An effort is underway to produce a book on Greenwich Village’s P.S. 41, chronicling the legendary W. 11th St. school through the tumultuous teachers strike and school decentralization battles.
According to Jean Krampner, who was the P.T.A. president at the school in 1968 during the teachers strike, Laurie Fried, an active member of the school’s current P.T.A., is spearheading the project. Fried was out of town. Krampner, however, said that only former P.T.A. presidents will write for the book.
“I haven’t written mine yet,” she noted.
Subjects that will be covered will include the first school board elections and how P.S. 41 parents figured prominently in them, including Sophie Gerson and Dorothy Ryan, both elected to the Community School Board 2. John Lo Cicero, who was deputy mayor in the Koch administration, is another former P.S. 41 P.T.A. president.
Krampner said they hope to have something produced by September and that this may just be the first volume of more to come that will bring the school history up to the current date.
Even today, the wounds from the education battles still smart.
“It was a very turbulent time,” Krampner said, “so people still aren’t talking to each other over what happened.”
Previously, P.S. 41 parents have produced cookbooks. Krampner said this book is intended to be a fundraiser for the school.
