The incredible shrinking waitlist, from DOE
[Ed Note: New details from DOE added in Update at end of post.]
The Department of Education has gathered and analyzed kindergarten waitlist data for Manhattan districts 2 and 3, according to a message sent by DOE spokesperson Andy Jacob at 5 p.m. today. Data on other districts are not yet complete, Jacob wrote, but will be available “within the next two weeks.”
There are fewer children waitlisted than has been reported, according to the DOE’s count, which shows a total of 273 students waitlisted at seven schools in districts 2 and 3 combined. For the numbers-hungry: 31 students are waitlisted at PS 166; 90 students are on a combined waitlist for PS 3 and PS 41 (which share a zone); and 152 students are waitlisted on the Upper East Side (25 at PS 6, 40 at PS 59, 30 at PS 183, and 57 at PS 290).
“Waitlists will disappear or be greatly reduced,” Jacob wrote, as gifted and talented program enrollment siphons off students, and as families choose “non-public school options for children zoned in schools with waitlists.”
At PS 166, “we expect the wait list…to disappear after students accept gifted placements in June,” he writes. In the West Village, 26 students zoned for PS 3 and PS 41 qualified for G&T programs (but it’s not known whether they will accept). There’s no official mention of the impending cut to pre-K at both schools — just an allusion to “details within the next few days.”
On the Upper East Side, “almost all students on a waitlist at these four schools [PS 6, PS 59, PS 183, and PS 290] will receive a placement in their zoned school by the end of next month,” according to the statement. As 182 students zoned for those four schools qualified for G&T, “waitlists at these schools will shrink or even disappear,” Jacob anticipates.
Children who head into summer still on a waitlist, “are guaranteed placement at schools near their homes, but will likely receive a placement at their zoned school before September,” according to the DOE.
Families zoned for Tribeca’s PS 89 and PS 234 will either receive seats at one of those schools, or at one of the new schools that will be housed at Tweed. (We’ve asked how that decision will be made, and will report details when they’re available.)
Finally, on the Upper East Side, “there is no wait list at PS 151,” Jacob writes, which is no surprise, as there is no actual, physical PS 151 just yet. We’ve asked when the DOE will select and finalize a site for the school and will report their response when it arrives.
May 6 Update: David Cantor of the DOE’s press office has sent additional details on wait-list issues at PS 3/41 (among other schools) and on the Upper East Side’s to-be-reconstituted PS 151.
He confirms that DOE is “considering” a plan “to temporarily move some combination of pre-K classes for just the 2009-2010 school year to other site(s)” from PS 3 and PS 41 — despite assurances we’ve had from school personnel that the plan is underway, not under consideration. Cantor says possible alternate sites include PS 33, PS 11, The American Sign Language School “and other potential nearby schools,” adding, “more work is needed on the ground.”
The middle school housed at PS 3, Greenwich Village Middle School, will move to a new site in September 2010, “to create long-term space in the West Village” and “to allow the pre-K classes to return to the elementary schools at that time.” (Parent advocates suggested this strategy more than a year ago.)
The search for site for a new 151 continues, with no deadline in sight. The school will open in September (this September!) with three classes per grade; a range of locations are under review, including Our Lady of Good Counsel,the Julia Richman Education Complex, and MS 167/The Robert Wagner School, as we reported earlier.
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According to the letter I received from the DOE, there are 56 children on the PS 234 waitlist. Although they have been assigned to “Tweed”, the kindergarten incubator space, the assignment failed to take geography into consideration. Children living directly across the street from the school were waitlisted and children in the financial district and southstreet seaport, neighborhoods which will inevitably be zoned for one of the new schools (and farther away from the school) were granted spots. The lottery was implemented because the DOE and city couldn’t get their act together and rezone the neighborhoods. In an election year, rezoning becomes an increasingly contentious issue and the city and its chiefs dodged the issue by not making any decisions. nice work.
Comment by RTN — May 5, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
I hope the DOE is right, but there is a good chance that many parents will opt not to send their children to a G&T considered a far distance, or to a new or less desirable G&T, over going to a zoned school. The DOE also has to take into consideration that there will be more families moving into those zones between now and September, and going forward. Between new residential buildings opening and the economy pointing more families toward public school, the zoned schools cannot reasonably accommodate all zoned families who want to or will want to attend.
Comment by Robin Aronow — May 5, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
To me, this was the most Orwellian moment in that press release, though the competition was stiff: “There is no wait list at PS 151 (new school on the Upper East Side). However, we haven’t finalized the location of the school yet.” The author of the release, Mr. Andrew Jacob, is obviously rather thinly informed. Unfortunately for the kids, unlike the school and the wait list, they exist. P.S. 151 was evacuated ten years ago for aesbestos abatement, and its students have been shuttled around the upper east side ever since. This year, DOE ran out of space for them, so, apparently, they ceased to exist. Though in reality they are on a phantom wait list with no prospect of placement.
Comment by Ann Kjellberg — May 6, 2009 @ 1:50 am
This is another case of the DOE fudging numbers. There is no longer a waitlist at PS87–because they are now going to have 9, rather than 7, kindergartens. This will be at an enormous expense the the school and other students, but allows the DOE to say the waitlist numbers are shrinking. I can only assume the same thing is going on in other places, allowing the DOE to continue to take credit for what the principals, parent coordinators, and parents associations are struggling to manage.
Comment by Julie — May 6, 2009 @ 9:07 am
I’m not very good at math, so please help me understand how come “there is no wait list for PS151″. Does that mean all PS151 kids are placed already? If so, where? The PS151 kids were supposed to be lotteried into the six schools: PS 6/290/185/158/59/198. The article lists that 6/59/183/290 all have waitlists. So for instance, there are 57 kids on waitlist for ps290. That means those 57 kids actually live in the ps290 zone and are placed on waitlist, right? And none of the ps151 kids got placed into ps290? Or does that mean that all PS151 kids are placed into the remaning two schools: ps 158/198?
Comment by UES mom — May 7, 2009 @ 1:55 am
I am dying to see what is going to happen to the kids in district 1 who have NO school to be put in. These district 2 parents are complaining about long commutes to nice schools that are offering their kids a seat – so sorry that it’s not across the street. boo hoo. Here in District 1 there are 300 kids who wanted to go to one of the only 4 decent schools we have, many of the kids willing to travel a mile or more to attend. Now they have NO school at all to attend bc all District 1 is an unzoned district which is done by lottery and every class is full. And these kids will not get placed as kids choose G&T classes bc there are not many G&T Qualifiers in District 1 – these families can’t afford the tutors.
Comment by district 1 mom — May 9, 2009 @ 9:55 pm