Zoning Problems, Overcrowding, Calendar Revisions & More Notes From CEC 20's Annual Meeting

By Megan McGibney

Members of Community Education Council [CEC] 20 gathered in Bay Ridge for their annual meeting Wednesday to elect new members, discuss the yearly budget, and address the 2015-2016 academic calendar.

Here are some highlights from Wednesday’s meeting:

The meeting commenced with the election of five officers, who will hold their positions for the next two years. The CEC 20 officers for 2015 – 2017 are: Laurie Windsor as president, Eileen McKenna as first vice president, Zi Yi Pan as second vice president, Bob Lee as recording secretary, and Sheila Higginson as treasurer.

Several new members were introduced at the meeting, including Adele Doyle, Stanley Ng, Eileen Connelly, Garcia Mary, Ann Ortiz, Armany Naseif, and Robert Yee. Ezana Ceman was welcomed as CEC 20’s incoming high school member.

An issue arose about the number of days off in September. With classes resuming on September 9, quickly followed by Jewish and Muslim holidays and parent-teacher conferences, it was widely agreed among CEC 20 members that there were too many days off for the first month of the school year. There was a discussion about changing the dates for the parent-teacher conferences to lessen the number of days off.

Reimbursements were discussed as well as the breakdown of the budget. All were in favor of the year’s budget.

Each member picked three “liaison schools” out of a bucket. Members are not allowed to pick their own child’s school. The liaison school list will be distributed at a later date..

There was an in-depth conversation about zoning and overcrowding. Windsor talked about how difficult it is for students to be rezoned, which forces them to stay with the same zones through 8th grade. As an example, she discussed students moving to Staten Island, only to go back to Brooklyn to attend school because of the zoning guidelines.

As for overcrowding, the group weighed Pre-K programs opening up in retail spaces. Due to District 20’s popularity, many local children are not getting accepted to Pre-K. Windsor mentioned one resident who was so upset that his child did not get into the Pre-K programs that he had a banner professionally made and hung it outside the fire escape of his apartment. “He said that he was willing to rent the boiler room to get his child into that school,” said Windsor.

Also discussed was the opening of P.S. 170’s annex this fall, which Windsor said was “long overdue,” P.S./I.S. 30 moving into split sites, as well as another new school location, set to open in 2018.

CEC 20 meets every second Wednesday of the month, unless it is a holiday, at 415 89^th Street in Bay Ridge. For more information call (718) 759-3921 or email CEC20@schools.nyc.gov.