City Said to Want to Split P.S. 234 into Two Schools by Etta Sanders As part of the race for more classroom space to keep up with increased residential development, the city has reportedly proposed to split P.S. 234 into two schools. The plan would be for a 10-classroom pre-K through 2nd grade "feeder school" for P.S. 234, to be part of a community center at the base of a new residential building on site 5C, a lot that abuts the playground behind the school. The plan may also turn the current P.S. 234 into a 3rd through 5th grade school. This would be in addition to the creation of a new kindergarten through 8th grade school on the east side of Broadway. The plan was presented to community representatives in a meeting on March 31 with Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff (on speaker phone) and officials from the Department of Education (DOE), Department of City Planning and the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), according to Community Board 1 district manager Paul Goldstein, who attended the meeting. The Department of Education did not respond to a request for confirmation of the proposal. A spokeswoman for Doctoroff said she was not aware of the meeting. "This was a bit out of left field," said Goldstein. It also adds another wrinkle to negotiations over what will be built on the city-owned lot adjacent to P.S. 234. There has been strong community opposition to a developer's plan to build a 35-story apartment building with an 18,000-square foot community center (see story on page 5). Part of the opposition is that neighborhood services, particularly schools, cannot accommodate more residents. Goldstein, speaking at a meeting of the board's Tribeca Committee, said the city talked about adding 10,000 square feet for a school, with the classrooms available for other activities during non-school time. This would bring the total community space on the site to 28,000 square feet, far short of the 40,000 square-feet advocated by the community board. There are still a lot of details that are not clear, Goldstein said. "We are planning to set up a meeting later this month with the Department of Education to bring them down to hash out this proposal and to answer questions. But they seem pretty serious about wanting to do this," he said. Paul Hovitz, chairman of CB1's Youth and Education Committee, said he will be calling an "emergency" meeting of his committee. Councilman Alan Gerson said the idea for a pre-K and kindergarten early learning center at site 5C was also presented at the March 31 meeting with city officials, which he attended. Asked about a pre-K through 2nd grade school, Gerson said he would not suport disrupting P.S. 234. "We're going to protect the integrity of the 234 community," he said. Bob Townley, director of Manhattan Youth, which would runs the proposed community center, said he did not have enough details to comment on the plan. "Can the community center be dual purpose? I reserve judgement. I'd have to see the proposal," he said. Informed by the Trib of the proposed plan, P.S. 234 principal Sandy Bridges said she was concerned about splitting the schools. She said that if the new school is an annex of P.S. 234, she would likely be overwhelmed by the number of new staff and students under her watch. If it is a separate school, she said she would worry about the "cultural shift" between the two schools. "One of the greatest strengths of P.S. 234 is the commonality of the philosophy from the earliest grades to the time they leave in fifth grade. If you create two schools it would be important that you keep the philosophy consistent." Bridges said the best relief for P.S. 234 would be the creation of a whole new school. The city and community board are actively searching for where to put a new kindergarten through 8th grade school on the east side of Broadway. One of the locations under consideration is 250 Water Street, at the base of Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport, which is currently a parking lot. The lot is owned by the Milstein Corporation, which is engaged in a lawsuit with the city over changes in zoning rules last year that thwarted their plans for a 24-story tower on the site. In order to put a school there, the city would have to acquire the property from Milstein. The parking lot of the NYU Downtown Hospital had also been seen as a promising site, but the Department of Education objected that the bordering streets, Spruce and Beekman, are too narrow to accommodate school buses, according to a DOE spokesman.