Last night, hundreds of parents attended a forum dedicated to overcrowding issues at elementary and middle schools in Chelsea and the Village. The meeting, sponsored by the Community Education Council for District 2 and a series of elected officials, consisted of a speech by DOE official John White, during which he outlined the overcrowding problems and proposed several solutions. His talk was followed by a Q&A session. Some parents used the opportunity to deliver their own 60-second speeches (sometimes veering off-topic). Below are a few of the points White made:

  • The proposal to move the School for Writers and Artists out of the over-crowded PS 11 building is "off the table"--for now. Parents wearing buttons and t-shirts protesting the potential move rejoiced.
  • The DOE will take a closer look at the state-owned building at 75 Morton Street, which members of the community have lobbied for as a middle school site. White cautioned, however, that they had "serious concerns" about whether the building will be suitable for a school.
  • Moving Greenwich Village Middle School out of PS 3 would grant the overcrowded elementary school more space and allow the middle school to expand. The DOE recognizes that GVMS should stay in the Village long-term but doesn’t necessarily have the capital funds to create a new space for it in the short-term. One solution would be to temporarily move it to one of the two new elementary schools being constructed in lower Manhattan before their student populations grow to capacity.
  • Quest to Learn, a new 6-12th grade school partnered with the New< School University, may eventually be moved to the Bayard Rustin building but it would need a temporary space for a year or two while Bayard Rustin High School phases out. Parents from the Lab Schoolspoke out strongly against the new school being incubated in the Lab building. White would not say definitively whether the Lab building was being considered.
  • White would like the CEC to consider rezoning the neighborhood for PS 3 and PS 41, since the schools’ populations are increasing. For the fall of 2009, he hopes that all the sibling and zoned students who register will be able to attend one of the two popular schools but mentioned that "cluster" rooms (typically rooms used for music, art, and science) may need to be converted to traditional classrooms to accommodate all of the students. Parents were upset at that suggestion.

"We know that some of the best ideas come from where the rubber meets the road," White said in the beginning of the meeting. "I am here tonight to listen to your feedback."

There seemed to be no shortage of feedback, but solutions may be harder to find.