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CFE: Problem rampant in schools for high-needs students

by Michael Hirsch

Jun 4, 2009 12:46 PM

Discussing the Campaign for Fiscal Equity report findings are Jean Laupus (standing), CFE director of special projects, and (seated, from left) CFE Deputy Director Helaine Doran, UFT Vice President Richard Farkas and CFE Executive Director Geri Palast.

Think students at your school are packed in to overflowing? They’re not alone. Some 48 percent of New York City public schools are overcrowded, says a May 20 report by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. Most of the overcrowded schools serve at-risk students, and the Department of Education — despite its capital plan — has no strategy for responding.

“Maxed Out: New York City School Overcrowding Crisis” found 515 school buildings serving more than 500,000 students either overcrowded or dealing with the overcrowding by utilizing temporary structures. Of these, 391 school buildings enrolling more than 381,000 students showed utilization rates greater than 100 percent. These included 299 elementary schools, 20 middle schools and 72 high schools.

In addition, of 215 buildings with temporary structures — including 191 elementary schools, 13 middle schools and 11 high schools — 91 were overcrowded.

The report analyzed data from the DOE’s own Enrollment-Capacity-Utilization Report for the 2006-07 school year.

Unlike the DOE, which includes temporary structures such as trailers and annexes separated from the main building to show that every student has a seat and that overcrowding is minimal, “Maxed Out” makes clear that schools with temporary structures are overcrowded, too.

“Their common spaces — gyms, libraries and cafeterias — are overtaxed and their principals, whose main job should be as instruction leaders, spend too many hours overseeing the smooth running of all their buildings,” Helaine Doran, CFE deputy director, said.

Serious overcrowding was found in 92 of the 105 low-performing schools on the state’s “Schools in Need of Improvement” list, disproportionately impacting hundreds of thousands of high-needs students.

The authors fault the DOE’s capital plan for merely listing anticipated construction projects and not also “provid(ing) a specific blueprint to eliminate overcrowding.”

While seats in the proposed new plan, added to those not yet completed from the previous plan, total some 25,000 — making for a combined increase of 80,000 over 10 years through FY 2014 — the department doesn’t target areas most in need of relief from overcrowding.

The report also questions the DOE’s attempts to reallocate underutilized space — projected to add nearly 129,000 seats in schools currently under 75 percent of capacity — because much of the excess will not be available to mitigate overcrowding and because many are not proximate to overcrowded schools.

And they question DOE estimates that declining enrollments will be significant enough to reduce overcrowding in most New York neighborhoods.

Among its recommendations, CFE wants the DOE to:

• Use its 80,000 planned new seats to eliminate overcrowding in the 51 most impacted schools.
• Identify school buildings with available space that are near overcrowded schools, then rezone to eliminate overcrowding.
• Establish new schools and programs in underutilized school buildings and prioritize space for students from nearby overcrowded sites.
• Not rely on projected enrollment declines to address overcrowding citywide, especially in Queens and Staten Island.

Along with releasing “Maxed Out,” the CFE launched a Web site, www.OvercrowdedNYCschools.org, to help parents and educators track overcrowding by borough, district, school and grade level.