A Williamsburg charter school that tried to attract white and middle-class families needs to find more students in the next week, or it could be shut down. Citizens of the World 1, part of a California-based charter-school chain, opened across from Brooklyn's McCarren Park in September expecting 107 kindergartners and first-graders to totter through the doors.
But on the first day of school, teachers welcomed only 56 students. After the last bus arrived, administrators made call after call to families who had signed up. They ruled out logistical hiccups and realized that more students just weren't coming.