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Union: DOE needs plan to solve school overcrowding in District 2
Aug 7, 2008 12:35 PM
At a July 21 press conference, UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew lambastes the Department of Education for failing to deliver a plan to solve the overcrowding dilemma at PS 116, Manhattan.
This summer, the UFT has joined parents and others in fighting school overcrowding in Manhattan’s rapidly growing District 2.
UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew joined teachers, parents, community leaders and elected officials on July 21 at a press conference to bring attention to overcrowding at PS 116, a high-performing school in Murray Hill. And on Aug. 6, UFT Vice President Richard Farkas and some 200 parents, educators, community residents and elected officials rallied outside a state-owned office building in Greenwich Village to urge the state to stop seeking commercial development proposals and consider instead converting the structure into a sorely needed middle school.
Due to rapid commercial development and a boom in residential construction, District 2 is facing critical school overcrowding. A study released in April by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer noted that the city has approved enough new buildings to add up to 2,300 new students to schools for kindergarten through 8th grade while increasing total school capacity by only 143 seats in the district.
At the PS 116 press conference, Mulgrew said the community was crying out for a plan from the Department of Education, adding “there is a crisis in this school.”
There are at least 40 high-rise buildings with an estimated 3,377 new housing units currently being built in the neighborhood, the protest’s organizers said. All of the new developments are zoned for PS 116, which next year will have 100 more students than the building is designed to hold. The school will have seven kindergarten classes this year – with as many as 28 students in each class.
“We all know that smaller classes equate to higher performance,” Mulgrew said. He called on the DOE to “give us a real plan, not something they call a plan and don’t tell us about.”
The school’s UFT chapter leader, Alfred Gonzalez, rejected any plans to open an annex 10 blocks away. “Breaking up the school is not the solution,” Gonzalez added.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney ridiculed the DOE for having students eating lunch at 10:20 a.m. and for cutting music, art and science classes. “The guidance counselor is using a closet to meet with students,” she said. She called on the DOE to invest in new schools to meet the burgeoning population changes in the district.
Stringer lambasted the DOE and the School Construction Authority, saying “this is the worst example of [their] ineptitude.”
Protesters outside 75 Morton St. called on the state to withdraw its request for proposals from commecial developers for how to use the space and offer the seven-story building instead to the School Construction Authority for use as a middle school.
According to news reports, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott sent a letter on the eve of the rally to the state asking it to consider converting the building into a school instead of putting it up for sale.
“Local parents are thrilled at the discovery of this tremendous resource right in our midst for relieving school overcrowding,” said Ann Kjellberg, founding member of the Public School Parent Advocacy Committee. “We hope that this important opportunity to reduce class size and accommodate a growing population of kids will not be lost.”
Farkas said a new middle school would go a long way to address District 2’s overcrowding.
“The current construction boom shows that the city is doing a great job of attracting middle-class families, but it is not doing a good job of planning to add more classroom seats and school space to accommodate the educational needs of the children,” Farkas said.
