NYU Offers Solution To Pre-K Classroom Crunch
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New York University is looking to come to the rescue of some parents whose kids don't yet have a prekindergarten classroom. NY1's Rebecca Spitz filed the following report.NYU says it has identified space in one of its buildings on Mercer and 3rd streets that could be converted into prekindergarten classrooms.
"It's a ground floor space, a quiet area that has open space contiguous to it and we think we can fit four larger classrooms in there as well as a couple of offices for the faculty," said Alicia Hurley of NYU.
And more pre-K space is urgently needed.
The Department of Education says 273 children in Manhattan don't have kindergarten seats in their zoned schools. The problem is especially bad in Districts Two and Three -- the Upper East and West Sides and in TriBeCa and Greenwich Village.
The Department of Education suggests one way to ease the overcrowding is to move prekindergarten classes out of schools like PS 3 and PS 41 in the Village and move extra kindergarten classes in.
But so far, no one knows where the displaced kids would go. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says the NYU site is one of a number of places under consideration.
"At the end of last week, the Department of Education, my office, all the local elected officials and the parent leaders put together a rapid response task force," said Quinn. "Our goal is to find a space in Greenwich Village that we can use for early childhood education."
With the end of the school year fast approaching, elected officials say that space needs to be found as soon as possible.
"Parents have got to know where their kids are going to school, you can't keep parents in limbo. You can't keep kids in limbo," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
Members of the task force say they have been busy vetting potential sites, and eliminating those that won't be ready for a fall opening, but say they still haven't found what they're looking for.
The task force will visit the rest of the sites being considered in the next few days. The DOE says it will choose a location by the end of the week.