Parents packed into the District 3 CEC meeting on Jan. 20 to hear Department of Education officials address the impact of charter schools moving into public schools in Harlem, and overcrowding in Upper West Side schools.

According to Robin Aronow, ofSchool Search NYC, who attended the meeting, several proposals were presented by Elizabeth Rose, of the Department of Education Office of Portfolio Development, including a plan for a new elementary school on the Upper West Side.

Rose said that there are no new charter schools planned for District 3 next year. She reported that parents are joining school and public officials in walk-throughs of buildings where the amount of space allocated to a particular school-- its "Instructional Footprint" -- is under question due to space utilization or overcrowding. Presumably, the addition of parents could lend credibility to the process of siting charter schools or deciding how many children can successfully be educated in a given building.<!--more-->

One of the DOE's proposals is to merge PS 185, a pre-K-2 school and PS 208, a 3-5 school under one principal. The DOE will hold meetings with the two schools to discuss this proposal. While acknowledging city funding constraints, Rose also promised to look into the lack of full day pre-K programs to fill the demand in the upper part of the district.

Further downtown, the DOE proposes to open a new elementary school at the MS 44school building to help alleviate overcrowding caused by new residential construction and an increase in families choosing to attend their zoned public schools. The Computer School, the citywide gifted and talented Anderson School, and a new middle school, West Prep, now share the building.

To accommodate a new school, Anderson would have to scale back to two classes per grade instead of its recently enlarged capacity of three, and in the future, West Prep would move to a new location. The enrollment procedure for the new school is not yet determined.

The DOE believes that the opening of a new school, coupled with previously enacted zoning changes to take effect in 2010, would alleviate overcrowding at downtown schools such as PS 87and PS 199. However, she noted the possibility that PS 199 might need to cap its enrollment and redirect some of its zoned students to PS 191, nine blocks away.

While appreciative that they had convinced the DOE of the need for a new school, CEC members and parents at the meeting expressed concern that the three kindergarten classrooms offered would not be enough to handle the demand. In addition, they were adamant that the overcrowding problem needed a long term solution, including a new school building rather than squeezing several schools into a building with inadequate space.

Parents of non-zoned siblings at the affected schools, said they put much time and energy into their schools and expressed concern that they would lose priority placement and be forced to take children to two different schools.

According to officials, there will be no change in the district gifted and talented programs for fall 2010. The District 3 lottery this year will be limited to PS 76, PS 145, PS 149, PS 165, PS 185, PS 241, PS 242. PS 84 will be in the lottery for its dual language program. It has not yet been decided whether out-of-zone and out-of-district children will be allowed to apply through the lottery to the popular Dual Language programs at PS 75, PS 163, and PS 84. (UPDATE: DJ Sheppard of the District 3 office confirms that all families from outside District 3 may participate in the lottery, although preference is given to District 3 applicants.)

For further information visit the District 3 CEC website. To comment on any of the proposals, or to ask questions, email cecd3overcrowding@gmail.com.

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