| P.S. 199 PTA Overcrowding Committee News | | | | A. Email Updates | | May 31, 2007 – PTA Announces a Political Action Committee Oct. 3, 2007 – PAC Meeting on Oct. 9 re: our growing population Nov. 17, 2007 – Meeting on real estate development – Monday 11/19 Nov. 27, 2007 – CEC3 Newsletter – November 2007 (District 3 Space Committee update) December 2007 – Update December 2007 March 30, 2008 – Busting at the seams! Forum about overcrowded schools 4/8 April 3, 2008 – Letter from Scott Stringer (regarding DOE Capital Plan) April 15, 2008 – School overcrowding report and Press Conference May 12, 2008 – Community Board 7 – Impt Mtg re: Extell Development May 14, 2008 – Meeting to update parents re: our growing school (May 21) May 20, 2008 – Political Action Committee meeting 5/21 May 22, 2008 - Last Minute Announcement of Meeting (re Extell Development) top | | B. Correspondence: | | 1) Letter from PS 199 to DOE, October 5, 2007 2) Letter from PS 199 to DOE, February 4, 2008 3) Letter from State Sen. Thomas Duane/Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal to DOE, February 6, 2008 4) Thank you letter to Duane/Rosenthal February 2008 5) Letter from PS 199 to DOE, March 7, 2008 6) Letter from PS 199/Center School Joint Space Committee to certain community organizations (Community Board 7, Coalition for a Livable West Side, Landmark West, and 69 Street Block Association), April 17, 2008
7) Letter from DOE to CEC3, May 1, 2008 8) Information about residential development in PS 199 catchment, provided to DOE top | | C .Press: | | New York Magazine article, featuring PS 199 and PS 116: “Catchment-22," by S. Jhoanna Robledo, Nov.26, 2007
http://nymag.com/news/features/41277/ Press conference about BP Scott Stringer’s report at which PS 199 PTA PAC co-chair Julie Mallin spoke and was interviewed:
http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=111301@wcbs.dayport.com New York Times article about kindergarten overcrowding, “New York’s Coveted Public Schools Face Pupil Jam,” by Elissa Gootman, May 9, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/nyregion/09schools.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=kindergarten+new+york+234+gootman&st=nyt&oref=slogin Insideschools.org article, “Building Boom Contributes to Overcrowded Schools,” by Philissa Cramer, May 14, 2008
http://www.insideschools.org/nv/NV_overcrowding051308.php?080513 top | | Report of Manhattan Boro President Scott Stringer: “Crowded Out: School Construction Fails to Keep Up with Manhattan Building Boom”
http://www.mbpo.org/uploads/SCHOOLSREPORT.pdf Report of New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr.: “Growing Pains: Reforming Department of Education Capital Planning to Keep Pace with New York City’s Residential Construction”
http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/opm/reports/05-09-08_growing_pains.pdf top | | E. Online resources | | District 3 parents group – join yahoo e-mail group for regular District 3 news
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/district3parents/ Public school parents blog
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/ Class Size matters
http://www.classsizematters.org/ CEC District 2 website, for information about overcrowding in Community School District 2:
http://www.cecd2.net/home.aspx Letter from DOE to CEC2 setting forth “blueprint” of recommendations to address overcrowding in CSD2:
http://www.cecd2.net/www/cecd2/site/hosting/District%202%20Blueprint.pdf top | | F. Community School District 3: | | District 3 link
http://www.csd3.nycdoe.org/ District 3 space committee capacity chart District 3 space committee capacity map | | | | >>****Political Action Committee Meeting,
>> Wednesday, May 21st at 6:30pm
>> in the library.
>>
>> We will discuss PS 199's growing space issues and to update about
>>possible solutions to be considered, including rezoning school
>>catchment lines.
>> Child care will be provided for school-age children, paid for by the
>>PTA.
>> We look forward to seeing you there!
>> Feel free to contact us at ps199.pac@gmail.com
>>
>>Sandra Levy and Julie Mallin, Co-Chairs, PS 199 PTA Political Action
>>Committee
>> top | | >Dear Parents,
>
>This evening (Thursday) at 7:00 PM Community Board 7 will be holding a
>discussion on proposed development by the Extell Development of the
>southern part of Riverside South from West 59th to 61st Streets. As
>you may be aware, there has been considerable discussion about the
>possibility of building a school on that site, but the DOE has yet to
>agree to fund this. Your support and participation is crucial, as
>there is power in numbers. The meeting will take place at the
>Community Board offices, 250 West 87th Street.
>
>As always, feel free to contact us at PS199.PAC@gmail.com with any
>questions or concerns.
>
>
>Regards,
>Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy, Co-Chairs, PS 199 PTA Political Action
>Committee top | | Thursday, May 22, 7:00 PM at CB7 250 W. 87th St.(but check with CB7
>( 212-362-4008 ) to make sure site has not been changed.) Discussion of
>proposed development by the Extell Development Company of the southern
>part of Riverside South from West 59th to 61st Streets.
>Extell is asking for a 35% increase in zoning over what was approved in
>1992 when Riverside South was approved.
> Proposed Extell Development for Parcels L/M/N 2.75-3.3 million sf
>Residential, hotel, commercial, retail uses Approximately 2,100-2,500
>residential uses Below grade big box store (not counted in FAR) of
>approximately 300,000sf Five towers ranging from 623 feet high to a low
>of 400+ feet, Possible school of approximately 97,000sf 750 as-of-right
>parking spaces and will request approximately 1,500 spaces Open space,
>plaza, approximately 28% of site, "Privately Owned Public Space"
>Affordable Housing , to be determined
>Meetings take place at the Community Board office, 250 West 87th Street,
>unless otherwise indicated. To confirm committee agendas and meeting
>locations, call the Board office at (212) 362-4008 . Send comments by
>e-mail to office@cb7.org or by fax to (212) 595-9317.
>Share with your neighbor. Please post in your building. top | | >Dear Parents,
>
>Please join us for an update and discussion about PS 199's growing
>space problem. You may have read the New York Times article about
>overcrowding throughout the entire city, which discusses increasing
>kindergarten enrollment in many schools, including PS 199. Here is the
>link to that article.
>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/nyregion/09schools.html?
>ref=nyregion
>
>The meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 21st at 6:30 in the
>library. Childcare, paid for by the PTA, will be available for school
>age children.
>
>We look forward to seeing you next week. Please feel free to
>contact us with any thoughts, questions, etc. at ps199pac@gmail.com.
>
>Regards,
>Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy
>
>Another article is available at >http://www.insideschools.org/nv/NV_overcrowding051308.php?080513 top | | >The PS 199 PTA Political Action Committee encourages members of the
>school community to attend the forum described below on this very
>relevant topic to PS 199's overcrowding issues. Please let us know your
>thoughts about the forum if you attend and always feel free to contact
>us at ps199.pac@gmail.com. Thanks!
>
> Sandra Levy and Julie Mallin, Co-chairs
> PS 199 PTA Political Action Committee
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
>Council Members Melissa Mark-Viverito, Inez E. Dickens,and Gale A.
>Brewer
>
>Invite you to "Busting at the Seams"
>
>A look at the overcrowding in our upper west side public schools
>
>Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
>
>6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
>
>P.S. 163
>
>(located at 163 West 97th Street, New York, NY 10025)
>
>Co-sponsors:
>
>Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Assembly Member Linda B.
>Rosenthal, State Senator Eric Schniderman, State Senator Tom Duane,
>Community Board 7, Community Education Council 3
>
>Panel Discussion with representatives from
>
>Community Board 7, Community Education Council 3, District 3
>President's Council and The Department of Education
>
>For more information please call (212) 828-9800 top | | >The PS 199 PTA Political Action Committee encourages members of the
>school community to attend the forum described below on this very
>relevant topic to PS 199's overcrowding issues. Please let us know your
>thoughts about the forum if you attend and always feel free to contact
>us at ps199.pac@gmail.com. Thanks!
>
> Sandra Levy and Julie Mallin, Co-chairs
> PS 199 PTA Political Action Committee
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
>Council Members Melissa Mark-Viverito, Inez E. Dickens,and Gale A.
>Brewer
>
>Invite you to "Busting at the Seams"
>
>A look at the overcrowding in our upper west side public schools
>
>Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
>
>6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
>
>P.S. 163
>
>(located at 163 West 97th Street, New York, NY 10025)
>
>Co-sponsors:
>
>Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Assembly Member Linda B.
>Rosenthal, State Senator Eric Schniderman, State Senator Tom Duane,
>Community Board 7, Community Education Council 3
>
>Panel Discussion with representatives from
>
>Community Board 7, Community Education Council 3, District 3
>President's Council and The Department of Education
>
>For more information please call (212) 828-9800
> top | | >Dear Parents:
>
>
>
>While many New York City public schools are crowded, few other
>communities anticipate the kind of residential explosion already
>underway in the P.S. 199 catchment zone. Our school population has
>grown enormously within the last several years, which has, among other
>things, strained school space considerably. Just within the last two
>years, the school has had to relinquish its Universal Pre-K program (2
>classrooms), a dedicated science room, and a dedicated art room to
>provide classrooms for additional classes in the kindergarten through
>second grades. It is likely that next year the school will be
>transforming its faculty lounge and/or part of its
>occupational/physical therapy room to provide yet even more classrooms.
>These space and resource strains will continue to grow more urgent as
>the school population continues to increase.
>
>
>
>The PTA has formed a political action committee to address these
>pressing issues. Our goals are to explore all possible options, and
>work with community leaders and officials within the Department of
>Education to find a solution. We have spoken with many parents who
>share our concerns and would like to get involved. We welcome your
>participation; if you havenʼt yet signed up, please email us at
>ps199.pac@gmail.com. We will contact you about our first meeting in
>September. In the meantime, we plan to continue gathering information
>and if you are in a position to help out with research during the
>summer, please let us know as well.
>
>
>
>We look forward to working together.
>
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy, co-chairs, P.S. 199 Political Action
>Committee top | | >Dear Parents:
>
>While many New York City public schools are crowded, few other
>communities anticipate the kind of residential explosion already
>underway in the P.S. 199 catchment. Our school population has grown
>enormously within the last several years, which has, among other
>things, strained school space considerably. Just within the last two
>years, the school has had to relinquish its Universal Pre-K program (2
>classrooms), a dedicated science room, a dedicated art room, its
>faculty lounge, and half of its occupational/physical therapy room to
>provide classrooms for additional classes in the kindergarten through
>third grades. These space and resource strains continue to grow more
>urgent as the school population continues to increase.
>
>The PTA has formed a political action committee to address these
>pressing issues. Our goals are to explore all possible options, and
>work with community leaders and officials within the Department of
>Education to find a solution. We have spoken with many parents who
>share our concerns and would like to get involved.
>
>The first Political Action Committee meeting will be Tuesday, October
>9, at 6:30 p.m. in the library. Child care is available for PS 199
>school-age children, paid for by your PTA. We welcome your
>participation; if you cannot make it to the meeting but would like to
>sign up for the committee, please e-mail us at ps199.pac@gmail.com.
>
>We look forward to working together.
>
>Regards,
>
>Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy
>Co-chairs, P.S. 199 Political Action
>Committee
> top | | >Dear Parents,
>
>As the PS 199 Construction Commitee announced earlier this week, on
>Monday, November 19, Congressmember Nadler, Borough President
>Stringer, State Senator Duane, Assemblymember Rosenthal, Councilmember
>Brewer and Community Board 7 invite the community to hear a
>presentation, discuss concerns and ask questions about the new
>development at 150 Amsterdam Avenue at 66th Street. Representatives
>from the developer, A & R Kalimian, will be present. On behalf of the
>PS 199 Political Action Commitee, we encourage you to take advantage of
>this great opportunity to express our concerns to our community
>leaders, along with one of the several private developers in our
>neighborhood about the impact of the growing neighborhood population on
>our school.
>
>The meeting is Monday, November 19, at 6:30, in the PS 199 auditorium.
>
>For questions about Monday's presentation, please contact David
>Weinberg at Assemblymember Rosenthal's office 212-873-6868 , or Peter
>Goldwasser at Councilmember Brewer's office 212-873-0282 . For
>questions about the PS 199 Political Action Committee, please contact
>co-chairs Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy at ps199.pac@gmail.com.
>
>-- The PS 199 Political Action Committee
> top | | >The Community Education Council for District 3 (CEC3) is an elected
>body of nine parents plus two Borough President appointees who work to
>bring parents' concerns to the attention of the Department of Education
>and provide a forum for addressing issues at a district-wide level.
>This is the first of periodic newsletters to let the District 3
>community know of issues that we have been working on this year.
>
>1. School space issues in our district have been brought to our
>attention by several parents. There are two main space issues we have
>heard. One, if schools are already full of catchment children, and if
>large new residential developments are being constructed in their
>catchments, how will there be space for the children living in those
>new developments to attend their catchment schools? This issue affects
>several schools located mainly in the southern end of the district.
>Second, what recourse do parents have if a charter school placed within
>their school takes resources away from the host school so that, for
>instance, they have little access to their gym or library. What if
>older charter school children are places in hallways next to elementary
>school classes in the host school and this results in inappropriate
>encounters in the hallways? CEC3 has formed a School Space Subcommittee
>to work on these issues. So far we have members from at least five
>schools involved.
>
>2. The CEC3 Multilingual Subcommittee has been working for several
>years on issues relating to multilingual education in our district.
>Some of the issues the committee has dealt with this year include the
>newly centralized dual language choice program admissions process, and
>exploring the possibility of opening a dual language middle school in
>the district to carry on the skills that kids learn in elementary
>school dual language programs. Attached is a longer article by
>committee chair Teresa Arboleda on the work the committee has been doing.
>
>3. There are more Gifted and Talented programs in District three than
>in any other single district in the city, and more people applying to
>G&T programs here than elsewhere. The Department of Education's recent
>decision to centralize G&T admissions and change the tests and cutoff
>scores of children allowed into these programs seems as though it might
>cut availability of G&T programs in District 3, perhaps more than any
>other district in the city. CEC3 drafted a resolution in support of
>preserving G&T programs in our district, retaining ultimate control
>over admissions at the district level, and keeping the cutoff score at
>90% rather than 95%.
>
>4. Each year the School Construction Authority issues a capital plan,
>and the CECs provide venues for parents to examine and give feedback on
>how this plan meets schools' needs as the parents perceive them. In our
>district this year parents have noticed that the school construction
>plan does not take into consideration several large new buildings going
>up in popular school catchments (see point 1. above). Parents will have
>an opportunity to respond to the DOE's capital plan at the CEC monthly
>meeting on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - CEC 3 office (JOA Complex) -
>154 West 93rd Street (between Columbus & Amsterdam Avenue).
>
>5. In August it was brought to CEC3's attention that the Jewish Home
>and Hospital on 105-6th Street was planning demolition and development
>that could compromise the education of children at the school next
>door, PS145. The JHH had submitted a renovation plan that would have
>involved four years of construction right next to PS145; the plans
>included building an ambulette entrance on 105th St., a one-way street
>that is often full of school buses and is adjacent to the PS145
>kindergarten yard. In addition, there were other issues such as the JHH
>asking for a last-minute zoning waiver to sell off a portion of its
>parcel to a developer for a high rise apartment building, and
>destroying an historic building meant for affordable housing on the
>block...but CEC3's involvement was primarily aimed at helping Ivelisse
>Alvarez, the principal of PS145, bring the school-related issues of the
>situation to the attention of Community Board 7 and our elected
>officials. In the end the JHH did not get its zoning waiver; it
>rescinded its plan for the ambulette driveway adjacent to the
>kindergarten yard, and in the future there was hope that it would take
>its neighbor PS145 into account in its renovation plans.
>
>UPCOMING EVENTS: ASK MARTINE AND FRIENDS/MANHATTAN - THIS THURSDAY, NOV
>28. An information session for families who have questions about the
>Department of Education and the school year. PS 154 will be the site of
>the session where Chief Family Engagement Officer Martine Guerrier and
>DOE personnel will each give a three minute overview of their offices
>and share contact information with families. 6:00-8:30PM AT PS154, 250
>West 127th Street.
> top | | >Dear Parents,
>
>Below is great letter from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
>that outlines why issues relating to school overcrowding are not
>addressed in the DOE's 2008 Capital Plan amendment. The letter
>recognizes, among other things, pockets of overcrowding in southern end
>of district 3 and in zoned schools in district 2 and 3, as well as
>flaws in the DOE's methodology for measuring capacity.
>
>As always, please feel free to contact us at ps199.pac@gmail.com with
>questions or comments.
>
>Regards,
>Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy, Co-Chairs PS 199 PTA Political Action
>Committee
>
>THE CITY OF NEW YORK
>OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
>BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
>SCOTT M. STRINGER
>BOROUGH PRESIDENT
>MUNICIPAL BUILDING v 1 CENTRE STREET v NEW YORK, NY 10007 PHONE (212)
>669-8300 FAX (212) 669-4305 http://www.mbpo.org/ bp@manhat tanbp.org
>
>March 7, 2007
>Dear Manhattan Public School Parents:
>On February 25, 2008, the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) voted on
>the New York City Department of Education's (DOE) 2008 Capital Plan
>Amendment. As some of you may already be aware, Patrick Sullivan, my
>appointee to the PEP, voted against the proposed amendment to the
>Five-Year Capital Plan. Although the amendment was passed by the PEP
>and will therefore now be voted on by the New York City Council, I
>nevertheless thought it important to share with you the reasons that
>Patrick and I felt this was not the right plan to recommend to the City
>Council.
>
>1. The 2008 amendment fails to achieve the elimination of overcrowding
>as stated in the original Five-Year Capital Plan.
>When released in 2004, the current Five-Year Capital Plan promised
>to:
>1) end the reliance on Transportable Classroom Units (TCUs) and mini-
>schools within twenty years;
>
>2) reduce class-size to a target of twenty seats in all kindergarten
>through third grade classes;
>
>and 3)alleviate high school overcrowding and split sessions.
>However,
>for the following reasons we are doubtful that DOE and the New York
>City School Construction Authority (SCA) will achieve these goals:
>
>The current capacity plan for alleviating overcrowding in Districts
>2 and 6 is inadequate, as pointed out in letters sent to DOE by
>Community Education Councils (CEC) 2 and 6. CEC 2 has demonstrated that
>seventeen of District 2's twenty-six elementary schools have
>enrollments that exceed their target capacity under DOE's program to
>reduce K-3 class size to twenty or less. CEC 6 has demonstrated that
>the SCA's utilization and capacity statistics are deeply flawed and
>that meeting the above stated capital plan goals in District 6 would
>necessitate the addition of 5,208 seats. However, the Five-Year Capital
>Plan provides only 1,103 seats for District 6.
>
>In Manhattan, 20,000 children are currently in classrooms with more
>than twenty students. Yet the Five-Year Capital Plan budgets for only
>4,253 additional seats borough-wide – an allocation that falls far
>short of the amount needed to meet the plan's target class size in
>those grades. Furthermore, in some districts this disturbing reality is
>compounded by DOE's own demographic projections. For example, DOE has
>projected an 18.5 percent increase in the number of children for
>District 2 from 2005 to 2015.
>
>New York State law requires that the Five-Year Capital Plan be aligned
>with New York City's class size reduction plan, which, in addition to
>lowering class size to twenty in the early grades, pledges to lower
>class size to twenty-three in middle and high school grades. The
>Five-Year Capital Plan, however, does not address the excessive class
>sizes in middle and high schools. In fact, there is not a single new
>high school in the city's plan for the entire borough of Manhattan and
>the new capacity projects at the middle school level do not add the
>necessary number of seats to effectively reduce class size to
>twenty-three throughout the borough.
>
>2. The capital plan does not plan for the needs of geographic areas
>smaller than the school district level. Under the current
>administration, DOE has been satisfied when overall capacity meets
>demand at the school district level. But this perspective ignores not
>only the very obvious overcrowding we see within the specific
>neighborhoods and communities that compose school districts, but also
>the simple fact that young children cannot travel long distances to
>schools. In the proposed amendment, District 3, for example, has no new
>capacity budgeted despite a widely acknowledged problem with
>overcrowding in the southern end of the district. Additional examples
>exist in District 2. The Upper East Side has only a token allocation of
>new seats despite overcrowding at every elementary school and much new
>residential development underway. The current plan also fails to
>allocate additional school seats in Greenwich Village, which has
>experienced unprecedented overcrowding in its schools in recent years.
>
>3. The DOE refuses to engage in candid discussion over capacity
>problems, instead choosing to deflect responsibility.
>Patrick Sullivan has attempted to engage the leadership of DOE and the
>SCA in meaningful frank discussion – both publicly and privately –
>about the causes of overcrowding. Despite overwhelming evidence to the
>contrary, DOE officials have insisted that there is sufficient capacity
>to eliminate overcrowding and have instead blamed parents for creating
>the problems of overcrowding by choosing to send their children to
>specific schools. DOE's assertion, however, is at odds with its own
>data: overcrowding is worst at zoned neighborhood schools where
>admission is controlled by the Office of Student Enrollment Planning
>and Operations (OSEPO).
>
>4. There is excessive spending on reconfiguration of high school space.
>The small schools initiative, whereby large high schools are phased out
>and replaced by several smaller ones that are sited in the same school
>building has sapped large amounts of capital spending that could be
>directed towards new capacity and/or facility upgrades. The
>reconfigurations necessitated by the small schools initiative further
>reduce capacity by introducing costly replication of administrative
>staff.
>
>5. The leadership at DOE and the SCA has failed to secure sufficient
>participation of residential real estate developers in sharing the cost
>of schools construction. The current capital plan amendment suggests
>the new school serving the Hudson Yards development will be fully
>funded by the City. Given the magnitude of the development, we should
>expect the development itself to include plans for a school and for
>costs to be absorbed mostly by the developer. Similarly, there are no
>definitive plans for sufficient school capacity at the massive Con Ed
>development site in the east 30s. We must do more to insure large scale
>development of the remaining space in Manhattan only proceeds in
>conjunction with corresponding increases in school capacity.
>
>I hope I have clearly outlined my reasons for voting against the 2008
>Capital Plan Amendment. Overcrowding in Manhattan schools is an urgent
>issue and I have asked Patrick, along with Leonie Haimson of Class Size
>Matters, to co-chair a task force on overcrowding. With participation
>from CECs, Community Boards, and elected leaders at the city, state,
>and federal levels, the task force will develop more comprehensive
>solutions to the situation.
>
>Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Nicole
>Phillips, Education and Child Welfare Policy Analyst, at (212) 669-
>2206 or nphillips@manhattan bp.org.
>
>Sincerely,
>Scott M. Stringer
>Manhattan Borough President top | | >Dear PS 199 Parents and Guardians:
>
>As a result of the PS 199 PTA PAC's participation in the District 3
>Space Committee, we were asked to speak for two minutes about PS 199's
>overcrowding issue at a press conference on Monday in connection with a
>report that Borough President Scott Stringer's office just released
>called "Crowded Out: School Construction Fails to Keep Up with
>Manhattan Building Boom." The goal of the report is to get the city to
>overhaul the way the city plans for new school seats in areas of
>residential development growth. PAC co-chair Julie Mallin spoke at the
>press conference and did a totally excellent job.
>
>The press conference was all about what schools in Manhattan are
>experiencing in the way of the disconnect between the city's land use
>bureaucracy and the city's education bureaucracy. Manhattan Boro
>President Scott Stringer, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Rep.
>Carolyn Maloney, City Councilmember Dan Garodnick, UFT President Randi
>Weingarten, and Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters gave excellent
>speeches on the issue. In fact, Randi Weingarten included an anecdote
>about visiting 199 for the caulk issue last week and commented that she
>saw a class meeting in the hallway.
>Interestingly, Rep. Carolyn Maloney mentioned that her constituents on
>the East Side had asked her to ask the DOE to cap their enrollment; she
>also said that despite promising an answer to her a while back, DOE had
>not been responsive to her request.
>
>You can find the press release at
>http://www.mbpo.org/newsroom_details.asp?id=1163 and the report itself
>at http://mbpo.org/uploads/130408_SCHOOLS%20REPORT.pdf. The focus of
>the report is on neighborhoods (not including the Upper West Side)
>which are already saturated with growth and the inadequate number of
>seats in those neighborhoods; the Upper West Side is described as a
>high-growth neighborhood with those issues, at risk of reaching those
>proportions. Unfortunately, it looks like the data that the report
>provides regarding residential development around 199 does not properly
>reflect the current situation in our
>catchment: according to their methodology, they acknowledge that there
>is a lag time between when new building permits are issued and when
>buildings come on line. They researched new building permits issued in
>2000-2007 and the permits for the seven Riverside Blvd buildings and
>101 West End -- from which buildings we have about 87 students today --
>must have been issued before 2000 (either that or the report was
>inaccurate). As a result, the report does not show those eight
>buildings on Riverside Boulevard and 101 West End Avenue, all of which
>were ready for occupancy between 2000 and 2007. The only buildings in
>our catchment that the report shows are two of the upcoming six or more
>-- the buildings at 200 West End and 120 West 72 Street; presumably,
>permits were not yet issued for the other four or more upcoming
>buildings in our catchment so they did not show up in the Boro
>President's research. Nevertheless, all in all, the report serves an
>important function of keeping the dialogue going about the critical
>need for building new school seats when buildings are going up, not
>after they impact enrollment.
>
>Let's hope that the work Boro President Scott Stringer's task force
>makes a difference for our school and others that are experiencing
>residential explosion in their catchments! As always, please let us
>know if you would like to be on the PAC group distribution list, and
>feel free to contact us with your thoughts, questions, etc. at
>ps199.pac@gmail.com.
>
>Sandra Levy and Julie Mallin
>Co-Chairs, PS 199 PTA Political Action Committee top | | If you haven't yet heard the good news, PS 199 was prominently featured in a New York Magazine article entitled "Catchment-22". The article is about how many successful neighborhood schools in New York City are becoming overcrowded because of a surge in new real estate development. It can be found at: Http://nymag.com/ (search for "catchment"). We were pleased with the article because it supports the committee's goal of getting the word out about this serious problem. The PAC has also garnered the support of U.S. Congress Member Jerrold Nadler, Borough President Scott M. Stringer, State Senator Thomas K. Duane, State Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, and City Council Member Gale A. Brewer. After a recent community meeting about the development of the Red Cross building into a 300-unit-plus residential building at which PAC members and lots of community residents turned out, these community leaders sent a letter to A & R Kalimian Realty, the developer of the site, which included the following request on behalf of PS 199: [T]his development will contribute to neighborhood service shortfalls that will impact not only the current residents, but the proposed new residents and the community at large. It is therefore important for A & R Kalimian Realty to work with the community as conscientious neighbors to alleviate these service shortfalls for the benefit of the neighborhood as a whole. The areas requiring attention are:
1) Overcrowding at the local public school, PS 199. This could be alleviated through the development of space at 150 Amsterdam Avenue for use by PS 199, or through other means that enable PS 199 to ameliorate the pressures created by the growing school aged population in the neighborhood. A team from the PAC and State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal are in the process of scheduling a meeting with the A & R Kalimian Realty in the near future. In the process of exploring our options for sources of funding within the DoE, the PAC has learned that the DoE has allocated no money in its five year capital spending plan for the development of new space in any school within District 3. Please come to the next Community Education Council meeting on December 19th at 6:30pm, where there will be a representative from the DoE to address this serious issue. Members of the PAC plan to voice our space concerns and ask questions of the DoE, such as how enrollment projections and space planning appear not to take into account anticipated residential development. We need you. There is power in numbers! The meeting will take place at the CEC3 Office (JOA Complex), 154 West 93 Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) We are incredibly appreciative of many parents, grandparents, and community members who continue to contribute toward this effort in so many ways. There are just too many for us to list, but you know who you are! As always, please feel free to contact us at http://us.f523.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=ps199.pac@gmail.com. We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season! Julie Mallin and Sandra Levy
Co-Chairs, PS 199 Political Action Committee top | |
