BPC Sites Eyed For New Classrooms

By Etta Sanders
POSTED JAN. 22, 2007

Schools over pools. That was the message voiced by P.S. 89 parents at a town hall meeting held by Community Board 1 on Jan. 10 to measure support for carving 10,000 square feet out of the planned Battery Park City community center to create more classrooms for P.S. 89. At the meeting in the school’s auditorium, dozens of frustrated parents expressed their concern over growing class sizes, especially a fourth grade class with 34 students.

When asked if they would support an annex at the community center, nearly every hand was raised.

Some parents even suggested that in a neighborhood of luxury residential buildings that have their own pools and gyms, that the entire 50,000 square foot community center space be used for the school. “This community does not need a pool. This community needs a school,” said Linda Epstein.

CB1, along with school representatives, will start investigating the annex possibility in the coming weeks. At the same time, efforts intensified to secure a site for a new school in the southern part of Battery Park City known as Site 2B, a location previously earmarked for a Women’s Museum. Last week Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents Battery Park City, sent a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein recommending that the site be considered for a school.

"This is not a done deal, it’s just that things are in motion and looking somewhat promising at this point. All the parties seem to have an interest in seeing the same thing happen," said Paul Goldstein, Silver’s District Office Director.

Designs for the long planned 50,000 square foot community center, to be located at the base of a new residential building near the ballfields, are 95 percent completed, according to Anthony Notaro, chairman of the CB1 Battery Park City community center task force. “Even down to where a little stroller parking area will go. That’s how much detail we’ve got,” he said.

DOE rules would require that a school annex be an entirely separate space with its own entrance. Reducing the size of the community center by 20 percent would mean “a major redesign,” Notaro said. “It sounds simple enough to say let’s just take 10,000 square feet. There’s a big ripple effect.”

How receptive the Department of Education (DOE) will be to the idea is also unknown. According to P.S. 89 principal Ronnie Najjar, the school is current 15 students over the school’s stated capacity. And while the parents see the school as bursting at the seams, the D.O.E. said the school is not even full. “PS 89 is an elementary school that is underutilized. It is not overcrowded,” D.O.E. spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said in an e-mail.

Nor would an annex alleviate what is expected to be a growing school population in the next two years when nearly 1,000 new Battery Park City apartments will be ready for occupancy. The community center is not expected to be ready before 2009 or 2010.

“The annex is not a short-term solution.  Our PTA is considering proposing several short-term options. For example: Laptop computers rather than a computer lab are one way to make more space,” said Dennis Gault, P.S. 89 PTA president, in an e-mail. Another parent suggested building an addition to P.S. 89 in the playground and putting the playground on the roof.

Notaro said that while more classrooms are needed, the community center is intended to serve the broader community. Taking away a fifth of the space could mean losing a teen lounge or classes for seniors. “We have a serious problem at the elementary school level. We also have a serious problem with teens,” he said.

It is also possible that a P.S. 89 annex would not be needed when it opens in two or three years. “By the time the community center is built, you could have a new school online,” said Notaro.