Two P.S. 234 Classrooms at Stake in Negotiatons
By Carl Glassman
With a pressing demand for seats at P.S. 234, and the struggle to keep class sizes small, every classroom is precious. Come September, the school may lose two of those rooms.
The classrooms, used for science and art, are located in the nearby Downtown Community Center and let by the space's owner, Manhattan Youth. The two-year-old rental agreement between Manhattan Youth and the Board of Education freed up two classrooms in P.S. 234's main building and helped keep class sizes smaller. But the lease on the space expires in September and Manhattan Youth director Bob Townley says his programming is expanding and he needs to at least triple the rent to pay for comparable space in Tribeca.
Whether the DOE agrees to his request is yet to be seen. Townley said the Department so far has been noncommittal. A DOE spokesman declined to comment on the negotiations and said no deadline has been set on when the lease terms need to be resolved.
If those negotiations break down, Townley said, “That would be a big problem.”
Lisa Ripperger, the principal, said the rooms enable the school to teach science and art in dedicated spaces. The alternative, she said, would require the teachers of those subjects to move from room to room with their materials on a cart.
“Even having [the rooms] for two years has been a huge contribution to the quality of education we’ve been able to provide,” Ripperger said in an interview. “I would really hope that the DOE and Bob are able to come to a mutually agreeable arrangement so that we can continue to do that.”
Townley said Tribeca rents are well above the $38 per square foot that Manhattan Youth is now getting from the DOE.
“We would be very happy to find comparable space and let the school stay here,” Townley told the Trib in a telephone interview. “But when I start researching it, it’s all unfinished space and it’s all very expensive and not nearly as desirable as this space.”
In addition, Townley said his programs need to grow in order to be competitive with those offered by Asphalt Green, which will be operating the Battery Park City community center when it opens in two years. “We have to be sustainable,” he said. “We have to anticipate all external issues around here.”
Townley said he did not take into account the value of the space or his growing program needs when he signed the current lease, only that he was trying to help the school.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I only knew there was a dramatic need for space at P.S. 234 and I had the space.”
Ripperger called Townley “a really fantastic partner” to the school.
“I know [having the classrooms] has not been what Bob planned for his space and how he wanted to financially profit from his space as he deserved to,” the principal said. “But he stepped up. He was asked to do this. He didn’t wince at it.”
Townley estimated the center needs another 2,500 square feet of space. The two classrooms together take up about 2,000 square feet.
For the right price, one that would allow Manhattan Youth to build out rented space near the center, Townley said he could give the school even more classrooms.
The shell of the community center was built into the south side of 200 Chambers Street, in a tax abatement deal worked out between the city and Jack Resnick and Sons, the developer. The city deeded the space to Manhattan Youth, which built it out at its own expense. Resnick added a city-funded annex to P.S. 234 next to the community center, also meant to relieve crowding in the school.
Compared to the “millions of dollars” the city spent readying building the annex, Townley said, he believes he gave the city a much better deal.
“We delivered finished space to the school to alleviate overcrowding, so that has to be considered. But it was not considered for us.”
By holding out for more money for the classroom space, Townley said he knows he could be viewed as the bad guy in the negotiations. And that troubles him.
“I’m in a very tough position because on one level we’re tied at the hip to P.S. 234,” he said. “But I’m asking for fairness here.”