Judge Rebukes City's Press to Reassign Williamsburg Charter Students - SchoolBook A Brooklyn high school that the city has been trying to close for months survived another day, as a state Supreme Court judge denied a request by the city's lawyer to start registering the charter school's students in other schools for the fast-approaching fall semester. The city first announced that it intended to close the school, Williamsburg Charter High School, in January. But the school won a temporary restraining order last month, allowing it to go ahead with a planned lottery for spots in the fall class while challenging the city in the Brooklyn court. In Tuesday's hearing at the Kings County Supreme Court, the school's lawyer, Ellen K. Eagen, argued that the decision to close the school had biased and fraught with conflicts of interest. In particular, Ms. Eagen focused on a May 2011 e-mail conversation between Sonia Park, a senior director of the city's Charter School Office, and Joshua Morales, a former Department of Education employee and consultant for Williamsburg Charter. The e-mails, Ms. Eagen said, suggested that the city had been mulling new uses for the building that houses Williamsburg Charter months more than six months before it announced that it intended to close the school. Ms. Eagen also cited another e-mail that referred to an office "bet" Ms. Park had apparently made about when the city would announce that it intended to shut down Williamsburg Charter. The hearing had nearly finished for the day when Andrew Rauchberg, the city's lawyer, stood up and asked Judge Ellen M. Spodek if the city could start registering Williamsburg Charter's students in other schools - a request that seemed to assume the city would certainly win the case. The question drew heated responses from Judge Spodek and Ms. Eagen. Though Mr. Rauchberg argued that Williamsburg Charter's students would struggle to find new high schools if they waited much longer, Judge Spodek suggested that the city had created the problem by deciding to close the school so late in the school year. The city finalized its decision on April 3, the day before the school was scheduled to hold its lottery for the incoming fall class. Standing up at the bench and raising her voice, Judge Spodek told Mr. Rauchberg that the city might want to consider waiting until next year to revoke the school's charter if he wanted to aid the students. "If you're interested in what's fair for the students, that would be fair for the students," she said, drawing cheers from Williamsburg Charter's half-dozen or so supporters in the courtroom. Judge Spodek's scolding was only the latest bit of drama in the tussle over Williamsburg Charter. The school, which has nearly 900 students, was given a C on its last progress report, and it ranks as "average" in test scores, graduation rates and even student needs. But the city placed it on probation in September, after an investigation by Eric T. Schneiderman, the state attorney general, raised questions about its management and finances. Many of those questions centered on Eddie Calderon-Melendez, the school's controversial founder, who allegedly saddled the school with debt while rewarding himself with a fat salary and consultant fees - $378,000 in 2010 alone, and $40,000 over two years in payroll advances. The city's decision to close Williamsburg Charter came less than a week after the school's board of trustees voted in January to rehire Mr. Calderon-Melendez. The board fired him several weeks later. Mr. Calderon-Melendez was arrested last month and indicted on 11 felony charges as well, but Ms. Eagen has said that the charges have nothing to do with Williamsburg Charter. More than 100 Williamsburg Charter parents, students, teachers and administrators packed the courtroom on Monday, the first day of the hearing, but only a handful showed up on Tuesday. Shatia Fuller, a parent who works as an administrative assistant in Lower Manhattan, hurried to the courthouse on her lunch hour, only to find the hearing on a break until 2 p.m. Like many parents, Ms. Fuller hasn't enrolled her daughter, a junior, in any other high schools, but she is confident that Williamsburg Charter will stay open. "I have to have faith," she said.