By Julie Shapiro
Hoping to avoid the confusion and anger that surrounded Lower Manhattan kindergarten admissions this year, the Dept. of Education has unveiled two options for next fall.
The key question is how to decide which students will enroll in Lower Manhattan’s two new schools — P.S./I.S. 276 and the Spruce Street School — and which students will attend the existing schools, P.S. 234 and P.S. 89.
One option is to carve Downtown’s two existing school zones into four zones, one for each of the schools. Children would then be guaranteed a seat in the school assigned to their zone.
The other option is to create one large zone for the entire area below Canal St. and the Brooklyn Bridge to have parents apply to whichever schools they like best. If too many students wanted a particular school, the D.O.E. would prioritize parents living closest to the school.
John White, head of the D.O.E.’s Office of Portfolio Development, described the two options Tuesday at a meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s school overcrowding taskforce. The taskforce, made up of parents, principals, community leaders and D.O.E. officials, has been meeting for more than a year, but this was the first time it has been open to the press.
At the meeting, White said he hopes to work with parents and the District 2 Community Education Council to hammer out a final zoning plan by the end of the year.
“This past spring…there was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of unhappiness,” Silver said at the meeting. “Hopefully we’ll get resolution so there’ll be a little more certainty next year…[and] people will know and understand exactly what the process is.”
This year, the city held lotteries for P.S. 234 and P.S. 89, because more students wanted to attend than the schools could hold. Parents were upset about the lack of communication regarding the lotteries, and some were also angry that the lotteries did not take geography into account, so children living far from a school had the same chance of getting in as children who lived nearby.
At Silver’s meeting, White promised that in the future, geography would be a factor in kindergarten admissions. He also said the city would rezone the neighborhood with an eye toward limiting young elementary classes to 20 students, making room for pre-K and preserving “cluster rooms” for classes like art and science.
The simplest way to take geography into account would be through the first zoning option, which would carve Lower Manhattan into four school zones. Families in Tribeca would go to P.S. 234, northern Battery Park City would go to P.S. 89, southern B.P.C. and the southern Financial District would go to P.S. 276 and the Seaport and northern Financial District would go to the Spruce Street School, White said.
A school bus just happened to be driving by the P.S./I.S. 276 site this week, but officials hope the Battery Park City school will be open next year.
White did not give exact street boundaries, but he said all children would be within 0.6 miles of their zoned school. As examples, he said the Holland Tunnel is 0.6 miles from P.S. 234, and the eastern edge of Wall St. is 0.6 miles from P.S. 276.
White said he wanted to hear from the community before defining the exact lines of the zones.
“We know there are lines that exist in the community that as outsiders we’re not privy to,” he said.
The other option the D.O.E. is considering would combine all of Lower Manhattan into one zone, creating a process similar to the one that took place this year in which parents ranked their school choices. But unlike this year, the D.O.E. would use geography to make decisions if too many children applied to a certain school.
The advantage of the one-zone plan is that it gives parents more options, while the disadvantage is that more options often mean more uncertainty and stress.
“Just in terms of clarity, the geographic zones would be preferable,” said Ronnie Najjar, principal of P.S. 89. “It’s very clear: I am moving into this building; this is my school. It will take away a lot of the anxiety…experienced this spring.”
Lisa Ripperger, principal of P.S. 234, agreed, saying parents prefer to have certainty about what will happen with their child.
This spring’s lottery “created an awful lot of disequilibrium and chaos for families,” Ripperger said. “I really don’t relish the thought of going back and doing it again.”
Carolyn Happy, whose daughter is at P.S. 89, said she liked the one-zone idea at first, but then other parents pointed out “that it would be a colossal nightmare,” she said. Hundreds of parents would suddenly want to tour all four of the schools, instead of just visiting their zoned school, she said. And any type of lottery, even if it’s based on geography, would cause anger and confusion, she said.
Eric Greenleaf, a P.S. 234 parent, suggested a compromise, in which children would all be assigned to a zoned school but would also have a chance to apply for available spaces in other Downtown elementary schools.
“Maybe that would preserve both the sense of certainty and the sense of having options,” Greenleaf said.
