P.S./I.S. 276 may open a second grade this fall in its new southern Battery Park City home.
The school was only slated to have kindergarten and first-grade elementary classes, phasing in second grade in 2011, but parents pushed for 276 to open a second-grade class a year early to take some of the overcrowding burden off of P.S. 89 in northern Battery Park City. P.S. 89 can comfortably handle three classes per grade but was forced to accept five kindergarten classes in the fall of 2008, creating a bump of extra students that is now moving through the school.
Anne Albright, a P.S. 89 parent, first suggested moving some P.S. 89 students to P.S. 276 last year. She said she would consider moving one of her first-grade twins to 276 this fall, even though she also has a third-grader at P.S. 89 and said she loves the school.
The city sent letters to parents of all P.S. 89 first graders to gauge their interest in moving to P.S. 276 and will hold two information sessions. Albright said there would likely only be enough transfers to fill one second-grade class at 276.
The Dept. of Education did not return calls for comment, but it is already saying in a document related to school moves in Chelsea that P.S. 276 will go from pre-K to 2 this fall.
The D.O.E. also provided more information this week about the District 75 (special education) students who will attend P.S. 276. As part of a space shuffle in Chelsea, the city is proposing to move 13 students with autism from a District 75 school in P.S. 33 on Ninth Ave. to P.S. 276. Those children would be similar in age to the general-education students at 276 this fall.
In addition to housing kindergarten, first-grade and possibly second-grade students, P.S./I.S. 276 will definitely open a sixth grade this fall and may also open a pre-K, Principal Terri Ruyter said.
The second-grade information sessions for P.S. 276 will be held in the school’s current location at Tweed Courthouse, 52 Chambers St., from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tues., March 2 and Tues., March 9. I.S. 276 will hold a sixth-grade information session Wed., March 17 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Pl. Parents can go to bpcschool.org to register for the sessions.
— Julie Shapiro
with Patrick Hedlund
