What Is The Future Of PS/IS 437? Parents & School Leaders Provide Input to City DOE

As heavy rain drenched the world outside PS 130 Tuesday evening, hundreds of people packed the Kensington school’s cafeteria at this week’s Community Education Council 15 meeting to listen to, and give input on, the city Department of Education’s proposal for a new school,

, that is now under construction on Caton Avenue and E 7th Street and is slated to open in September 2015.

PS/IS 437, which is being built at 701 Caton Avenue, will include a total of 757 seats for  both elementary and middle school. It will be equipped with a variety of resources, including classrooms for art, music, science; an outdoor playground; a gymnasium; and auditorium space.

City officials are now undergoing the process of gathering public input on the future of the school, and there are various options on the table for the site that could help shoulder the burden of area schools’ overcrowded classrooms – including creating a new zoned elementary (K-5) school or implementing what is known as a “split-site,” which would mean expanding PS 130 so one building would likely house the younger students and the other would be home to the upper grades.

The parents who spoke during the meeting were overwhelmingly in favor of the split-siting, saying a new school zone would result in a far less diverse student body at the two schools because of the way the new zones would have to be drawn. As it stands now, PS 130 is one of the area’s most diverse student populations. Additionally, parents said a split-siting would increase instructional space for PS 130, where overcrowded conditions have meant losing science, art and library space, as well as having to use hallway space for instruction.

“We’re the most diverse school in district,” PS 130 Parent Teacher Association President Christine Farrell said, noting that students hail from all corners as the globe, as well as having families who have long been entrenched in the community.

“We have one child whose ancestors were int he first class in 1903,” she said. “We have deep roots in the community, as well as around the world.”

Students, Christine noted, live in “million-dollar homes, apartments, and shelters” – and the school has managed to not only make their
differences work in their favor but create an incredibly strong and cohesive educational community, one which is home to active parents who brave the elements to turn out in mass numbers for a meeting in the middle of summer.

Before DOE representatives Carrie Marlin and Adrien Asiegfried addressed the crowd, Councilman Brad Lander stressed that he has been pleased with the responsiveness of city officials so far to the community’s concerns and urged that such a partnership continue.

“There’s four overcrowded, or near-overcrowded, schools in the area,” the lawmaker said. “We need more middle school seats. We need more pre-K capacity.”

And Lander, too, highlighted the diversity at PS 130 and said it should not be broken.

“We have a very diverse district, but a pretty segregated one,” Lander said. “There aren’t many places the local zone is deeply diverse… The best overall match to the diversity in district 15 is the current PS 130.”

Currently, the 130 zone has a large concentration of English Language Learners and pupils who qualify for free or reduced lunch in the southern part of the zone, while the northern portion has more higher-income families, fewer English Language Learners, and less ethnic diversity, Marlin explained.

If the city opted for a rezoning, Marlin said it “would be used to reduce overcrowding and minimize or prevent the need to overflow students from PS 154, PS 131, and potentially at PS 169.”

“A rezoning here would also formalize enrollment patterns at PS 230 and replace enrollment from overflowed students with additional zoned enrollment,” Marlin said of the school that is adjacent to PS 130.

Regardless of whether or not the city opts for a new zoned elementary school or a split-siting scenario, there will be a standalone middle school in either proposal.

Marlin agreed that a split-siting would result in maintaining PS 130’s diversity.

“Because diversity has been such an important part of the conversation, we want to make sure we’re sharing some of the potential implications of one scenario vs. another,” she said. “130 is an incredibly diverse school community based very much on the zone it serves.”

As far as the timeline for the process, Marlin said city officials will continue to work with parents, school leaders, the CEC, the district superintendent, elected officials, and others on the matter. In early fall 2014, CEC 15 is slated to take a vote on the rezoning proposal, after which planning for 437 would continue and, ultimately, the new school would open in the fall of 2015.

Following the DOE’s presentation, parents made a number of comments to the city representatives, including (and there were a long list of them, so if you feel like we’ve left something out, please feel free to include it in the comments):

• Wanting the new proposal to result in a restoration of pre-K, the library, art rooms, and other instructional space.
• A concern that a split-siting scenario would result in students having to cross busy streets. (Marlin said they would aim to ensure that students were traversing busy roadways as little as possible.)
• If students now living in a strange cutout on school maps that places them in District 20 (meaning they live close to 130, which is in District 15, but end up having to go to schools further away) could be able to go to the new school. (Marlin said they are not looking at extending zone lines into District 20.)
• Caton Avenue is a major trucking route – the traffic there poses a danger to pedestrians, especially the young children, which city officials must look at prior to the opening of 437.
• There is a large influx of families moving into the district, and there are at least 220 housing units slated to soon open, which needs to be taken into consideration when looking at the rezoning.
• In a split-site situation, would some students up not having daily access to the new playground at 437?

For those who wish to give further input on this, you may email the district superintendent at ASkop@schools.nyc.gov, the community education council at CEC15@schools.nyc.gov, the DOE at BrooklynZoning@schools.nyc.gov, or Carrie Marlin at CMarlin@schools.nyc.gov.