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Chelsea Now > As schools vie for space, DOE emerges as ?common adversary?
Tears flowed and tempers flared at a hearing on April 29th at P.S. 11 — as members of three school communities lobbied the Department of Education not to compromise their children’s education by reneging on the commitments it had made to each school.
At issue was the relocation of the Clinton School for Writers and Artists — a middle school that has shared space for 30 years with P.S. 11 at 320 W. 21st St. In order to alleviate overcrowding at P.S. 11, the DOE is proposing to move Clinton to 223 E. 23rd St. — the home of the American Sign Language upper and lower schools.
ASL has been “a mecca for the deaf community”— deaf, hard of hearing and children with deaf siblings or parents — for 102 years. Patti Anderegg, who’s taught there for 33 years, notes these “are the only schools in the United States that educate deaf and hearing students together in general education classrooms with staff who are fluent in ASL.” The building also houses P.S. 138 — about 45 District 75 students, most of whom have multiple handicaps, and many of whom are in wheelchairs.”
The battle lines were clearly drawn: the forces of Clinton, ASL and P.S. 138 were aligned against P.S. 11 and the DOE. Clinton doesn’t want to move to the ASL (or “47” as it is known) because it will have less space than at P.S. 11.
Anderegg says ASL fears that the impact of Clinton students “would be devastating because it would lead to severe overcrowding that would result in inadequate space being available to a population that relies on visual means for communication.”
P.S. 11 wants to relieve its overcrowding and retain its cluster space (science lab, music and art rooms), so it backs the plan of the DOE to move Clinton out. “Each child is just as important as any other child, with or without an obvious disability,” said P.S. 11 PTA president Mary Conway Spiegel.
Each school has valid issues. As of now, the DOE’s plan pits the needs of elementary and middle school, special needs and general education students against each other. What one gains, the other loses. There are too few classrooms for too many students.
Although some cooler heads are trying to work out a compromise that will do the least harm to all the students, they have not yet prevailed. “An incredibly heart-rending” situation,” said one P.S. 11 parent. “A disgrace that we have to fight each other,” said another P.S. 11 parent in “this game of shuffle the schools” — as Clinton parent Miles Chapin called it.
Rather than “honestly address issues in advance, they [DOE] promised everything, provided nothing,” charged Clinton parent Tami Coyne. The DOE, she said, is succeeding at setting neighbor against neighbor “when our aim is the same: to educate the children in the best way humanly possible. We share,” declared Coyne, “a common adversary, and that is the DOE.”
No one denies that P.S. 11, a Title 1 school with an excellent record, is overcrowded. Given current population growth trends, it will have to accommodate 60 new students in the next school year and even more in subsequent years. Last year, the school agreed to give up its library with the understanding that Clinton would move out in the fall of 2010. Now, it’s holding the DOE to that commitment.
If Clinton doesn’t move, said P.S. 11 School Leadership Team member Kristin Sewell, their class sizes will have to increase to as much as 34 — far beyond the state goal of 20. Small class sizes have been shown to improve students’ performance in every measurable way as well as narrowing the achievement gap between ethnic and racial groups — an important consideration in a Title 1 school with a diverse population. Sewell is also concerned that music, art and computer rooms will be lost — “effectively dismantling everything that’s working so well.”
When Clinton moves to 47, it too will have to create classes with over 30 students. Yet the “typical solutions applied to other District 2 schools, such as eliminating or moving Pre-K and G+T [Gifted and Talented] or having a lottery have not been considered for P.S. 11,” according to Clinton SLT member Tamara Rowe.
The Clinton relocation committee has proposed various strategies to deal with the overcrowding at P.S. 11 if the middle school stays put for another year. Among these are placing a trailer in the play yard that P.S. 11 could use for music or other non-academic activity, rescheduling its program to liberate a classroom for P.S. 11, covering up outside play areas to free the gyms for classroom space and engaging a professional space planner to evaluate the whole building.
Neither the DOE nor P.S. 11 have shown any interest in exploring Clinton’s suggestions, Clinton relocation committee member Susan Kramer told Chelsea Now.
P.S. 11 PTA president Spiegel said that though Clinton and P.S. 11 “started as a team” two years ago, the Clinton parents have said “they did not want our suggestions.”
The DOE has acquired property at 10 E. 15th St. — where it will demolish the existing building and build a permanent school to be ready for Clinton in the Fall of 2014. The school is requesting the DOE allow it to stay at P.S. 11 for another year in order to plan adequately for its move. Clinton is proposing a plan (endorsed by the Social Services and Education committee of Community Board 2) to move temporarily to 75 Morton St. until its new school is ready.
Speculation about the motives of the DOE and elected officials is rampant. The joint announcement released April 16th by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler and State Sen. Tom Duane in support of Clinton’s move to ALS was taken by some as an insincere sop to P.S. 11. They wonder whether the electeds, knowing the Panel for Educational Policy was conducting a tour of the ALS building on the same day, suspected that PEP’s delay of the vote, together with the tour, would bolster the case against the move and might persuade the DOE to withdraw its proposal. Some in the Clinton and P.S. 11 communities wonder if the DOE has plans to replace Clinton with a charter or some other school at P.S. 11 or co-locate a different school at 47.
Tears flowed and tempers flared at a hearing on April 29th at P.S. 11 — as members of three school communities lobbied the Department of Education not to compromise their children’s education by reneging on the commitments it had made to each school.
At issue was the relocation of the Clinton School for Writers and Artists — a middle school that has shared space for 30 years with P.S. 11 at 320 W. 21st St. In order to alleviate overcrowding at P.S. 11, the DOE is proposing to move Clinton to 223 E. 23rd St. — the home of the American Sign Language upper and lower schools.
ASL has been “a mecca for the deaf community”— deaf, hard of hearing and children with deaf siblings or parents — for 102 years. Patti Anderegg, who’s taught there for 33 years, notes these “are the only schools in the United States that educate deaf and hearing students together in general education classrooms with staff who are fluent in ASL.” The building also houses P.S. 138 — about 45 District 75 students, most of whom have multiple handicaps, and many of whom are in wheelchairs.”
The battle lines were clearly drawn: the forces of Clinton, ASL and P.S. 138 were aligned against P.S. 11 and the DOE. Clinton doesn’t want to move to the ASL (or “47” as it is known) because it will have less space than at P.S. 11.
Anderegg says ASL fears that the impact of Clinton students “would be devastating because it would lead to severe overcrowding that would result in inadequate space being available to a population that relies on visual means for communication.”
P.S. 11 wants to relieve its overcrowding and retain its cluster space (science lab, music and art rooms), so it backs the plan of the DOE to move Clinton out. “Each child is just as important as any other child, with or without an obvious disability,” said P.S. 11 PTA president Mary Conway Spiegel.
Each school has valid issues. As of now, the DOE’s plan pits the needs of elementary and middle school, special needs and general education students against each other. What one gains, the other loses. There are too few classrooms for too many students.
Although some cooler heads are trying to work out a compromise that will do the least harm to all the students, they have not yet prevailed. “An incredibly heart-rending” situation,” said one P.S. 11 parent. “A disgrace that we have to fight each other,” said another P.S. 11 parent in “this game of shuffle the schools” — as Clinton parent Miles Chapin called it.
Rather than “honestly address issues in advance, they [DOE] promised everything, provided nothing,” charged Clinton parent Tami Coyne. The DOE, she said, is succeeding at setting neighbor against neighbor “when our aim is the same: to educate the children in the best way humanly possible. We share,” declared Coyne, “a common adversary, and that is the DOE.”
No one denies that P.S. 11, a Title 1 school with an excellent record, is overcrowded. Given current population growth trends, it will have to accommodate 60 new students in the next school year and even more in subsequent years. Last year, the school agreed to give up its library with the understanding that Clinton would move out in the fall of 2010. Now, it’s holding the DOE to that commitment.
If Clinton doesn’t move, said P.S. 11 School Leadership Team member Kristin Sewell, their class sizes will have to increase to as much as 34 — far beyond the state goal of 20. Small class sizes have been shown to improve students’ performance in every measurable way as well as narrowing the achievement gap between ethnic and racial groups — an important consideration in a Title 1 school with a diverse population. Sewell is also concerned that music, art and computer rooms will be lost — “effectively dismantling everything that’s working so well.”
When Clinton moves to 47, it too will have to create classes with over 30 students. Yet the “typical solutions applied to other District 2 schools, such as eliminating or moving Pre-K and G+T [Gifted and Talented] or having a lottery have not been considered for P.S. 11,” according to Clinton SLT member Tamara Rowe.
The Clinton relocation committee has proposed various strategies to deal with the overcrowding at P.S. 11 if the middle school stays put for another year. Among these are placing a trailer in the play yard that P.S. 11 could use for music or other non-academic activity, rescheduling its program to liberate a classroom for P.S. 11, covering up outside play areas to free the gyms for classroom space and engaging a professional space planner to evaluate the whole building.
Neither the DOE nor P.S. 11 have shown any interest in exploring Clinton’s suggestions, Clinton relocation committee member Susan Kramer told Chelsea Now.
P.S. 11 PTA president Spiegel said that though Clinton and P.S. 11 “started as a team” two years ago, the Clinton parents have said “they did not want our suggestions.”
The DOE has acquired property at 10 E. 15th St. — where it will demolish the existing building and build a permanent school to be ready for Clinton in the Fall of 2014. The school is requesting the DOE allow it to stay at P.S. 11 for another year in order to plan adequately for its move. Clinton is proposing a plan (endorsed by the Social Services and Education committee of Community Board 2) to move temporarily to 75 Morton St. until its new school is ready.
Speculation about the motives of the DOE and elected officials is rampant. The joint announcement released April 16th by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler and State Sen. Tom Duane in support of Clinton’s move to ALS was taken by some as an insincere sop to P.S. 11. They wonder whether the electeds, knowing the Panel for Educational Policy was conducting a tour of the ALS building on the same day, suspected that PEP’s delay of the vote, together with the tour, would bolster the case against the move and might persuade the DOE to withdraw its proposal. Some in the Clinton and P.S. 11 communities wonder if the DOE has plans to replace Clinton with a charter or some other school at P.S. 11 or co-locate a different school at 47.