Latest rezoning scenario revealed

After delays at the Department of Education caused the cancellation of the last three rezoning meetings at District 3’s Community Education Council (CEC), a final scenario was presented last Wednesday.

The council had been scheduled to vote on a rezoning plan at its meeting last week, but the timeline has now been extended, cutting it close to the Nov. 30 deadline for families to register with Kindergarten Connect.

In the education department’s fourth and final plan, all schools in District 3, from W. 59th Street to 124th Street west of Fifth Avenue, are included in the shake-up.

The proposal takes into account feedback received from parents, teachers and community members over the last year of discussions about how to alleviate overcrowding in the district’s schools, which are some of the most overburdened in the city.

By moving P.S. 191 to a new facility two blocks from its current location on W. 60th Street, re-siting P.S. 452 to P.S. 191’s old building and combining the under-enrolled P.S. 241 with P.S. 76, the department hopes to “alleviate overcrowding, promote diversity, and ensure that all our District 3 schools are successful,” according to Sarah Turchin, from the Department of Education’s planning office.

P.S. 87’s zone will be significantly decreased and the Dual Language Middle School will be re-sited to the building P.S. 452 currently shares with two other schools, allowing both it and its host P.S. 84 room to grow.

The re-siting of P.S. 452 has been a cause of significant parental outcry since it was suggested months ago because it will move the school almost a mile further downtown from W. 77th to W. 61st Street. Similarly, many parents living in the Lincoln Towers development are vehemently opposed to being rezoned for P.S. 191 instead of P.S. 199, which has a mostly white and well-off student body as opposed to 191’s mostly minority, lower-income population. The new scenario would increase the percentage of students at P.S. 199 receiving free or reduced-price lunches from seven to 15 or 20 percent, while at 191 it would decrease from 51 to 15 or 20 percent. P.S. 452 would also go from having eight to 15 or 20 percent of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. However, at previous meetings, parents have insisted that the underlying racial differences between the schools have nothing to do with their opposition.

Several community members’ testimonies became heated, and even Council President Joe Fiordaliso directed sarcastic comments at fellow member Noah Gotbaum after Gotbaum called the process “a sham” that lacked transparency.

After one audience member shouted out of turn to ask the CEC if the decision had already been made and it was “just wasting our time,” P.S. 452 principal Scott Parker said it felt like the audience wasn’t interested in the teachers’ perspectives.

“I recognize that this proposal is not a popular choice in the community,” Parker said. “It’s really hard to stand up here and say things that we know a lot of people don’t want to hear. We’re trying to do our best.” Parker, along with every other principal and teacher who spoke, was in favor of the final scenario and expressed excitement about the opportunities the rezoning would bring his school.

During the time for public comment, several parents also said they supported the rezoning and would be glad to have more diversity and an appropriate number of students at their schools.

In a letter distributed at last Wednesday’s meeting, Department of Education Chancellor Carmen Fariña called the rezoning a “rare opportunity to provide real benefits to a large number of schools in the community.”

“To be clear, our first and foremost job as educators is to ensure that every child has a great school to attend, regardless of where they live,” Fariña wrote. “Whenever we can achieve that goal and also support diverse learning communities, we owe it to our children to do so.”

The two public hearings were rescheduled for Nov. 14 and 21, and the council is now expected to vote on the proposal on Nov. 22.

Madeleine Thompson can be reached at newsreporter@strausnews.com