PS 89 PTA Accepts Feb. 28 for Return to Warren St. Building

By Ronald Drenger

A balloting of P.S. 89 parents and teachers on Jan. 29 has led the executive board of the school's P.T.A. to drop its legal challenge to the Board of Education and accept Feb. 28 as the date that the children will return to their school in Battery Park City.

Of 305 respondents, 191, or 63 percent, said they favored going back on Feb. 28 rather than holding out for a later date..

The decision followed weeks of escalating tensions between parents who wanted to go back in February, and those who wanted to wait, fearing that the environment in and around the school would put their children at risk.

Just the day before, the two groups of parents appeared in State Supreme Court as Judge Michael Stallman failed to broker an agreement in closed-door meetings. During the second of two brief open-court discussions, the judge said he hoped to avoid litigation that would be harmful to the school’s children and parents.

"It’s important that everyone get out of this sort of adversarial mode," he said. "It’s not helpful in terms of what’s going on in this courtroom, and less helpful for the ongoing running of a viable PTA."

But when he emerged an hour an a half later from the conferences in his chambers, there was no agreement on the main point of contention, the date off the school’s return. The parents and the Board of Education had agreed on a plan for environmental testing and psychological counseling for children, he said, but it sounded much like what had been laid out weeks before.

"Everybody talk among yourselves and try to reach an agreement," Judge Stallman advised. But an amicable agreement seemed far off.

Parents supporting a February return walked directly from the courthouse to a rally at the P.S./I.S. 89 building, where, before a group of television cameras, they called for a vigorous effort to bring their children "home." Ken Perry, father of a P.S. 89 kindergartner and a lawyer, who represented these parents in court, said various legal actions would be considered.

Parents who wanted to put off the return until at least the spring vowed to continue their fight. But once the vote was counted, it appeared there would be too little support for the struggle.

"We do feel that we, as a community, have much work to do right now to help bring our factions together, to try to heal, and to try to ease this transition for as many families as possible," said a note from the PTA board that was sent home to parents.