Facility-Sharing Increasingly Common in New York City, Chicago, and Other Cities

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/education/21shared.html?ref=education

In New York City, approximately 42 percent of 1,577 traditional public and charter schools, with more than a quarter of the city’s 1 million-plus students, now share space with at least one other school, and as many as five. Education officials acknowledge that sharing is not always ideal, but say the benefits of small schools are worth the fights over space. "If we could wave a wand and have different buildings for every school, then we would, but we can’t," said Garth Harries, who oversees the Department of Education’s collection of small schools, charter schools and specialized programs. “The conception of school has outgrown the buildings that we have, so it creates the need for some additional problem-solving and additional work.” In Chicago, sharing space has gone from a rare phenomenon to now include 12 percent of schools, including public charters. In Los Angeles, officials plan to break up many campuses with more than 1,000 students starting in 2010.

Source: New York Times (free registration required)
Date: 12/21/2008