Manhattan Parents Worry About School Overcrowding
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In a borough where school overcrowding is already an issue, the Board of Education's new capital plan calling for construction of fewer new classroom seats is being looked at with some concern by some Manhattan parents. NY1's Rebecca Spitz spoke with parents who are frustrated, fearing too few new seats means their kids' education will suffer."This year, I think there's about 180 kindergartners and just a few years ago it was closer to 100," said P.S. 24 Parent Teacher Association President Kevin Doherty.
Doherty has watched P.S. 234 in TriBeCa grow to almost bursting. He says the Department of Education's new capital plan does not seem like it will offer much help.
Where the 2004-2009 plan called for 55,000 additional seats citywide, the new five-year plan calls for fewer than half that.
The advocacy group, Class Size Matters says that's just not enough.
"In Manhattan, we need about 20,000 new seats and the administration is only proposing 3,000 seats," said Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters. "So you can see there's a huge problem out there, a disconnect in which this administration doesn't feel the need to admit to the problem which exists in our schools, which hampers their education every single day."
Parents say they do not want to sacrifice more than they already have.
"We had a computer lab and a science room moved out of this building and those rooms have been turned into classrooms now," said Doherty. "We had a teachers' lounge that used to be used for the teachers and now it's used for students."
Some of the blame for overcrowding can be traced to new construction aimed at luring residents back downtown in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The Beekman Tower is a planned 75-story residential building with a public school on the lower floors. But parents are skeptical it will open in enough time to ease overcrowding.
"There are some new schools being built, but they're not here yet," said parent Eric Greenleaf. "The one we're standing near is three years late and so we have to decide what to do with the kids in the meantime."
The DOE says it's aware of the problem and is working on it.
A spokesperson says one way to ease overcrowding is by using existing school space more efficiently. Another way to ease the situation, the DOE says, is to decide what kinds of schools are needed in which neighborhoods.
The plan still has to be approved by the City Council.