Off-Site Classrooms Likely For Overenrolled P.S. 234

by Carl Glassman

The enrollment squeeze at P.S 234 has become so tight that at least one class is likely to be held in a trailer or another building next year, according the school’s principal and PTA president.

A preliminary search for additional space began last month and the idea of a trailer or “portable classroom” on an adjacent development site appeared to be gaining favor as the best of several unpleasant options.

Sandy Bridges, first-year principal at P.S. 234, is looking to add at least one classroom next year outside the school. "No matter what happens, people are going to have to make the adjustments," she said. "There's no way around it. I'm just trying to make it the least unpleasant as possible."

“I hate the idea of putting kids in a trailer,” said Sandy Bridges, who is in her first year as principal of the school. “That having been said, the trailers have a couple of pluses. They allow us to grow at the pace we need to grow. So every year, if we need an additional classroom, we add a trailer.”

Portable classrooms have been in use by Borough of Manhattan Community College since the school lost Fiterman Hall in the terrorist attacks.

Bridges estimates that P.S. 234, which she says now has 80 to 100 students more than the school is meant to hold, will expand by one additional class each year over the next few years. Next month, the school will conduct a survey of local preschools and its own parents to get an indication of enrollment next September. She said she would be surprised if the numbers didn’t show a need for space outside the school.

“Even if we got another 20 kids, that’s doomsday for us,” she said. “We don’t have any room.”

There is talk of a new kindergarten through eighth grade being built on the east side of Broadway, but Bridges said that a future school does nothing to solve her current problems.

Last summer, a suite of offices on the third floor was converted to a pre-kindergarten classroom. A dishwashing room in the cafeteria is now used for student woodwind players.

An idea floated by the PTA last year, to add a permanent annex to the school, was rejected by some parents as well as Bridges and former Principal Anna Switzer.

For now, there is no shortage of land near the school to place temporary classrooms if the city were to allow it. To the west is Site 5C, where a residential building is slated to go up. And to the south, across Warren Street, is 5B, for which the city is still working out development plans. Both are now used as parking lots.

“We’re surrounded by two vacant lots so it should be a no brainer,” said PTA President Tim Johnson. “This isn’t Park Avenue. Even if they do something with 5B, it won’t be for a couple of years.”

The PTA has also talked about annexing space in a nearby building for one prekindergarten and five kindergarten classes. St. John’s University, a couple of blocks away, is seen as a good prospect. But at a recent PTA meeting, some parents said they wanted a solution that appeared more temporary, and they worried that the added space would quickly be filled with children who live outside the school’s zone.

Bridges said that she had not ruled out the idea of an off-site annex but she is troubled by the thought of isolating the teachers who would work there. “You need to be fed by your colleagues,” she said.

Meanwhile, Johnson is researching mobile classrooms, which, he said “come in every configuration possible.”

“If we get any trailers,” the PTA president said, “they’ll be the nicest trailers in Manhattan.”