236 year old UWS private school to close due to conflict with Second Presbyterian Church

Zhuoya Ma, host: The Alexander Robertson School is a private elementary school on the Upper West Side. It's a small school, just 60 students. And it has a long history. For over 230 years the school has been housed in the Second Presbyterian Church, next door. Now, though, that arrangement is ending. This academic year will be the school’s last. Caroline McCarthy has the story.

Caroline McCarthy, byline: The Alexander Robertson School looks like a typical Upper West Side townhouse. Inside its red doors, compact classrooms are spread across three floors, another space serves as gym, auditorium and lunch room, often at the same time.  A music room is lined with brightly colored posters…though today it's home to a yoga class for ten first graders who are learning downward dog. 

Among them is 6 year old Sterling Jenkins.

Jenkins:  Hello, salut, bonjour, how are you today?

McCarthy: After class, Sterling takes me to his favorite room in the school…A repurposed church kitchen that now serves as science lab, its counters covered with experiments, test tubes and fish tanks. 

Jenkins: My favorite part about this room is sometimes when we're done with our science papers, we can go and look at all the tiny fish in there. I usually see three or four a day.

McCarthy: Brinton Parson is Alexander Robertson’s Head of School, its principal and president basically. She says that last year the school gave out nearly a million dollars in scholarships. 

Parson: Our student body is composed of children that would not normally be in the independent school world elsewhere. The mission of this school, even when it was founded in 1789 by the Second Presbyterian Church, the mission was to educate what they called common folk.  

McCarthy: Since the founding of the Second Presbyterian Church, the Alexander Robertson school has been its primary mission, providing space and operating funds. But in 2020, the church decided to fiscally separate from the school, allowing the school to keep using the classrooms, rent free, until 2025. 

Last year, they attempted to reach a new agreement, and settled on rent for the school space. But the church is also renting out the schoolrooms to other groups, including a foreign language classes and Alcoholics Anonymous. And that raised another major issue for the school: access and security for its young students. One day last semester, the AA group had propped the front door open to allow members in, while children were still inside. 

Parson: It's a security issue, and that in turn means it's an insurance issue and a legal issue.  And without exclusive use during school hours, I was not able to sign a lease.

McCarthy: Church officials declined to be interviewed on tape, but responded to written questions. In their statement they said  they could not meet the schools needs for exclusive use of the classrooms because they have a "long standing practice of contracting with other groups.”

And so, after years of negotiations, this past October, Parson announced to staff and families that the school would close, this semester would be its last. 

Parson took on the responsibility of finding new educational homes for students and teachers for the 2025-2026 school year. 

Parson:  It was a difficult year because in record time, we were trying to place 57 students instead of just our graduating class. But we had such lovely reactions from Independent Schools that were so sorry to see us go. I know that all of our faculty and staff have sent resumes and have had interviews. So, we're all on the road to finding wonderful places for next year.

McCarthy: Ms. Parson says that all students now have a school to go to next year. Those who have not yet signed contracts are exploring public school options or are on a waitlist.

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Caroline McCarthy.