Councilmember Margaret Chin, center, was among the officials who greeted Peck Slip School students Sept. 9, 2015, the building’s opening day.
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Strollers lined the building Wednesday, children ran around playing and yelling, parents greeted one another with hugs and kisses — and all were excited about the first day at the newly opened Peck Slip School in the Seaport.
“I think it’s absolutely gorgeous — it’s brand new,” said Dana Bullaro, whose son John, 7, is in the second grade. “We look forward to a great year.”
The family lives nearby on John St. and Bullaro said they tracked the progress of the school’s construction closely.
Kiran Srikant, a second grader, initially shy, promptly told Downtown Express that she is six and two third quarters old.
Plenty of first day school photos, no doubt suitable for Facebook.
Her mom, Kirti Srikant, said Kiran was excited about the new school, but also a little nervous as the building is bigger than Peck Slip’s temporary home at Tweed Courthouse.
“It is a much better commute,” said Srikant as the family also lives on John St.
Lynne Garcia has two girls attending Peck Slip — Ella, 4, in pre-K and Ana, 6, in first grade. “We are a big fan of Maggie and the school,” said Garcia, referring to principal Maggie Siena.
Siena came out in front of the yellow awning entrance now emblazoned with “PS 343 M,” the school’s other name, and said “Morning Peck Slip!” to cheers.
Siena called out where grades should line up and then rang the bell, saying, “It’s a tradition” with a smile.
State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Councilmember Margaret Chin and Community Board 1 Chairperson Catherine McVay Hughes held up a brightly-colored banner that said “Welcome Peck Slip Students!”
Hughes said, “Lots of smiling faces — the kids, the parents, the school administration and principal Maggie.”
A week before school opened, Siena talked to Downtown Express about the new building, and preparing it for the influx of around 285 students and up to 10 classes of pre-K at a separate center.
“We’re just spending time being in awe,” Siena said in a phone interview. “I had one teacher who, when I came into the building, she was just sitting in a room in the dark staring at it — it’s just so beautiful.”
It took three years of “incubating” at Tweed, the Dept. of Education’s headquarters, over two years of renovation costing $58 million and several years of the community and Downtown school advocates pushing to make the school at 1 Peck Slip a reality.
“The opening of the Peck Slip School is a long-awaited and much welcome milestone for families in the Seaport and Financial Districts,” Hughes, C.B. 1 chairperson, wrote in an email last week. “What was once a sad post office will now be a bustling elementary school.”
Hughes pointed to the work of Assemblymember Sheldon Silver’s School Overcrowding Task Force that “has campaigned constantly to bring in the school seats we need in the wake of our rapid post-9/11 transformation.”
Lower Manhattan has experienced its shortage of school seats and waitlists.
Chin, the councilmember, said in an email statement Tuesday, with the growing population, “this school is a much needed addition to Lower Manhattan’s educational landscape.”
Tricia Joyce, a member of the schools task force and chairperson of C.B. 1’s Youth and Education Committee, said in a phone interview, “I’m thrilled about it. We have been really lucky once again in the timing because as it opens, we filled all of the sections. Another year at Tweed would not have been possible.”
Siena said there are still a few minor items that need to be completed.
“That’s to be expected in a new school building. In fact, [the] School Construction [Authority] expects that they’ll be working on a building up to a year after it opens,” she said.
Some families going to the school cross Beekman St., where safety concerns have been heightened since April, when a hit and run driver slammed a pedestrian near Spruce Street School. Peck Slip has yet to be assigned a crossing guard, but the Dept. of Transportation has closed the cobblestoned street between Pearl and Water Sts. during student drop off and pickup.
Metal barricades were set up at both ends on Wednesday and a community affairs officer from the First Precinct was there.
Siena, who has been principal since the school started its first year at Tweed in fall 2012, said, “I think that we’re going to be able to keep the tone and the warm community of our incubating school, our small Peck Slip School even though we’re in a big new building with a much bigger staff. That’s very encouraging.”
