy Superintendent Onyx Peterson urged state education officials to deny New Dawn Charter High School’s application at a Sept. 16 public hearing in Newburgh, saying the charter’s own documents project it would divert about $9,600,000 a year from the Newburgh Enlarged City School District if it reached full enrollment. The Board of Regents will review the application later this year and the State Education Department is accepting public comments through Sept. 22.

Why it matters: Speakers said the charter would reduce resources for students the district already serves, duplicate planned career and technical education programs and could shift higher‑cost special‑education students back to district coffers. That projected diversion is the central financial concern cited repeatedly by teachers, union leaders, students and elected officials at the hearing.

Peterson, the deputy superintendent, told the hearing that New Dawn’s application proposes enrolling up to 350 students, focusing on ‘‘overaged and under‑credited’’ students ages 16 to 21, and that the district estimates five‑year costs from transportation, special education and materials at more than $32,700,000. She said the district already offers evening credit‑recovery programs, work‑based learning and a CTE building opening next fall that the district views as overlapping with New Dawn’s stated mission. "We urge the Board of Regents to deny the application for New Dawn Charter School in our community because we feel that this is going to be a significant financial burden," Peterson said.

State Senator James Skoufis spoke in strong terms against the proposal, calling New Dawn’s cited local support unreliable. "They surveyed 12 of 68,000. If you do the math, that is 0.0002% of the district's population," Skoufis said, and he urged residents to submit comments to SED before the Sept. 22 deadline. He said he was "strongly and urgently opposing" the application and described the charter network’s reported outcomes as unacceptable to him.

Assemblyman Christopher Ekus (transcript spelling) and Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson also opposed the application. Jacobson cited the district’s estimate that the charter would divert $9,600,000 annually and noted that a prior local charter, Newburgh Prep, cost the district about $21,000,000 over five years. "Approving this charter school district will not help the students in the district," Jacobson said, urging rejection.

Union and school staff speakers said New Dawn would reduce transparency and accountability. Stacy Moran, president of the Newburgh Teachers Association, said charter schools are run by "unelected boards which are not answerable to the community" and that annual budgets "are not voted on by the public the way the NECSD budget is." Moran added, "New Dawn will cost the district a lot of money and provide nothing for our students that we do not already provide."

Teachers, students and parents emphasized local programs they said already serve the population New Dawn proposes to reach. Sandra Wood, house principal of the NFA evening high school, described evening campus offerings and outcomes and said, "For the 2024–25 school year ... the attendance rate was 95% and the academic pass rate was 87%." Wood said evening campus helped 111 scholars graduate in 2025 and urged the community to "spread the word about evening school."

Students and student advocates also spoke. Cameron Ford, an NFA West senior representing the Student Choice Coalition, said charter schools "are known for cherry picking students, which leads to educational inequality." A graduating student’s written note read at the hearing — signed Jo Mae Hill and read aloud by a community member — asked the Board of Regents to reject the charter and urged expanding evening school instead.

Speakers raised performance and accountability concerns about New Dawn’s existing schools. Peterson and others cited graduation rates from other New Dawn campuses: 48% at one campus and 28% at another. Several speakers said charter operators nationally and locally enroll fewer students with disabilities and fewer English language learners, leaving those higher‑need students in public schools whose funding has been reduced.

Community and elected officials also tied the debate to broader fiscal pressures. County Legislator Genesis Ramos warned that recent federal changes and proposed cuts to benefits such as Medicaid and SNAP would pressure district funding and magnify the impact of any diversion of per‑pupil aid to a charter.

What happened procedurally: The Newburgh school board had already passed a resolution at a prior meeting opposing the New Dawn application, presenters said. The public hearing closed Sept. 16; the district indicated it will forward the comments to Albany. The State Education Department’s comment deadline is Sept. 22 and the Board of Regents is scheduled to consider the application in November, according to several speakers who addressed timing at the hearing.

No formal motion or vote on the charter application occurred at the hearing; speakers testified and the hearing was recorded and closed.

Remaining details: Speakers repeatedly cited the district estimate that a fully enrolled New Dawn would divert roughly $9,600,000 per year and presented the district’s estimate of more than $32,700,000 in related costs over five years. Several speakers referenced the earlier Newburgh Prep charter and its fiscal effects; one speaker described Newburgh Prep’s projected enrollment and later actual decline in enrollment as a cautionary example. Commenters urged residents to submit letters to the State Education Department before Sept. 22.