CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB

At the meeting with Elizabeth Rose of the Department of Education, Melissa Hammel says she would like to express a preference for which school her child will attend. The meeting was held at P.S. 89 in Battery Park City, a school that is not one of the options for wait listed children to attend.

Tribeca’s P.S. 234 will open an additional kindergarten class in the fall, a plan by the Department of Education to cut in half the number of Tribeca children on the school's wait list.

At a meeting Tuesday night for parents of children on the list, the DOE’s representative, Elizabeth Rose, said the school would add a sixth class to accommodate 25 of the 50 children now on the list. To make room for the class, another first grade section will not be added as planned. That class was intended to absorb newly arrived first graders, and prevent crowding in the grade.

“Over the long term the better use of that classroom at 234 would be to accommodate the kindergarten wait list,” Rose said.

The DOE has agreed to cap the kindergarten and first grade class sizes at 25.

Most of the children still on the wait list, Rose said, will be assigned to P.S. 276, the school due to open in September at the southern end of Battery Park City. A fifth kindergarten class will be created to make room for them. There is space for a few children at the Spruce Street School, and P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village can take students from northern Tribeca. Rose had previously said that schools in Chinatown and on the Lower East Side were among the alternatives for children on the wait list. But the new plan eliminates those options.

Parents at the Spruce Street School, which is more convenient for many of the Tribeca families, had objected to adding more kindergarten classes to their school, saying the additional children would lead to crowding and eventually threaten the middle school that is planned as part of the school.

Busing will be provided to kindergartners who live at least a half-mile from P.S. 276, Rose said.

CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB

Elizabeth Rose speaks to parents whose children are on the wait list for P.S. 234.

Parents on the wait list complained that they aren't permitted to express a preferences between the three schools.

“Why don’t we just put our names on a list for you now?” asked a father. “Just a simple process to look at when you’re making your decision.”

Rose said wait lists are common in four of the five boroughs, and one policy must fit all. “That’s the only thing that’s fair to all wait listed families throughout the city,” she said.

Despite the news of an additional kindergarten class at P.S. 234, there was no sign of glee, even among parents whose children will now be able to attend the school.

“My concern is where does it go after that. What happens in first grade and second grade?” said Annabell Vered. “I have two girls coming after this. What happens to them two years from now and four years from now. The school is already crowded to the max.”

“I don’t know how I would feel if I got into 234 now, with six kindergartens,” said Sheila Cain, who was number 50 on the wait list, “because I don’t know where they’re going to go with that many children in years to come.”

In a telephone interview, P.S. 234 principal Lisa Ripperger said the additional kindergarten class would not be a burden for the school nor would it lead to overcrowding.

“It’s just more little cute faces,” she said. “It doesn’t matter.”