Syracuse, N.Y. — When 100 Black Men of Syracuse proposed a charter school in Syracuse last year, it was the realization of nearly a decade of planning by the mentoring group that works with city youth.

Instead of just visiting schools and helping out, they would have their own school where mentors were embedded into daily activities and leading the school.

But at a public hearing for that same school Wednesday night, the group was notably absent. Their name, which appeared dozens of times in the 700-page application, is now blacked out.

Representatives of 100 Black Men of Syracuse did not respond to phone calls and emails about the school, but their former president, who is now leading the charter school application, said the group pulled its name from the school proposal under pressure from the Syracuse school district. The district denies that claim.

The district made it clear to 100 Black Men that they could not have their name on a charter school and still work with the district, said Vincent Love, a founder and former president of 100 Black Men of Syracuse who left the group to continue on with the charter school.

The path of 100 Black Men shows the threat public schools feel from charter schools and the city district’s willingness to wield its power to neutralize a school proposed by a Syracuse community group.

Charter schools are a hybrid: They are public schools funded by city taxpayers, but run by private groups. The bottom line for the Syracuse school district is that every charter school takes money out of the district’s budget.

This year, the four charter schools in Syracuse were budgeted to receive more than $40 million from city taxpayers. That’s a 16% increase over last year; 6.5% of the district’s total budget.

Charter school enrollment has increased 30% over the past five years, a point made in the district’s budget book. Next year’s budget is $611 million.

Currently, nearly 2,500 of the roughly 20,000 students in the city school district attend charter schools. Every time that number goes up, the district must pay out more money.

The city has made it clear that it opposes charter schools. In 2018, the school board asked the state to put a moratorium on proposing new charter schools. It did not.

But the district’s position has not changed. That was made clear when 100 Black Men proposed their charter school. The group has provided mentoring services in the school district for several years.

A spokeswoman for Superintendent Anthony Davis said the district did not threaten to take away the group’s contract if they went forward with the school.

But they offered them more mentoring opportunities, and more money, if they stepped away from the charter school proposal.

“Traditionally the district does not support the addition of more charter schools, so the superintendent said the conversations were about the other ways to partner with them outside of backing the charter school,” said Amanda Malinowksi, a spokeswoman for the district.

Last year, 100 Black Men of Syracuse received $88,000 from the city school district for mentoring services. This year, the group’s contract nearly tripled: It will receive $249,000 for mentoring.

The district’s power was also clear at Wednesday’s public hearing. The room at the Syracuse school district’s headquarters was empty, save a few members of the media and district staff required to run the hearing.

The Syracuse school district chief financial officer stopped in to ask Love how he could say that a charter school would not take money away from the city schools.

Love’s day job is the treasurer of the North Syracuse school district. He was the executive director of Blueprint 15 for a time, but stepped down from that position.

The charter school idea came from the mentoring work 100 Black Men, a local Black nonprofit that focuses on providing positive male role models, did in the Syracuse schools. During that work, they found that many of the students they mentored were struggling with basic skills, like reading. So they set up a Saturday tutoring program.

But they also began to see an opportunity for more, Love said. The New York City chapter of 100 Black Men set up an alternative, boys-only school, called Eagle Academy, that the group went to visit. The Syracuse chapter visited that school and decided to try to replicate some of it.

The idea for the new charter school — called the Central New York Academy — was born shortly after that trip. It is not boys only, but targets children from Black and Hispanic high-poverty neighborhoods in the city.

Love, who is leading the school effort, said the intent was never to compete with the district, but to work with them to provide another option for kids who weren’t thriving in the city schools. He said Wednesday that the the charter school’s intent will always be to partner with the district.

The Syracuse schools are among the lowest-performing in the state. Last year’s state test data showed that 20% of the district’s students were proficient in ELA and only 18% were proficient in math.

But the state is not convinced the Central New York Academy will be a better, or even equal, option. The Charter Schools Institute of SUNY, one of two state agencies that can approve charter schools, instructed Love to withdraw the application last year because of deficiencies. The institute said the application lacked enough detail in several key areas including the budget, the management set-up, the curriculum plan and whether there was current community support. Much of the support listed was from several years ago.

The two-page letter warned that the list was not exhaustive.

But deficiencies like this are not uncommon.

Mike Lesczinski, a spokesman for the institute, said many proposals are sent back multiple times. Only 18% of first-time applicants are approved by the institute.

The Central New York Academy is working with HLN Initiatives, a professional charter school management company based in New York City. The agency currently has one school, the Harriet Tubman Charter School, in the city. It was looking to replicate the Syracuse school in other markets. Errol Bedford, president of that company, said in an interview with Syracuse.com that the organization has been asked to do charter schools in Rochester and other cities.

He said they have addressed all of the state’s concerns.

The charter school should find out by October if their application has been approved.

The school hopes to open in September 2026 for 180 children in kindergarten through second grade. But it currently does not have a site picked out. Eventually, the plan is to expand to a K-8 school with more than 500 students.

Bedford said his company wanted to start in Syracuse, because Bedford, raised in the Bronx, graduated from Le Moyne College. Others at his company graduated from Le Moyne and Syracuse University.

He thinks the charter school could be transformative and he wants Syracuse to have it first. The company has not yet shepherded a school through the state’s charter approval process. The Tubman school already had its charter before Bedford started working with them.

He said the school was in jeopardy of losing its charter, but HLN turned them around.

Love said he has no doubt that the Syracuse school will get approved. And when it is, he said 100 Black Men will come to support it, along with several other community organizations that have signed letters of support over the years.

Walt Dixie, a Syracuse community activist and executive director of Jubilee Homes, is one of the supporters.

Dixie said half of his grandchildren go Syracuse schools and half go to charter schools. There are benefits to both, he said. In a city like Syracuse, more options are better.

He said he was disappointed that the state didn’t approve the Central New York Academy last year.

“At the end of the day, the kids lose,” he said.