Combating Crowding, City Plans to Shift Kindergarten Seats
CARL GLASSMAN/TRIBECA TRIB
Elizabeth Rose of the city's Department of Education, explains alternative school assignment plans for kindergartners to Assemblyman Sheldon Silver's School Overcrowding Task Force.
At a meeting Thursday of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force, principals of four Downtown elementary schools announced their most recent kindergarten enrollment numbers. In total, those figures showed that the four schools—which include two new ones—are already beyond their total capacity by 76 students.
P.S. 89 principal Ronnie Najjar said that 84 children are enrolled for 65 non-special education kindergarten seats in her school. Thirty-six of those students are guaranteed spots because their older siblings already attend the school. That leaves 49 children for the remaining 29 seats.
Kindergarten overenrollment at P.S. 234 remains much more dramatic, with 195 zoned children in line for 115 non-special education seats. Sixty-three of those places are reserved for children with siblings in the school.
Elizabeth Rose, the DOE official in charge of the enrollment process, said that unlike P.S. 234, she does not anticipate a lottery for P.S. 89. Instead, she said the students zoned for P.S. 89 but living closer to P.S. 276 in southern Battery Park City may be offered seats in that school, which opens in its new building in September. That is sure to please parents in Gateway Plaza who had supported an option in the recent zoning battle that would have included their apartments in the P.S. 276 zone.
If seats open up at P.S. 89, Rose said, they would be assigned to children in southern Tribeca who live close to P.S. 89 and are wait-listed in the lottery for P.S. 234, their zoned school.
“That keeps [the children] very close to their homes for elementary school and it moves some of the available seats closer to the families at 234 so there will be less travel for all the students involved,” she said.
Carl Glassman / Tribeca Trib
After announcing to school task force members that there are more kindergarten applicants than seats at her school, P.S. 89 Principal Ronnie Najjar listens to the DOE's plan for shifting the additional children to P.S. 276 in lower Battery Park City.
Rose also left open the possibility of assigning children to classrooms in Tweed Courthouse and P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village.
On March 22, following an electronic lottery, the DOE will send letters to Tribeca parents who have applied to their zoned school, P.S. 234. The parents will either be told their children are accepted or they will receive their number on a wait list. At the same time, some prospective P.S. 89 parents may be offered seats at P.S. 276, Rose said.
In May, school assignments will be made for children who did not get into their zoned schools.
Looking ahead, Rose announced that there are funds in the DOE’s capital plan for a 450-seat elementary school at a location west of Broadway from Hudson Square to Battery Park. Previously, the DOE had said the new “Lower Manhattan” school could be located as far north as 14th Street. She said the School Construction Authority is now searching for the space.
“We need to find a site that works,” she said.
“It takes four to five years to get a school built,” replied Tricia Joyce, a P.S. 234 parent and school crowding activist. “I think everyone would agree, we still have a crisis.”
By Carl Glassman
UPDATED Mar. 25