Downtown School Gets Uptown Start By Ronald Drenger After a late start recruiting students and a frantic search for a home, the Tribeca/Millennium High School opened last month with a first class of 97 ninth graders. But notwithstanding its name and its billing as Downtown’s first District 2 high school, Millennium/Tribeca is getting its start Uptown.   School and district officials said they hoped to move Millennium/Tribeca to Lower Manhattan by next September, but as of the end of last month they were still seeking a permanent site for the projected 500-student high school. It also remains to be seen whether the school will give preference to Downtown kids and high-performing students, as Community Board 1 and many Lower Manhattan parents want. Now, the school comprises four classrooms and two offices nestled on the second floor of the High School of Art and Design, a seven-story, 1,400-student facility at the corner of Second Avenue and 57th Street. The Millennium/Tribeca classrooms, adorned with students’ work, are used alternately for two subjects. Teachers say they and the students are making the place their own. “It feels great to be up and running,” Principal Robert Rhodes said in an interview at the school last month. “I was sick of being a school on paper only.” But he was disappointed that the school could not open Downtown.“We were so close,” he said. During the spring and summer, the district repeatedly said that a temporary site Downtown was almost secured, but every deal fell through.   “In one case, there was a conflict between the board and the managers,” Rhodes said. “In another case, it wasn’t clear what happened, but someone got cold feet. Most landlords want more than a year lease.” In August, the District was negotiating for space at 22 Cortlandt St. above Century 21 department store, but that deal collapsed a few weeks before the start of school. A legal battle between the landlord and a former tenant reportedly complicated the arrangement. The school’s midtown location has frustrated some Downtown parents. When Rhodes and Assistant Principal Danielle Salzberg spoke of the school’s emphasis on community at a Millennium/Tribeca curriculum night last month, they were challenged by Tribeca resident Doris Borg. “What community are we talking about?” she asked. “Midtown? Tribeca? The Upper East Side? Where are we? I love my community Downtown, my child loves our community, and that’s why we came to this school.” Rhodes said the school was committed to moving Downtown and noted that the temporary midtown location offered students the “real gift” of access to the Vanderbilt Y on East 47th Street and its host of established youth programs.   Millennium/Tribeca was developed in a partnership between District 2 and the YMCA of Greater New York. Gym classes are held once a week at the Vanderbilt Y, after-school activities, which Rhodes said were to begin at the end of last month, will be at both the school and the Y, and last month, students and staff spent two days at an upstate Y camp. The YMCA will continue to offer programs to the school when it moves Downtown. While the school is at its temporary site, said Mary Walsh, another parent, “We can make this our community if we as parents get involved, let our children know that this is their community, and go from there.” Rhonda Erb, a Battery Park City resident whose son, Andrew, attends the school, told the Trib that she was pleased so far. “They’ve put together a good, qualified teaching staff,” she said. “I try to be understanding about what can be done in a short amount of time.” Paul Hovitz, chair of CB1’s Youth and Education Committee, said at least one landlord had submitted a formal proposal to the city Board of Education and that a deal was “getting close.” The school’s admissions criteria are also unresolved. CB1, which has long wanted a middle or high school zoned for Downtown kids, passed a resolution in July calling on District 2 to admit all children living south of Houston Street who make Millennium/Tribeca their first choice. The resolution also stipulated that at least 75 percent of seats in the school go to students who scored at or above state standards on their seventh-grade exams. Students take English four times a week and writing three times, as well as global studies, a biology-chemistry class, the district-wide ARISE math curriculum, Spanish every day, and art twice a week. A daily “advisory” period is used for silent reading three times a week, and for a leadership and community service program run by the YMCA. Two computers for each classroom and a mobile “computer lab” on a cart, like those used at some other high schools, were due to arrive this month. At least four possible permanent sites were being studied last month: one in northern Tribeca, one near City Hall and two in the Financial District, according to sources familiar with the search. Hovitz and other CB1 members said they thought the District had agreed to their wishes over the summer, but Roy Moskowitz, District 2’s counsel and spokesman, said it had not.   “To the best of my knowledge, there is not a formal agreement between the district and CB1,” he told the Trib late last month. The community board, which is playing a major role in raising at least $25 million needed to turn a Downtown building into a permanent school, said it would withdraw its support for the school if the district did not agree to its resolution. “This school is happening because of this community, the school was created for the benefit of this community, and to not give preference to Downtown kids would be a slap in the face,” Hovitz said after learning that the district remained uncommitted on the admissions policy. “We’re not going to embrace this school and raise lots of money if there’s not some give from the district side.” Hovitz said Moskowitz had told him the district would need a written commitment from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which will be asked to provide a large portion of the funding, before it could agree to CB1’s admissions policy. “That’s not going to happen,” said CB1 chair Madelyn Wils, an LMDC board member. “Why would they? There’s no building and no proposal yet from the community.” CB1 leaders continued to negotiate with the district late last month and were trying to arrange a meeting with the city’s Department of Education. As for this year, Rhodes said he could not estimate how many of his students were from Tribeca, Battery Park City and the Financial District. But he said half live below 14th Street, with a large contingent from Chinatown. The 97 students include 56 who scored at Levels 3 and 4 (at or above state standards) on their seventh-grade exams, 40 at Level 2 (approaching standards) and one at Level 1, according to the district. During a recent visit by a reporter, teachers voiced enthusiasm for the school, especially its intimate size. English teacher Amy Gladstein said she leaves school smiling every day. “Everyone knows each other and there’s so much support,” she said. “Everyone is young and energetic. There’s a really good aura.”