Parent Council Reviews Zoning Proposal

By [Laura Shin] Parents and school administrators recently got a look at the Department of Education"s rezoning proposal for the Upper East Side. The Department of Education is asking the parent group for the school district, known as a Community Education Council, for feedback on its proposal so that they can make any necessary changes and move forward with the rezoning process. Elizabeth Rose, a Department of Education official, met with the committee and local parents Oct. 21 to discuss the proposal, which could go into effect as soon as next school year. One of the main reasons the department is pushing the proposal is because the new P.S. 267 does not have a zone. It is necessary to have a zone in order to build a school and a community, she said. â??We"re creating a new school, we need to create a zone, Rose said. Medea McEvoy, principal at P.S. 267 at 1458 York Ave. and East 78th Street, said other schools pulled students from her school because it did not have zone. She asked everyone at the meeting to help move the process along quickly so that the school can have a zone by next year. The proposal is the same one that was presented last year by the DOE, but it was rejected. Members of the Community Education Council"s zoning committee said the proposal was rejected because they did not have enough data to make a well-informed decision. Shino Tanikawa, a member of the committee, said several requests were made to the Department of Education for organized demographic information on where students live and where they go to school. She said the department felt it was inappropriate to release that information to the committee. Rose said at the meeting that she will get maps for the committee that will illustrate where students live and where their zoned school would be. Rose assured parents and the committee that the DOE designed the proposal based on demographic data. â??We think we have pretty good data, Rose said. â??It"s not perfect, but it"s pretty good. One of the biggest changes is the P.S. 59 zone. The northernmost part of the zone will move from East 68th Street down to the south side of East 59th Street. Rose said they proposed to shrink the zone because data shows that Midtown East is projected to have the most growth and new housing. The new P.S. 59 building on East 57th Street is expected to open in 2012. Members of the committee were concerned that the rezoning fails to address overcrowding and waitlists. â??All public schools on the Upper East Side are overcrowded, Tanikawa said. â??Zoning does not create new seats. We should be thinking about a new school before we run out of space. Leslie Cohen, who lives on East 66th Street and has a son who will enter kindergarten next year, said she would like to see the committee and the Department of Education come to a decision. â??We"re just sitting in a gray area, she said. â??In the city, you decide where you live based on the school districts.