A tiny school with room to grow, PS 110 has a French dual language program, classes in ballroom dancing and musical theater, and an increasingly active parent body.

Across the street from McGolrick Park near the Queens border, PS 110 had a shrinking enrollment for a number of years. But young middle class families priced out of Manhattan are increasingly moving into the neighborhood and enrolling their children at PS 110. Enthusiastic parents are volunteering their talents—such as the graphic designer who helped create a website for the school.

The school’s dual language program, begun with one kindergarten class of 25 children in 2011, has attracted children from outside the neighborhood. The program has bilingual teachers who speak French in the morning and English in the afternoon, changing the times of different lessons so, for example, children learn math in French one day and English the next. The goal is to have classes in which half the children speak French at home and half speak English.

Anna Cano Amato, who became principal in 2006 after two decades at the school as a teacher, literacy coach, and assistant principal, takes prides in her school’s rich curriculum, which includes hands-on science and plenty of arts programming.

“We’re not a test prep school,” she said in a telephone interview. “We believe very strongly in the arts.” While other schools abandoned art classes in the months before standardized tests, PS 100 continued to offer ballroom dancing twice a week, to put on a musical based on the Wizard of Oz, to invite a sculptor to work with children and to put on a performance of Shakespeare with the non-profit group called Theater for a New Audience.

The cafeteria is tiny, but the building is kept clean and tidy. Parents and teachers are very happy with the school and teachers consistently say they would recommend it to prospective parents, according to the Learning Environment Survey.

Special education: PS 110 has a self-contained class as well as team teaching classes.

Admissions: Zoned neighborhood school. There are tours for prospective parents the first Monday of every month. There is usually room for children from outside the zone and even from outside the district. For the French dual language program, the school attempt to enroll half French speakers and half English speakers. “If you speak French at home, that’s a plus,” Amato said. (Clara Hemphill, interviews, February 2013)