Academic Leadership Charter School, opened in fall 2009 with kindergarten and 1st grade, offers traditional academics and instruction in the arts, including drama and dance. A drama and dance teacher led children in a song and dance from the musical The Lion King the day of my visit.  Children wear light blue shirts and blue trousers or plaid jumpers.

Children arrive for breakfast at 7:15 a.m. and leave at 4 p.m. The school year, longer than the typical public school calendar, starts in August.

The school has attractive new, natural wood furniture and plenty of books and materials. Children use writing and math workbooks and graded readers, supplemented by "as many story books as possible," said Principal Norma Figueroa-Hurwitz. She has hired recent graduates from well-regarded colleges such at University of California at Berkeley, Tufts and Oxford University as teachers. A possible downside: the teachers, while energetic and dedicated, are inexperienced.

Figueroa-Hurwitz was the founder and principal of Bilingual, Bicultural - Mini School in East Harlem, from 1973 to 1979, principal of PS 83 from 1980 to 2003, and principal of Sisulu Children's Academy Charter School, from 2003 to 2005.

Academic Leadership Academy shares the building with PS 65, also called Mother Hale School. Asked to respond to a complaint by a teacher at PS 65 that children with poor behavior are sometimes asked to leave the charter school, Figueroa-Hurwitz said that some children "cannot handle" the long school day at the charter school and do better with the shorter school day at PS 65.

Admission is by lottery. Preference is given to children who live in District 7. (Clara Hemphill, August 2010)