Members of the Lower Manhattan Overcrowding Task Force — including state Sen, Daniel Squadron, right, and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, center — were not impressed when School Construction Authority spokesman Michael Mirisola, left, showed them plans for the new elementary school slated for 77 Greenwich St., which includes four pre-K classrooms, but not a full gymnasium and auditorium.
BY YANNIC RACK
It’s physical education versus early education.
Parents and school advocates in Lower Manhattan want the city to ditch the pre-K component of a new elementary school slated for the Financial District, in a Hail Mary pass to score a full-size gym and auditorium instead.
The city’s School Construction Authority, which announced the long-awaited 476-seat facility at 77 Greenwich St. in January, has so far resisted calls to deviate from their plan to build the school with a combined gym-and-auditorium the city calls a “gymnatorium.”
Now local parents and advocates say the school’s four planned pre-K classrooms should be cut to make space for separate, full-size facilities — since they say Downtown has more than enough pre-K seats anyway.
“It’s sort of a no-brainer,” said Shino Tanikawa, president of Community Education Council District 2, which covers Lower Manhattan. “It’s actually a little mind-boggling to me that nobody thought of this.”
Even though Lower Manhattan’s schools are notoriously overcrowded, the move makes sense when considering the “maniacal” pace of the mayor’s pre-K rollout in the neighborhood, said Tricia Joyce, chairwoman of Community Board 1’s Youth and Education Committee.
“Overwhelmingly, the parents and students Downtown would prefer to have a gym and auditorium over as many pre-K seats as we have,” said Joyce. “We have more than we need, so I’m disturbed that they’re cutting corners on the gym and auditorium space, and adding even more pre-K instead.”
The idea was first floated at last month’s meeting of the Lower Manhattan Overcrowding Task Force, a panel made up of local politicians, community board members and school advocates that meets regularly with representatives from both the SCA and Dept. of Education.
When the agencies presented the plans for the new school last month, local parents were disappointed to find the dreaded gymnatorium was included, despite their preemptive calls to not repeat the same mistake made at The Peck Slip School — the newest Downtown, which was built with a similar combined facility.
“We’re delighted to have this new school, but we want to make it the best we can,” said Tammy Meltzer, a parent and community board member. “If we can get the full gym, it would be so much better than this gymnatorium.”
The current plans call for a double-height gymnatorium with a stage to be built on the sixth floor of the 500-foot mixed-use tower, which will start construction this year and is scheduled to open in 2019.
As of now, the new school’s eight floors are slated for four pre-K classes, as well as three kindergarten classes and three each for grade 1–5, according to SCA spokesman Michael Mirisola. The school will also have space for two special-Ed classes.
Mirisola told the task force this month that space at the school was tight since the agency had to work within the framework agreed upon with the developer — even though the deal wasn’t officially inked yet — but added that he would look into the possibility of a pre-K trade-off.
“This is a deal that’s done with the developer. We don’t own this building, we don’t have the flexibility that we’d have if we did,” he said. “But I will take this back to our folks in capital planning, and our early childhood people, and see what their numbers tell us about pre-K.”
Both Joyce and Tanikawa point to a nearby pre-K center that opened on Washington St. last September with a capacity of 108 seats — in addition to at least two more standalone centers Downtown — as evidence that the seats at the new school are not needed.
And Joyce added that the existing school gyms in the neighborhood are so overbooked that adding another gymnatorium would spell disaster, since Peck Slip is already struggling with its hybrid facility.
“The gym at PS 234, for example, is booked solid from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. How they think a gymnatorium is even a possibility is … confusing,” she said. “We already have a preview of all the failures at Peck Slip. We have to make sure this does not become the new standard.”
