De Blasio’s Accelerated opening Date for new Public School Gets Mixed Reviews from Parents

In what will one day be the “gymnatorium” of P.S./M.S. 342, Mayor Bill de Blasio last week announced the school would open in time for the start of the 2017 school year, a year earlier than expected.

“This community’s been growing like so much of the city,” de Blasio said at a press conference on August 10. “We have to adjust that growth and make smart decisions so we can accommodate the needs of children and make sure they can learn in the best possible environment.” P.S. 191, which is a block away at Amsterdam Avenue and West 61st Street, will move into the new building, a block west, when it opens.

Flanked by Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, P.S. 191 Principal Lauren Kerville, Community Education Council 3 President Joe Fiordaliso, Community Board 7 Chairwoman Elizabeth Caputo and Deputy Education Chancellor Elizabeth Rose, de Blasio praised the work of all involved. In answer to questions about the severely segregated nature of Upper West Side schools, de Blasio referenced historical trends and recent similar tensions in Brooklyn over racial inequalities in education. “I think the best thing to do — and we certainly saw this in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO in Downtown Brooklyn — is to bring it out in the open, talk about it at the community level and work it through,” he said. “I am a believer that dialogue happening out in the open is good and I am absolutely convinced that is what is going to happen here on the Upper West Side.”

More than a year ago, the DOE announced plans to rezone the Upper West Side to ease the overcrowding of schools in that area, causing an uproar among parents that some have suggested has to do with an unwillingness to integrate. The DOE has since proposed two different rezoning plans to be voted on by CEC 3 sometime this fall; one involves moving P.S. 452 at West 77th Street and Columbus Avenue into the building P.S. 191 will be vacating next September, and the other would create an entirely new school in that building and leave P.S. 452 where it is now. P.S. 452 parents have expressed both opposition and approval for moving their school, which is only six years old. Many parents do not want to increase their commute by 16 blocks, while others are willing to do so if it will help the community.

In a letter sent to Chalkbeat in late June, a group of P.S. 452 parents wrote that they “welcome” the idea of relocating their school due to space constraints in the current building and the opportunity to increase diversity. “The idea that the quality of public education should be proportional to the purchasing power of local residents is unacceptable,” the letter read. “Moving P.S. 452 is an opportunity to do the right thing by allowing a successful school to serve more children.”

After the press conference last week, Councilwoman Rosenthal said she did not think the new school’s early opening would make either proposal more likely to be chosen. “I don’t see how it does influence one way or another,” she said. “But it’s not for me to answer that question, I want to really emphasize that I, too, am hearing the anxiety of parents. Having sat through rezonings before and participated in them I do believe in the process.”

Rose, the deputy chancellor, said at the meeting that the DOE is “continuing to engage in a dialogue with the CEC [and] with parents in the community to get additional input before a final proposal is made.” Last week, at their request, Rose met with a group of P.S. 452 parents who think the best plan would be creating an entirely new school in the building P.S. 191 will be vacating. One of those parents, who asked to remain anonymous, was unsatisfied with the outcome of that discussion. “In trying to understand exactly what’s been happening we thought it would be helpful to see if we might be able to get some answers as to what the deciding factors are,” the parent said. “What they have said is that both scenarios address their diversity issues. ... But if you keep us where we are, you maximize [available kindergarten seats] and it provides a buffer for new construction. That can’t be the wrong choice.”

Because creating an entirely new school would increase the number of kindergarten sections in the district — according to the parents’ research — and because both proposed plans do something to increase diversity in the area, the parents who met with Rose are advocating for that option. Especially since, according to the anonymous parent, the DOE’s plans for the P.S. 452 building, should it be vacated, are unclear. “The question has been asked over and over again at CEC meetings of what are they going to do with the school,” the parent said. “The only thing that they’ve really crystallized is a pre-K center.”

The new school, P.S. 342, will have room for 700 students from pre-K through eighth grade. It will feature two rooftop playgrounds, art and music rooms, and STEM-focused lab space.