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turf wars
November 17, 2009
Lower East Side parents: No room in our schools for charter
Parents at district schools on the Lower East Side that may be forced to share space with an expanding charter school are telling the DOE to look elsewhere.
Girls Prep Charter School has requested building space from the DOE in order to expand its middle school program, which launched this year with one class of fifth-graders. The charter school currently shares a building with P.S. 188 and P.S. 94, a school serving disabled students, and cannot expand further in the space it occupies there.
DOE officials have three ideas for how to accommodate the new middle school, which they plan to present at tomorrow evening’s District 1 Community Education Council meeting.
In one scenario, P.S. 94 would move out of the district, allowing Girls Prep to expand in its current location. To compensate for the loss of P.S. 94, a new program for disabled students would open, sharing space with PS. 184, the Shuang Wen school.
Another suggestion would have the Girls Prep middle school open in a building currently shared by three secondary schools: the School for Global Leaders, the Marta Valle Secondary School and the Lower East Side Preparatory High School. The School for Global Leaders would then move into P.S. 20. This plan would also allow P.S. 94 to expand in the building it shares with P.S. 188 and the Girls Prep elementary school.
The third proposal would have the Girls Prep middle school share a building with P.S. 20. (The full memo from the Office of Portfolio Planning outlining the three scenarios is below the jump.)
Some parents at schools that could see their space allotments altered under any of these plans are saying that there is no room for change.
Troy Robinson, a parent of three Shuang Wen students and a member of the School Leadership Team, said that he first learned that his school might be affected by the Girls Prep expansion at a DOE walk-through of the school a week ago. During the walk-through, department officials determined that Shuang Wen’s building currently has nine rooms not used as classrooms that could be available for a new school in the building.
But Robinson said that any plan to move a new school into those rooms, currently used as resource rooms, ignores the fact that Shuang Wen’s space needs are also expanding rapidly. The school has added another kindergarten class, he said, and currently has four third grade classes but only two fourth grade sections. Shuang Wen could easily need an additional six or seven classrooms in just a few years, he said.
“It’s not even five years down the road, it’s two years,” he said. “We’re at the point where soon we’re going to come to the DOE ourselves and ask for more space.”
The president of P.S. 20’s parent association, Monica Harris, said that her school also added a kindergarten class this year. She predicted that the addition of another school to the building would cost P.S. 20 resource rooms for their English Language Learners.
Harris, who also serves in a variety of parent leadership roles including the Chancellor’s Parental Advisory Council, emphasized that she does not oppose charter schools. But she said that their spread in District 1 and around the city was hurting district schools.
“It just seems like Christopher Columbus discovering America, but the natives are already here,” she said.
Harris and Robinson are part of a team of parents organizing to respond to the DOE’s scenarios at the CEC meeting tomorrow and at a separate press conference beforehand. Shuang Wen parents have also launched a website to protest any possible changes.
The DOE is asking for feedback on the recommendation, with a deadline of December 10. Parents’ responses will be used to create a final proposal and educational impact statement for the affected schools, according to the memo outlining the proposals.
Lisa Donlan, president of the CEC, said that in a district with several expanding schools and no more space, no solution would be perfect. But she said she wants the council’s meeting to move beyond assertions that there is no room to grow. That is true for all Lower East Side schools, she said, so the conversation should be focused on finding the best solution for accommodating growing programs.
“How do we do that in a way that hurts the fewest number of kids for the shortest period of time?” Donlan said.
Julie Chin, the mother of second-grader at Shuang Wen, said that she feels that the DOE’s approach of squeezing more programs into a finite amount of space pits schools against each other unfairly.
“Are you really creating something, or are you just squeezing in and squeezing out?” she asked. “When you open a new school it seems like you would start from scratch. There’s no scratch here, you’re just moving them in and out.”
“It’s almost as if you want the schools to fight with each other, and we don’t want that,” she added.
CEC members and charter school operators in District 1 have repeatedly expressed their desire to avoid the rancorous fights that sometimes characterize charter school sitings in the city.
“I do not want it to be a slug fest; I don’t want us to be divided as a community,” Donlan said. “It’s really about engaging respectfully and constructively around this common problem that the DOE has created for us.”
Here is the memo from the Office of Portfolio Planning outlining the proposed scenarios to accommodate Girls Prep’s middle school expansion:
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post implied that the nine rooms in Shuang Wen listed as “available” by the DOE were not currently used by the school. It has been updated to clarify that the rooms are currently used as resource rooms. The original version of the post also incorrectly attributed a quotation from Julie Chin to Ann Lupardi and has been updated to correct the error.
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November 17th, 2009 8:05 pm
Yikes this is the first time I have heard about or learned about a bargaining effort like this…trade a general education program for one that serves students with special needs…interesting times we live in, no?
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November 17th, 2009 8:05 pm
That’s the Marta Valle Secondary School, not the Montevalle School. (It’s correct in the memo, wrong in your article.)
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November 17th, 2009 8:07 pm
Thanks, Roberta! Typo fixed!
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November 17th, 2009 8:10 pm
*dumbfounded*
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November 17th, 2009 10:19 pm
Hi Maura,
Two inaccurate statements:
1. You quoted Troy Robinson from Shuang Wen as saying that there are “9 unused classrooms”. NOT TRUE. We have nine resource rooms (some of which take up two rooms): Science labs, Music room, Art room, Computer/Language Lab, Academic intervention room, and a Dance studio that supplements physical education since the school does not have a gym.”
2. The quote you have at the end of your article which reads “Are you really creating something, or are you just squeezing in and squeezing out? When you open a new school it seems like you would start from scratch. There’s no scratch here, you’re just moving them in and out. It’s almost as if you want the schools to fight with each other, and we don’t want that,” she added. should have been attributed to me, Julie Chin, and not Ann Lupardi. I’m a parent of a 2nd-grader.
Thank you for covering this story.
.
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November 17th, 2009 10:42 pm
Hi Julie — my apologies! I’ve updated the post to correctly attribute. Thank you very much for the correction.
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November 17th, 2009 10:54 pm
Thanks Maura,
For fixing the quote….that was one of two corrections I’ve requested. I had also requested that Troy Robinson’s quote be corrected. The wrong adjective was used. Can you please make the following correction: The quote you attribute to Troy Robinson implies empty rooms or unused rooms…It’s just not true.
We have nine resource rooms - some of which take up two rooms- Science labs, Music room, Art room, Computer/Language Lab, Academic intervention room, and a Dance studio that supplements physical education since the school does not have a gym.
Can you please make this correction?
Thank you. Julie -
November 17th, 2009 11:55 pm
To assume that a room is not being used just because there was no class, or children in it, on the specific day at the specific time when a DOE representative walked through is RIDICULOUS. There not only seems to be a serious disconnect between what goes on in the individual rooms of our schools, and the higher ups in the DOE who are making these decisions, but they also seem to not understand that taking resources away from one school to give to another is not growth.
This is neither fair to the students of Shuang Wen, nor do I believe it is fair to the students of any of the other schools potentially involved, who would either loose space and resources, or who would receive only a fraction of what they deserve. The DOE has set up a lose/lose situation.
To all parents and members of the community who care and have taken the time to speak out, I thank you.
Shuang Wen, parent of 3rd grader
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November 18th, 2009 4:41 am
Hi this is Troy Robinson, The quoted parent in the story.
Thank you for talking with us yesterday we feel that it is an important issue that needs to be covered but there was a misquoting from my statement that I would like to correct. I said that according to the DOE based on their calculations via the Blue Book they have determined that we have 9 empty rooms but those rooms in fact are not empty they contain science labs, computer/language labs, music/dance room, an art room that are being used by our kids everyday but is viewed by the DOE as unused space that can be reclaimed. According to the DOE art, science, music, dance, computer and language is Nice to have but not a Need to have and that is why we are showing rooms being underutilized. We want to be sure that it is clear that no room in our school is not being used by our teachers and or our students.
Thank you again for helping us get the word out on this District wide problem.
Troy
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November 18th, 2009 12:34 pm
[...] Shuang Wen leaders and parents speak out on behalf of our parents and the parents of District 1 scho… See you at the 5pm Press Briefing and the CEC meeting! Post Published: 18 November 2009 Author: admin Found in section: blog [...]
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November 18th, 2009 12:52 pm
Those rooms which DOE credits as unused space is so off the mark. Not only are the rooms used throughout the day, they’re used by students from Pre-K all the way up to 8th grade. Two full functioning, excellent schools (elementary & middle school level). What is DOE thinking? Can’t they see how through these resource classes, our students are enriched to keep up higher learning that makes us a blue ribbon school?!
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November 18th, 2009 1:29 pm
As a PS 20 parent I think one thing needs to be cleared up that were either misquoted or mistyped: PS 20 added a preK class, not a K class. We received enough requests to enroll during the summer to start an additional K class, however the principal elected to maintain our current configuration due to space demands. However, to accommodate the third preK students, PS 20 may have to add another K class next year.
As well, PS 20 has no rooms that are not utilized. Our supposedly free rooms are in fact occupied by, among other things, a music lab, two science labs (with a purchase of $10,000 worth of lab equipment on the way), an ESL/Newcomer room, a two-room dance studio, an Art room, a second computer lab.
Furthermore, PS 20 expects to have tight space demands in the next few years because the school is now mandated to open a Mandarin dual-language bilingual program. Since the population of native Mandarin-speaking English Language Leaners is growing rapidly at PS 20, plans are currently underway to begin shortly. This dual-language program is mandated per city and state regulations regarding the education of English language learners.
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November 19th, 2009 8:15 am
There has to be a solution that works for ALL of the CHILDREN involved. I am a Girls Prep parent and it was great to see parents at the CEC meeting last night expressing their views about the issue. We as parents need to take the lead on this issue. Our children are not pawns on a chess board! Together we can come to a solution that gets us the space we need and does not infringe upon other schools and the enrichment they provide for their students.
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November 20th, 2009 4:18 pm
[...] and an earlier article: Lower East Side parents: No room in our schools for charter, by Maura Walz, 11/17/2009 [...]
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November 26th, 2009 1:14 pm
Iam a parent of a Girls Prep, student and all i want is for my daughter to find a permenant home. I am so tired of all this fighting every school started at one place. So why can’t we? These are not bad children they are highly educated, respectful, and fit in well with other children. All thes complaints are from the adults, the teachers, especiallly the teachers for they see that charter schools are a sucess and we are making them accountable to better educate our Public School Children. Take a second look at our record and were a baby school we scored second place in the reading exam last year, we scored and overall A, in our school progress report. So give us our girls a chance for we can learn from each other. Instead of belittling our girls embrace them. I have so much more to say but, its like that saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and these parents, teachers, have there minds made up without even knowing our little girls for they showed how open they were at the meeting when you could boo a 4th grade child. And we showed them how respectful we were when their child got up to speak we showed much respect and were in awe. I Just hope and pray we can get our own building for the parents at PS20, made me afraid for my childs safety for i could see one of those parents telling their child if you see one of those Girls Prep girls hit them. And i send my daughter to school for an education and not to be physically or verbally abused. For there was an incident in the cafeteria were our girls were playing connect 4, and the same little girl that spoke went up to them told them this is my school and literally hit the game down to the ground. So now you can see my fear. So i hope the DOE, makes the right choice and whatever school they decide to put us in that the parents alike like their children will learn to accept our girls and show them the same type of respect our girls will show them.
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December 2nd, 2009 11:28 pm
[...] and an earlier article: Lower East Side parents: No room in our schools for charter, by Maura Walz, 11/17/2009 [...]
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December 12th, 2009 8:13 pm
I had a tough enough time finding a kindergarten placement for my son. There didn’t seem to be enough space for the children in our district, so to let a school take over needed space in a tiny and poor district is myopic to say the least. No offense girls prep. I worked night and day to get a kindergarten placement for my son and he needs room to grow. The lunchroom, gym and resource rooms that the school has maintained so excellently deserve to be enjoyed by district 1 students of both genders, not a hodgepodge of girls from several districts who find my son “annoying”.
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December 19th, 2009 5:15 pm
DEAR PARENTS:
I AM A GIRLS PREP PARENT OF A MIDDLE SCHOOL CHILD. AND ALL YOU NAY SAYERS, HAVE TAKEN ME BACK TO A PLACE I NEVER EVEN EXPERIENCED. I WENT TO THE MEETING AT PS20, AND WAS APPALLED BY ALL THE ULGINESS, RAGE, AND HATRED, OF THE MAJORITY OF THE PARENTS THERE. NOT ONE OF YOU WERE TRYING TO HEAR WHAT WE WERE SAYING, WE DON’T WANT ANY MORE THAN WHAT YOUR CHILDREN HAVE WE WANT A PLACE WE CAN CALL HOME, WHERE WE CAN GROW. INSTEAD OF ATTACKING US EMBRACE US. READ OUR BLOG SEE HOW FAR A LITTLE SCHOOL LIKE GIRLS PREP, HAS COME. YOU PARENTS WITH LITTLE GIRLS SHOULD WANT YOUR DAUGHTERS HERE. WHERE THEY CAN GET AN EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION, WHERE THEY ARE TREATED WITH RESPECT. AND SHOWN SISTERHOOD, WHERE NO ONE IS LOOKED DOWN ON. INSTEAD YOUR TAKING US BACK TO A TIME WHERE OUR ANCESTORS HAD TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, A TIME WHERE THEY HAD TO FIGHT FOR EQUALITY, A TIME WHERE THEY HAD TO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO VOTE, AND A TIME WHEN OUR CHILDREN HAD TO BE ESCORTED INTO A SCHOOL FOR THE RIGHT TO AN EDUCATION THATS WHAT ALL YOU PARENTS, THE TEACHERS, AND THE NAY SAYERS, ARE DOING TO A BUNCH OF INNOCENT LITTLE GIRLS. YET YOU WANT TO BLAME THE DOE, THEY DON’T TEACH YOU TO BE VIOLENT, TO LASH OUT, TO BE CRUEL,. THOSE ARE THE CHOICES MADE BY YOU PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND YOUR ORGANIZERS. AND I TRULY HOPE THAT NO ONE EVER FINDS THEMSELVES IN NEED OF A HOME FOR THEIR CHILDREN FOR GIRLS PREP WOULD EXTEND A HAND FOR THAT IS WHO WE ARE. AND TO YOU GOTHMAN REPORTERS STOP BROW BEATING US WITH YOUR NEGATIVE REMARKS. ALL BECAUSE WE ARE A GREAT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL. OUR RECORD, OUR GIRLS, OUR TEACHERS, AND OUR ADMINISTRATION SPEAK FOR IT SELF. AND AS A GREAT LEADER ONCE SAID AND WO IS PROABLY CRYING ALONG WITH OUR OTHER GREAT LEADERS ! “WE SHALL OVERCOME”. -
January 18th, 2010 6:20 pm
This has nothing to do with the students at Girls Prep, it’s the DOE and administartion at girls Prep. they feel like they can bogart buildings which are already established with students, teachers and invested parents. Parents fight ong and hard to find an uncrowd school with deprived services and when a “charter” school tries to take over a DOE (public school) YES we will raise hell.
Screw Girls prep and let their board, and private investor find, buy or rent their own building. instead of using the NYC DOE/BOE resources (monies and building). -
January 19th, 2010 3:29 pm
To the author “Sick and tired of Girls Prep Parents” OBVIOUSLY you don’t know any of the parents of Girls Prep or the ‘administration’ of GP! If you did you would know that the parents and staff are a wonderful group of individuals who are dedicated to the education of these young beautiful girls! I have never experienced such hateful, angry ADULTS so against the education of children. You use the word ‘Charter’ as if it were a curse word when in reality ANYONE can apply to a charter school for their child. Charter schools don’t ‘bogart’ Public School building, these buildings are PUBLIC and are to be shared with EVERYONE and for your information Charter Schools ARE Public Schools. Last, it’s so easy to say ‘rent your own building’ when in reality if someone told you to you had to vacate your home by the end of the week, how easy would it be to find a new place that met all of your immediate needs? It wouldn’t be easy would it, you would probably have to SHARE space with a family or friend until you found something that fit your needs. So before you and others like you start pointing the finger at parents and administration who are trying to provide the BEST education for these girls get the facts and REMEMBER we are talking about CHILDREN and if we teach our children to share you should be willing to have ANY school share space especially a school like Girls Prep!!
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