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Update June 15, 2013- Downtown Express is confirming that there is now no longer any child on the kindergarten waitlist in Downtown. Also, PS 150 likely will not move.
Update June 11, 2013– By Steven E. Greer, MD
PS 89 recently opened a 4th kindergarten class to make room for the kids on the waitlist. However, the PS 276 waitlist remained. We have learned that PS 89 has now opened a 5th kindergarten class, possibly allowing PS 276 waitlisted kids to move in. We are awaiting comment from the school.
Update May 17, 2013– By Steven E. Greer, MD
PS 89 opened another kindergarten class, and all of the parents on the waitlist seem to have been offered spots. The school wrote, “Hi everyone, You will be happy to hear that PS 89 is opening a 4th kindergarten class for next year. We are able to offer all of your children seats at PS 89. Please let me know if you are accepting this offer, and then we will make an appointment for you to bring your child to school and pre-register. I hope we are able to register everyone by the end of next week. We do registration in the mornings between 9 and 11, so if you let me know what day is good, I will arrange it. Thank you for your patience throughout this process. I am very pleased that we are able to welcome you and your child to PS 89.”
The other school in Battery Park, PS 276, is still not planning on opening another kindergarten class. The waitlist there remains unresolved.
Update May 3, 2013– Some students in PS 150, which is now scheduled to be relocated out of Tribeca, are applying to PS 89. They have been given spots at the top of the waitlist.
According to PS 89, “The K registration period is over, and we have heard from everyone who was accepted at PS 89. There will be no movement on the wait list this week….Some of you may have heard about the changes planned for PS 150 in Tribeca. Due to these changes, four families who were accepted to PS 89 and PS 150 and registered at PS 150 have changed their minds and want to register their children at PS 89. The Office of Student Enrollment has instructed us to put those four families at the top of the wait list, since they contacted us before the enrollment period was over….At this point, I do not expect to hear of any movement of the wait list until the Gifted & Talented offers are made in June. I will continue to send you updates.”
April 25, 2013- By Steven E. Greer 9:16 AM
A local mother posted a comment on a parent chatboard that stated the Department of Education will be moving PS 150 next year, 2014, and moving it to 17th street and 6th avenue turning it into a much larger school, accommodating 560 students. She stated that parents are concerned because this new school, farther away, will drive more parents to attempt to enroll in the already overcrowded Tribeca and BPC schools.
Meanwhile, two meetings this week, one at the CB1 and one at PS 89, failed to attract any elected officials and resulted in no tangible achievements. The overflow schools are still yet to be determined and no new classes will be added to accommodate the waitlists.
Keep up the good reporting
Vince
Thank you!
(Parent with 4 yo on PS 89 waitlist)
Thanks so much for your coverage on the overcrowding issue in BPC schools and the waitlisted children!!! Keep up the great work!
This is great news to waitlisted P.S. 89 families. When is P.S. 276 going to get with the program and add an additional kindergarten class? There are still 37 families WAITING. BPTV, thank you for your excellent coverage throughout this process.
276 was the fist to open a 4th K class months ago…the real question is when is the DOE opening another school? School buildings are only so big but new apartments & conversions downtown happen daily adding families to the area. The city is happy to collect the taxes from us and yet refuses to build the additional schools needed to keep us here. We should all be screaming for new schools as this overcrowding gets worse each year and has no end in sight. Shame on the Mayor for trying to brand himself as the Education mayor and take credit for much of the resurgence of lower Manhattan while ignoring the need for additional LOCAL seats. Parents shouldn’t have to bus 5 year old children miles away from home…
AMK, you must be a 276 PTA member. Waitlisted parents ARE screaming for new schools, but we are also screaming for our children to attend their local schools this fall. Certainly 276 can make room for an additional class until the new school is ready. We all know that a new school site will take 3-5 years, which means that our kindergartners will be in middle school by the time it opens. We need both short term AND long term solutions.
Dr. Greer,
I wanted to thank you for your excellent coverage of battery park city news, in particular the kindergarten waitlist issue. For those of us who have been battling for the last month about our children being denied local seats, it is comforting to know that you are reporting the real story. I spoke at the cb1 general meeting a month ago, and you were the only one to report that not a single elected or doe official was present.
I learned today that two new private preschools are opening across the street from each other, one in the cove club which waitlisted parents at 276 were desperately looking at for an annex solution. Would you consider reporting on the absurdity of two new private preschools in south battery park when we have this large shortage of kindergarten seats?
Thank you, and I hope to meet you at an upcoming cb1 or taskforce meeting.
Best Regards,
Ariana Massouh
Gateway Resident and parent of waitlisted 276 child
Ariana:
I agree with Dr. Greer. The parents of wait-listed students should get together and sue the DOE. Perhaps potential litigation might get the DOE to do the right thing?
Also, the fault does not lie with the Principal of 276. She has done everything possible to create more seats. This year 276 took in 2 extra K classes and next year will take in one extra class – they had to eliminate a pre-K class to make room.
Seeing that the DOE was not taking action, last year 276 put together a group that scoured available downtown real estate for possible classroom locations they could annex for Kindergarten seats.
276 came up with a number of very suitable options – including the 2 that you mention – and brought the DOE down to visit the list of potential annexes.
DOE rejected all of them.
Amy,
We are working in every way possible find resolution to this issue. I never held the Principal responsible, not sure where you are getting that from. Our petition is to the DOE and our elected officials.
Ariana:
You are right; my apologies.
I wanted to address a couple of thoughts from various comments and as you were the last on the list, i addressed them solely to you.
I should have addressed part of my comments to “Wait-listed 276” who asked “when is 276 was going to get with the program?”
At the end of the day, we all want to same thing.
I do think that litigation might be a good angle, since elected officials and the DOE couldn’t care less about the lack of schools down here.
Pushing ps150 to Chelsea will make the problem worse. I think many of those families as the 89 letter states are going to chose to stay at a local school instead of put their kids on buses.
Also, I have heard there are 7 potential classrooms in Tweed that can be used if configured correctly. We need to know what the resistance is to using that space. Opening up new classrooms in already crowded schools is neither a short term nor a long term solution.
Steven,
Did you hear that this 5th K class at 89 is to alleviate the 276 waitlist? I was told that it will help “downtown waitlists” which includes 234 and perhaps some 150 families as well. Please share if you have updated info – those of us on the 276 waitlist are anxiously awaiting updates. Thank you!
I don’t think anyone knows yet, news hot off the presses
Editor
276 should NOT be forced to open another kindergarten. This school has already added too many classes. It was proposed as a K – 8 school, and already the current second graders are not guaranteed seats due to overcrowding. I find it hard to believe that you want 276 to add a kindergarten now and then move your kids later, if and when the DOE adds another school. Instead we would be forced to chip away at the things that make the school great.
To Ginny
You did not read the story properly. PS 89 opened two new kindergarten classes, not PS 276
I DID read it. I am responding to the people demanding that 276 open another class.
Ginny, I’d like to you to tell everyone exactly what makes 276 “great.” Is it the green building? The classrooms? The PTA? All downtown schools are facing the same overcrowding situations, and somehow PS 276 manages to be more exclusive and protective of their spaces than any other school in the surrounding neighborhood. I do not understand why other schools can compromise their rooms to accommodate NEIGHBORHOOD children and 276 cannot. We can all agree that a new school is needed, but there are many children that need a space for THIS FALL.
I wold like to hear from Ginny too. Apparently many people signed this petition to make sure the quality of 276 is “not compromised” for thier kids. https://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-bloomberg-nyc-department-of-education-don-t-let-overcrowding-compromise-science-art-music-at-ps-is-276
I don’t get it and I don’t know how these people would react if they were in the shoes of those parents of the waitlisted. I understand that they now consider themselves the “winners” in this nonsensical only-fortunate-kids-get-in-to-the-public-school-they-are-zoned-for game. But I thought probably as fellow parents, Ginny and alike should at least be understanding and be able to relate.
Well said, QS. I am pretty confident that Ginny and those fortunate enough to have their children at PS 276 would be fighting the same fight that the waitlisted families are if they had to. This issue is a public community issue – and 276 is not a private school that is exempt from this issue. They do not have the right to keep neighborhood children out to “protect” their own children.