BY SARA HENDRICKSON | A series of public meetings over the last several weeks generated both excitement and concerns about creating a new middle school zone for the 75 Morton St. school opening in fall 2017.
But as Shino Tanikawa, president of Community Education Council District 2, reminded attendees at the March 15 meeting, “Middle school zoning is very different than elementary school zoning.”
School District 2 has a long legacy as a choice district for middle school, and only about 20 percent of students attend their zoned middle school. Fifth graders apply to — and rank their choices of — multiple schools with admissions methods ranging from state test scores, to priority for attending a school tour, to a pure lottery.
The ranking system and gaming tactics to find a school match have caused increasing angst among parents and children and is an ongoing project for C.E.C. 2 to reform the system.
For years there has been a large section of District 2 in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea that has gone unzoned for a middle school.
“We’ve been orphans for a while,” said Carolyn Trufelman, a mother of two sons in Hell’s Kitchen who spoke at one of the zoning hearings. “If you’re a kid who scored a 4 on the state test and can get into Salk or Lab, you’re in great shape. If not, the Department of Education puts you where they put you.”
“A zone provides a feeling of security for parents,” said C.E.C. 2 member Beth Cirone.
Of the 23 middle schools in the huge District 2, only a few are zoned. Baruch (at E. 20th St. and First Ave.) and Wagner (at E. 76th St. and Second Ave.) each have large zones. Meanwhile, Dr. Sun Yat Sen (100 Hester St.) in Chinatown has a much smaller zone. Roosevelt Island also has a zoned middle school.
At the Feb. 25 C.E.C. 2 meeting, D.O.E. unveiled two possible zoning scenarios for 75 Morton St. Both included the unzoned Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea neighborhoods. Scenario A stopped at Canal St., while Scenario B included the three elementary schools south of Canal St. in Tribeca and Battery Park City — P.S. 89, P.S. 234 and P.S. 276.
Many Downtown parents from those elementary schools voiced their desire to be zoned for nearby 75 Morton rather than Baruch, the latter which would mean a much longer commute for their future sixth graders.
“It’s fine to say kids travel, but we wouldn’t even have a choice in Downtown,” said parent Jane Barratt. “Please vote for Zone B.”
Baruch parents and teachers also turned out in numbers for zoning hearings.
“It feels like Baruch is taking the biggest hit,” worried its principal, Rocco Macri.
D.O.E. official Sarah Turchin responded that “fewer than 10 percent of students” at the three elementary schools south of Canal St. attend Baruch. “In the area we are not touching, over 50 percent of zoned students attend Baruch,” she noted.
Many middle schoolers do travel long distances to attend Baruch’s popular “special progress” or S.P. program, an accelerated curriculum with separate classes. Students applying to the S.P. program are accepted based on strong academic qualifications. Baruch also offers an A.P., or “academic progress,” program — essentially, zoned seats without stringent academic screening.
Macri confirmed that Baruch has more demand than available seats for its S.P. program. If more S.P. seats were created “that might help us,” Macri offered, “but I’m not sure that would completely make up the difference.”
Wagner, the other large (1,000-plus students) zoned middle school on the Upper East Side, also offers S.P. and A.P. tracks and has 60 percent S.P. seats versus 30 percent at Baruch.
Baruch teacher Carolyn Shepard worried about declining enrollment leading to co-location. Co-location involves bringing other schools into a building with excess capacity.
“I’ve worked in co-located schools and seen destruction of the school community,” she said.
C.E.C. 2 member Claude Arpels assured the crowd, “The last thing anyone wants is co-location.” He added that the impact on Baruch might be “overblown.”
“Maybe increasing Baruch’s S.P. program is more important to fight for,” he suggested.
Bonnie Laboy, the District 2 superintendent, stated at the March 15 C.E.C. 2 meeting, “I’m prepared to increase the number of S.P. seats at Baruch.”
In Greenwich Village, a small cohort of families are unhappy that D.O.E.’s scenarios carve out the P.S. 340 zone. Parent Joe Smith felt it was “déjà vu.” Smith lives on the north side of W. 12th St. near Seventh Ave. and three years ago was reassigned from P.S. 41 to the newly created zone for P.S. 340, at Sixth Ave. and 17th St., which opened in 2014. His neighbors on the south side of W. 12th St. remained in the P.S. 41 zone.
Although 75 Morton will have a portion of seats for unzoned students, Smith was anxious.
“Now, again, my kids might not be able to go to their neighborhood school,” he protested. “Why do we have to be beholden to a Lego-block structure of elementary school zones?”
Middle school zone lines have historically followed elementary school zone lines. However, families are assigned to a zone based on their address, not where their child attends elementary school.
Eric Goldberg, chairperson of the C.E.C. 2 zoning committee, expressed concern that Peck Slip School near the South St. Seaport was zoned for Baruch, thus “passing through” the third zoned middle school, Sun Yat Sen (M.S. 131) in Chinatown.
“Are we saying that M.S. 131 is fine for existing students but not for new students?” he asked.
Superintendent Laboy responded, “Yes, we would like to see M.S. 131 recruit more kids from across the district, but they have an academic program that is serving their kids very well.”
Laboy reminded the crowd that her goal in creating a new zone for 75 Morton was “to afford families that live in the northwestern portion of our district who are not currently afforded zoned seats — I’d like to bring equity to those families.”
She also pointed out that as new elementary schools, such as The River School, P.S. 340 and Peck Slip School, add grades up to capacity, those growing schools will be part of Baruch’s zone.
C.E.C. 2 President Tanikawa presented compelling data culled from official sources (not waiting for D.O.E. to respond to C.E.C. 2’s data request) that showed strong demand for middle schools in District 2.
“We need 400 to 500 more middle school seats and there are plenty of students that would like to go to Baruch, either S.P. or A.P.,” Tanikawa concluded. “We shouldn’t worry about under-enrollment or co-location.”
C.E.C. 2, which has jurisdiction on zoning, will listen to more public feedback once D.O.E. presents a final zoning proposal, and will vote in late April or May. A majority of six votes is needed to approve the zone, otherwise 75 Morton will go unzoned.
Decisions on 75 Morton’s admissions methods, academic programming and profile for the new principal will be deliberated on by a working group recently created by Laboy to formulate recommendations for D.O.E. The group has broad representation from the community and educators. A D.O.E representative from District 75, the citywide district serving students with disabilities, will also participate.
The Morton St. school will include up to 100 District 75 students on a dedicated floor for classrooms. All the school’s students will share the cafeteria, gym, library and the building’s other common spaces.
For the last three years, the 75 Morton Community Alliance has been mobilizing the community and gathering input to create the school.
A January envisioning session on admissions hosted by 75 M.C.A. drew 160 participants from 23 schools. Strong preference emerged for a dual-admissions model to create diversity — both socioeconomically and academically — where students with a range of grades and test scores would be admitted. A portion of students could be admitted based on zone or interest in the school, and a portion based on screening that also “goes beyond traditional academic measures,” explained Emily Hellstrom of 75 M.C.A.
Rather than dual S.P./A.P. tracks like Baruch, many parents at the January meeting preferred a single academic track where all students could learn together in classrooms and create a unified school community.
