CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB

Victoria Petrusenko, a supporter of school zoning Option 3, displays one of the "3" balloons her group floated at the CEC meeting Wednesday night. Balloons, and signs from both sides, were not allowed in the meeting once it began. Option 3 supporters wore black to the meeting, Option 2 proponents wore red.

With nearly 200 Lower Manhattan residents on the edge of their school auditorium seats, members of the District 2 Community Education Council took its much-anticipated vote Wednesday night on the temporary zoning of four Downtown schools. But the emotionally charged, months-long debate over which of two plans they should pick remained unresolved, bringing no relief to weary combatants on both sides, many of whom were fighting for the right to attend P.S. 234 in Tribeca.

The panel, with one member absent, voted 5-4 to support “Option 2.” (See maps below for the boundaries of both plans.)

“Nothing moves on the Council unless it receives a vote of six,” CEC president T. Elzora Cleveland announced to the stunned crowd, dotted with Option 2 supporters in red shirts and Option 3 backers in black.

Taking the microphone, Michael Markowitz, a member of the CEC’s zoning committee and an Option 3 supporter, pleaded with his fellow Council members to change their positions in a second vote.

“I ask my colleagues for the good of the community that we leave this room one way or the other,” he said. “I don’t care which way.”

But all nine members, Markowitz included, held fast to their decisions and the evening ended without a winning plan. Many who had come to the meeting, expecting to cheer or condemn the vote, slowly filed out of the auditorium of Wagner Middle School on East 76^th Street looking dazed and confused.

“I thought I was going to be happy or sad,” said Kaija Braus, a Leonard Street resident who was there to support an Option 3 that would include the eastern side of Tribeca in the P.S. 234 zone. “This is kind of weird.”

"I'm disappointed that we have to go through this process for another month because of one absentee Council member," said Nick de Seve, a leader of the Option 2 proponents. "In all the meetings I attended, I never saw the entire council together. I have a real problem with the piecemeal approach when it's a serious situation."

The panel will vote again at its regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 27. It is unclear how the absent member, Diana Florence, is leaning. But if the vote again does not yield a legal winner, parents will again face a lottery.

“If the CEC doesn’t pass a zoning resolution then we have no alternative; we will not force a zoning decision on people,” Elizabeth Rose, the Department of Education’s liaison to the zoning process, told the Trib following the meeting. “There are two zones. There is a zone for [P.S] 89 and there is a zone for [P.S.] 234. Families would have the opportunity to apply directly to [P.S] 276 or [P.S.] 397 and those families, assuming there are enough seats at those schools to accept all families who apply, would be accepted at those schools. If there is excess demand at 89 or 234 those schools would go to lottery.”

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The CEC voted 5-4 to support school zoning Option 2. But six votes were needed to win.

With kindergarten enrollment beginning next month, the prospect of a lottery could send parents into a maelstrom of anger and confusion, much as it did last spring, when some families living close to P.S. 234 and P.S. 89 were zoned for the new, more distant schools, P.S. 276 in lower Battery Park City and P.S. 397, the Spruce Street School. Since then, however, the new schools—temporarily in Tweed Courthouse—have received rave reviews from parents.

“Hopefully,” Rose said, “more people will be excited and interested in attending the new schools. That’s a big difference.”

Before being polled, several CEC members explained their votes, with those supporting Option 2 saying that Tribeca families faced danger crossing West Street to go to P.S. 89, their zoned school in Option 3.

“When it comes down to it, what is most important is safety,” said Eric Greenleaf, a P.S. 234 parent and the CEC’s newest member. “The West Side Highway is a highway and was not meant to be crossed by school children and their parents.”

“We asked parents to explain the communities to us and show us the natural boundaries,” said Sarah Chu. “West Street and Canal were the two where people said they would not cross those streets.”

Beth Cirone said she supported Option 3 because it “keeps communities together.” In addition, she said, the trial of terror suspects in the Federal Courthouse worried her.

CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB

Before taking its vote Wednesday night, the CEC listens as Cindy Nelson, in the red of her group, explains why she supports Option 2.

“It will be very hard for people to walk through that area,” she said. “ It’s not just dangerous, it’s impassable.”

Markowitz explained his preference for Option 3. “We set out to build schools and building schools means building communities. I feel like Option 3 Revised does a better job of that.”

Before the vote was taken, residents on both sides were each given a minute to state their cases. Many repeated their concerns about safety. Option 2 would put children in eastern Tribeca in P.S. 397. Option 3 Revised would send some children living in southern Tribeca across West Street to P.S. 89. Both require Tribeca parents to cross busy streets to get to their zoned school and each group claimed that their trek would put them in the greatest danger.

Erica Duignan Minnihan, a resident of 101 Warren Street in the "Whole Foods building," said she shouldn’t have to cross West Street and believes the appeal of new schools for those zoned out of P.S. 234 help support Option 2.  “The West Side Highway is the most obvious border of Tribeca,” said Minnihan.  “Just as we don’t send our children north of Canal Street, we shouldn’t be sending them across the West Side Highway. Crossing the West Side Highway during the morning rush hour is a perilous adventure.”

CARL GLSSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB

Michael Markowitz speaks to fellow CEC members. He urged some of them to change their vote so that "we can go to the world, the press and the public and say we made a decision." District 2 Superintendent Daria Rigney, second from right, sat in with the Council.

Those in support of Option 3 spoke of safety but also stressed the importance of "community." Support for Option 3 is shared by the eastern part of Tribeca, the southern Financial District and parts of Battery Park City.  Residents of Gateway Plaza want to attend P.S. 276 (in Option 3 Revised) instead of P.S. 89 (in Option 2) because they say they associate that area as their community.

The P.S. 397 PTA also endorses Option 3, saying that Option 2 splits off their school from the families it should logically serve, including those in the southern seaport area and the lower Financial District. And they have expressed anger that the debate has largely been framed as a Tribeca conflict over P.S. 234.

"This is not a battle between neighborhoods in Tribeca," said Kimberly Busi, co-president of the P.S. 397 PTA. "This is a four-neighborhood community. And our community and south Battery Park City are very much affected by this decision."

Victoria Petrusenko, a 9 Murray Street resident and mother of an 11-month-old daughter, sat in solidarity with fellow supporters of Option 3. But she puzzled over the thought that kindergarten, still years away, should already be a worry.

“I can’t believe I’m dealing with elementary school,” Petrusenko said, “when I should be thinking about nursery school.”

Click here to read what parents around Lower Manhattan are writing about the zoning debate.