Anyone who thinks of libraries as repressively quiet zones filled with musty books need only walk into the St. Agnes branch of the New York Public Library system to be instantly proven wrong. While the Upper West Side branch boasts its fair share of quiet spots as well as, of course, books, it is also a bright, modern community space where locals of all ages come to use computers, take classes and participate in group activities they simply can’t find anywhere else.

Library usage in the city keeps going up—in the last fiscal year, St. Agnes had nearly 300,000 visits, and the entire NYPL system had 15.1 million—but funding continues to drop precipitously. Now the NYPL system is facing severe budget cuts again; the 2013 proposed budget slashes $36 million, a 32 percent decrease that, if implemented in the executive budget, would surely mean reduced hours, staff and services all around Manhattan.

“More patrons than ever are coming through our doors, checking out more materials, attending more programs and accessing more information,” said Dr. Anthony Marx, president of the NYPL, at a City Council hearing last week. “This cumulative cut means that [fiscal year] ’13 funding, excluding inflationary reimbursements, would be a full 44 percent lower than the FY ’08 adopted budget.”

It’s a particularly cruel irony that the same economic crisis that squeezes the library budget is the same force sending New Yorkers into those libraries in droves. Library advocates point out that the loss of hours and staff would mean fewer librarians to help people find and fill out job applications, fewer free activities for cash-strapped parents to bring their kids to and fewer English as a Second Language courses, one of the many types of free class the NYPL provides.

“Especially in an economic downturn, libraries just become more necessary,” said Lauren Comito, a librarian who runs the organization Urban Librarians Unite. She said she has probably helped over 1,000 people in the past six months search for jobs, write résumés and apply to positions online. Last year, 440,500 people attended job-related classes at the city libraries.

“When people don’t have any other options, they know they can come to the library for help with dignity,” Comito said.

City Council Member Gale Brewer said that while it’s still a little early in the process of fighting over the budget, she expects to receive a slew of constituent feedback urging her to help preserve Upper West Side libraries—last year, she received over 2,500 letters.

“We receive more letters from people concerned about libraries than any other item,” Brewer said. “I happen to also be addicted to St. Agnes. I go in most weekends, I read the papers that I haven’t caught up on. There are no seats available in the computer spaces.”

Brewer said she’s concerned that even if funding is restored in the executive budget, the Upper West Side branches—which include St. Agnes on Amsterdam Avenue, Bloomingdale on West 100th Street, Riverside at West 65th Street and the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center—will still suffer without increased funding.

“We need more librarians, we need to be open more hours, [have] more books, more computers. I don’t understand a literate society not making that a priority,” Brewer said.

The steady decline in funding has forced libraries to get by on shoestring budgets and operate with military-like efficiency to avoid cutting services.

“The cuts have definitely been tough,” Angela Montefinise, director of public relations and marketing at the NYPL, wrote in an email. “We’re down 500 employees since [2008], and yet we still manage to have an average of six-day service around our system. We have worked extremely hard…to ensure that public service is not impacted by these cuts, but there’s only so far we can push to maintain that level of service as resources continue to decline.”

According to the NYPL, about $100 million of their $259 million adopted budget for FY 2012 comes from private donations, a number they say remains consistent. It’s the city money that fluctuates and that the system is constantly negotiating.

“I call it, in the words of Yogi Berra, ‘Déjà vu all over again,’” said Council Member Vincent Gentile, chair of the Libraries Committee. “It seems like every 10 months or so, we’re back to where we started.

“Last year, we had to close a gap of $3 million [after larger cuts were restored to the budget],” he said. “Now it’s come to the point to that we’re looking at a gap of $96 million,” the total combined amount for the NYPL, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island as well as the research libraries, and cuts to the Queens and Brooklyn library systems.

Gentile said that the libraries should receive a baseline budget—something they can count on every year—but that he doesn’t see that happening in this administration.

“The fact that we haven’t baselined it really leaves everybody with no ability to plan and no ability to have some sense of security,” he said.

Maureen Sullivan, president-elect of the American Libraries Association, said that urban libraries around the country are suffering similar budget restraints and that lawmakers need to be made aware of the tremendous return on investment that libraries offer in terms of public services and community benefit.

“I think there’s really a need for the financial people, the policy makers to understand what people who work in libraries do and how people in the community use libraries,” Sullivan said. “It’s critical to recognize that the public library is often the only resource available for those in our communities who are not yet using the technology or don’t have the ability to get the information,” for things like online employment resources.

While job search resources are critical, local libraries also serve as cultural and social havens for Upper West Siders. On a recent bright weekday morning at St. Agnes, seniors crowded around the computers, people of all ages browsed the books and worked on laptops and dozens of children scampered around the newly renovated first floor, designed to accommodate kids and their caretakers. Three moms of young toddlers met in a corner, where they regularly gather for their group’s meet-ups.

“I couldn’t imagine not having this available,” said Lissa Toole, who organizes the group. “The library is a huge help.”

Samantha Berman, who used to come to St. Agnes as a little girl and loves bringing her child there now, said that if the library had to further reduce its hours, it would be tough on her and other mothers. “We would like it to open at 10 a.m.,” she said. “If they decrease the hours, it would be like a waste of that [new] construction.”

“Yes, 11 a.m. is late for a library,” Toole chimed in. Currently, St. Agnes is open 43 hours a week, opening at 11 a.m. Monday through Wednesday, noon on Thursday, and 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday. It closes at 5, 6 or 7 p.m. and doesn’t open on Sundays.

“As a parent, you want to encourage reading from the earliest moment,” said Alena Morrissey, another mom who wants her toddler to be surrounded by books as much as possible. All three mothers said they would be at a loss for a new location to meet if they didn’t have St. Agnes, and noted how crowded all the area libraries are.

As the budget back-and-forth begins in the coming weeks, the City Council may restore some of the library budget, but advocates are still worried that even with minimal cuts, the system will be stretched too thin.

“They talk about basically cutting the most vulnerable folks in this city who depend on us for access to ideas—the bedrock of democracy, the bedrock of an economy,” Marx said in his Council testimony. “That would demonstrate fewer items being circulated, libraries being closed, youngsters being deprived of access to books and programs. It really is a horror show.”

Proper dental hygene is important for your pet's s health

Why do two-thirds of well-meaning pet owners often ignore their veterinarian’s recommendations for proper dental care? I suppose we all hate going to the dentist, so maybe there is a bit of anthropomorphizing going on. But the fact is the American Veterinary Dental Society reports that 80 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats show signs of oral disease by age 3. That’s nothing to smile about.
Fido’s and Fifi’s funky breath can be an early sign that something is afoul; halitosis is often a consequence of periodontal disease. Just as in humans, bacteria in the mouth helps form plaque. Left to accumulate, tartar forms and plaque and tartar can infect the gums and cause gingivitis. The gums appear red and swollen and can bleed easily. Once plaque takes hold below the gum line, the structure of the tooth can be affected. Infection can form around the root and spread into the surrounding bone. This can result in tooth and bone loss.
Sound painful? It is. However, dogs and cats often suffer silently and will continue to eat despite considerable discomfort. Pain isn’t the only issue. Bacteria that overcolonize in the mouth can enter the blood stream through the diseased and bleeding gum tissue. The bacteria are then free to lodge in the heart, liver and kidneys, resulting in damage to those organs and serious health problems. Signs of oral disease can include bad breath, red gums, drooling, difficulty chewing, food bowl avoidance, dropping of food and facial swelling.
In the wild, the canine and feline species rip and tear apart their prey, which actually helps keep their teeth and gums healthy. Domestication and manufactured diets have removed nature’s built-in dental care. Therefore, your pet needs human intervention to ensure proper oral health. Regular dental checkups should be part of your pet’s annual maintenance program. Routine dental cleanings may be suggested by your veterinarian as a prophylactic measure, or your pet may be in serious need of a deep cleaning that may include tooth extractions.
Owner reluctance often stems from the fact that animals need to be put under anesthesia in order to perform the dentistry properly and safely. When I think about it, I wish I had that option! I would probably visit the dentist more often.
As we all know, tooth cleaning is not a pleasant experience. If the gums are inflamed, it can be downright uncomfortable. Fortunately for our pets, they are happily asleep during the procedure. This allows for all sides of the tooth to be cleaned properly with the use of an ultrasonic scaler, as well as deep cleaning below the gum line. In addition, the teeth can be polished adequately and a thorough assessment of the oral cavity performed.
Your veterinarian can take many steps to ensure that the anesthetic procedure is as safe as possible. A pre-anesthetic exam and blood work can help assess risk and allow for the proper choice of anesthetic agents tailored to the individual pet’s health status. Intra-operative patient monitoring and fluid administration enhance the safety and pain medications are often prescribe to make the recovery and post-dental period more comfortable.
Dental care should begin at a young age. Home care is an important part of overall dental health. Daily brushing should be incorporated into your routine. There are many videos on YouTube on how to get your pet acclimated to brushing. Your veterinarian may also recommend a dental diet specially formulated to help remove plaque, if your pet is prone to periodontal disease. There are chew toys on the market that also help massage the gums and remove plaque.
Nothing beats in-home monitoring. Flip up a lip and take a peek inside your pet’s mouth. If you see something, say something! Don’t brush aside your pet’s oral health.
If you want to give your pet a dental health checkup, the animal hospitals at Bideawee have a variety of dental health care packages for dogs and cats.

Robin Brennen is chief of veterinary services & VP of operations at Bideawee

It’s incomprehensible to me that people think our teachers have it easy and are overpaid for what they do. My wife taught in every grade of our schools and ended up as a full professor of education. I worked very hard as a college professor, but not nearly as hard as she did when she was in the schools.

She would get to work at 7:30 and teach six high school classes a day. She had literally hundreds of students. She’d get home around 5, after all her committee meetings, conferences and drawing up the lesson plans for the next day. She was a hard-working college professor, too, but she had survivor’s guilt because no matter how hard she worked at the college level, it paled in comparison to the work she did in grade school and high school. I happen to think that as a class, teachers are the best, hardest working professionals in America.

Think about it: we’ve all had teachers who have made a tremendous difference in our lives. Mine was a man named Eugene Steiker. When I walked into Joan of Arc Junior High School (J.H.S. 118) in Manhattan, I opted for orchestra class. Mr. Steiker handed me a trumpet and changed my life.

I really wasn’t all that good, but I was good enough to have a band throughout high school and college so my twin brother and I never needed an allowance. When I was 14, I saw Pete Seeger at summer camp and started learning to play the banjo. Now, at 70, I still play with my group, The Berkshire Ramblers. That all came from one teacher—Mr. Steiker.

He was my hero and, though he is long gone (I dropped everything to get to his funeral), I’ve never forgotten what he did for me. I’ve never forgotten how much interest he showed in me. I’ve never forgotten his incredible sense of humor.

Everyone has had a Mr. Steiker in their lives. Everyone has had a teacher who went the extra mile to help define them and their potential. Teachers deserve to be honored. They deserve to be paid what they are worth. Remember, we entrust the most important people in our lives, our children, to our teachers. If you think a teacher isn’t every bit as important as a doctor—any doctor—think again.

True, there are some not-so-good teachers. It is important that the system have fair rules to encourage those folks to move on. On the other hand, we have to do more to keep the good ones on the job. The more teachers are made into scapegoats, the worse it is for our children as the great teachers say, “Who needs this?” and leave the profession.

My son, Jonas, runs an organization based in New Orleans called Leading Educators. The thrust of this group is to keep good, young teachers in the classrooms. The more abuse that is thrown at our teachers, the more quickly we will lose our best and our brightest. We have to develop strategies that will encourage them to stay.

Of course, we also have to keep our eye on unscrupulous politicians who play to the stereotype and imply that teachers are not as hard-working and influential as we know they are. They’re trying to win points with the voters by being divisive. The next time you see that kind of thing happening, I encourage you to call the offending politician on it. Frankly, I give the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, high marks for his good words about teachers. That, in my mind, is what a leader is all about.

Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.

But, when it comes to the venerable school’s ambitious, super-sized building plans, dubbed NYU 2031, which would add four new buildings covering several million square feet within the Washington Square core, many longtime residents of the Village are beginning to see the school in a less-than-neighborly light.

“We love the school, hate the plan,” said Brad Hoylman, chairman of Community Board 2, who attended Saturday’s rally at Judson Church, where hundreds turned out to protest NYU’s massive building plans.

Holding signs with slogans that read, “Flowers, not towers,” and “Condemned by NYU: Gardens going, going, gone,” a crowd of nearly 500 that included village residents, community activists and politicians expressed their disapproval of the scale and scope of NYU’s 20-year building plan that would effectively remake the face of Greenwich Village and the surrounding area.

“NYU’s position is to change the area zoning from its current residential/institutional character to one that emulates the center of Manhattan,” said Janet Hayes, a Republican district leader who attended the rally and lives on LaGuardia Place, near a Morton Williams Supermarket that is the site of a proposed school. “The 20-year plan allows for a high-rise, 40-story, block-long building and large commercial tenancies.”

Hayes added that many villagers see the NYU plan as self-serving, as opposed to the neighborhoods’ aspirations to preserve the character of the area. She also pointed out that the school had received—and declined—numerous offers to expand in Lower Manhattan below Canal Street.

Assembly Member Deborah Glick said that the plan in its current form would “severely alter” the low-rise character and quality of the Village. “In addition,” Glick said, “the four new towers would cast shadows where there were previously none.”

Hoylman called the rally at Judson Church a “call to action” as the board nears its Thursday, Feb. 23 deadline to consider a resolution on this issue and then send it on to the Department of City Planning on March 11. “Our recommendation, while advisory,” said Hoylman, “packs a punch.”

The NYU 2031 Plan is only a month into the lengthy, 7-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure that involves approvals and recommendations from the Community Board, the borough president, Department of City Planning, City Council and the mayor.

While many in the community are already calling for the NYU plan to be scaled back, Hoylman says that the plan is too concentrated in a very small, dense area and will ultimately bring thousands of new residents, students and faculty members to an already overpopulated and vulnerable neighborhood that includes seniors and rent-stabilized residents.

“At the moment, there is really no flexibility on NYU’s part,” he said.

In response to the rally, NYU spokesman John Beckman issued the following statement: “As NYU continues to move through the city’s mandated public review process, we look forward to continuing our discussions with all stakeholders involved.”

Older residents have talked to me that the NYU 2031 plan resonates with Occupy Wall Street. Here we do not have a large financial institution but a financially well-endowed institution where elite interests and political dealings have likely trumped the people’s voice,” Jeanne Wilcke, president of the Downtown Independent Democrats.

Sean Sweeney, a member of CB2 and the SoHo Alliance, sees the NYU plan as having even more far-reaching effects.

“Although many say that this NYU plan will affect the Village only, in fact it will severely impact Soho, Noho and Tribeca much more than most of the Village, since the plans for construction are focused on Houston Street and the two blocks north of that [Bleecker and West 3rd streets],” Sweeney said.

“As a result, we would expect to get the ill effects of construction in Soho as well as hordes of students from the dorms proposed just across the street from our community…Think more beer pong bars and fewer fine dining establishments.”

- Alan Krawitz

By Anam Baig

Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, part of the Meritas group of international private and boarding college prep schools, promises a dynamic, culturally aware education for all of its pre-kindergarten through high school students.

Formerly known as Claremont Preparatory School, it was acquired by the Meritas Family of Schools, a conglomerate of prep schools, last April. It was renamed Léman Manhattan Preparatory School after its sister schools, Collège du Léman in Switzerland and Léman International School in Chengdu, China.

Both Léman campuses are located in the Financial District. Its lower school, ranging from pre-K through 4th grade, is at 41 Broad St., the former headquarters of Bank of America International—where Claremont Prep used to be.

The middle and high schools opened to students in September 2010 and are on the top four floors of the Cunard Building, located on Morris Street and Broadway right by the Wall Street Bull. The campus boasts a two-floor library, art and music studios, multiple computer labs, a café and an athletic facility with a 25-yard pool, full-size gymnasium and fully equipped exercise room.

“We are located in the heart of American history. If you look outside our window, the Statue of Liberty is there, welcoming people as she has for hundreds of years. It’s just an amazing, amazing place to be able to teach children,” said Christine Karamanoglou, interim head of the Léman middle school.

Léman Prep immerses students in a globally charged curriculum and promises an open forum for communication between parents, students, faculty and the administration, as well as with students at other Meritas schools located on three different continents.

From day one, students are encouraged to be critical, culturally aware learners. Léman’s lower school curriculum focuses on educating the child as a whole, with careful attention to math, language and art.

“Critical thinking is very important in the lower school. We strive to give our youngest students the tools they need to become independent learners, rather than just simply memorizing and reciting things they’ve read or heard,” said Rob Cousins, head of the lower school.

The middle school furthers the critical thinking process for students, giving them insight into how to use the education they acquired in the lower school in a productive way. During this time, students are introduced to an advisory group, a concept many new schools are adopting in order to ensure a safe, fostering environment for the youth.

These are usually small groups of students headed by a teacher, forums for discussion that go past academia and into the personal lives of these growing individuals. The goal of the advisory system is to ensure every student is well-rounded before continuing with more rigorous high school and college education.

The Léman Prep high school will graduate its first senior class in 2013. It provides its students opportunities for academic excellence, co-curricular activities, special projects and internships with neighboring government, nongovernmental and artistic, environmental, educational and financial organizations.

By combining facets of local and international communities in the burgeoning neighborhood of the Financial District, Léman Manhattan Preparatory School continues to excel as a global learning community.

The administration and the student body sit on opposite sides of the fence. Students claim that by charging tuition the entire culture of the Cooper Union will change. Bharucha, while concerned about this cultural shift, says that drastic steps must be taken for the school to continue to fulfill Peter Cooper’s mission. In a live interview with NPR Bharucha said “the most important thing is to create a sustainable financial model that enables Cooper Union to commit even more strongly to provide access to those with the least access today.”

Peter Cooper, born in New York City in 1791, was a businessman and inventor who made the bulk of his fortune through real estate investments and a profitable iron works company. Initially interested in helping the working classes succeed in business, he founded the university as a place of equal opportunity, where anyone could study, regardless of status or gender. This founding principle has remained Cooper Union’s mission to this day, and students fear this belief system will disappear if the administration starts charging tuition. “If The Cooper Union is going to be perpetuated as an institution for free-thinking students, then tuition can never be an option” commented one student on an online anti-tuition petition.  If attendance is based on financial means then the college runs the risk of losing the diversity that is distinctly Cooper Union.

Although Bharucha agrees that the implementation of a tuition fee could possibly and irrevocably change the school, he says that his hands are tied. He arrived at Cooper Union this past July, and inherited a dismal financial situation left to him by the previous administration. According to a message from Bharucha on the Cooper Union website, “As of this year, [Cooper Union] has an annual structural deficit of close to $16.5 million. With expenditures of $59.7 million, this represents a deficit of approximately 28%.”

In his open letter Bharucha outlined his plan for creating a sustainable Cooper Union.  His four point plan mirrors the philosophy of Peter Cooper and relies heavily on intellect and innovation, while carefully avoiding any mention of tuition fees. In fact, the point plan he laid out in the letter was vague at best, citing things like intellectual curiosity and global perspective as solutions to the issue. “There is enormous unrealized potential at Cooper Union,” wrote Bharucha, “Peter Cooper wanted this institution to be ‘equal to the best,’ and his writings offer a wealth of possibilities as we consider our options.”  Despite the vagueness of his alternative solutions, Bharucha stated in a New York Times article that “altering our scholarship policy will be only as a last resort, but in order to create a sustainable model, it has to be one of the options on the table.”

To assess the possibility of a tuition fee and the ramifications of such a charge Bharucha has put together a task force to investigate the situation and come back with solutions in the spring. The task force has been internally selected by the board which leaves many wondering whether the findings will adequately represent the students’ concerns. One concerned Cooper Union parent took to the web to propose a different kind of task force. “To be totally transparent the task force should be populated with concerned and committed students, alumni, faculty and parents that have Peter Cooper blood running through their veins,” he commented on an NPR piece.

At this point it has become a waiting game for both the administration and the students.  The proposed tuition charges would not go into effect until 2014 if they were enforced at all.  No decisions will be made before the spring of 2012, but one thing is for certain, something must be done if Cooper Union plans stick around for another 150 years.

By McCamey Lynn

Following weeks of parents, community board and Community Education Council (CEC) District 2 members voicing their distress over the latest rezoning plan for Lower Manhattan, the Department of Education (DOE) presented a new plan on Monday, Nov. 28. “We are presenting one new proposal…and we will keep it simple,” said Elizabeth Rose of the DOE at Monday’s meeting.

Just weeks earlier, on Nov. 7, the DOE presented a rezoning proposal that displeased many community members and led to its rejection by the CEC less than two weeks later. In the hopes of pleasing the council, community board members and residents, the DOE this time introduced a school map that gave in to the demands they heard after the last rezoning meeting.

According to the DOE, the latest plan creates a zone for the new Peck Slip School scheduled to open in 2015. Until Peck Slip opens, children will attend classes at an incubation site at the Tweed Courthouse. The zones for P.S. 89 on Warren Street and P.S. 276 in Battery Park City will change, along with a portion of the P.S. 397 (Spruce Street School) zone. The P.S. 234 zone in Tribeca will not be touched, unlike in the last proposal. “P.S. 234 will likely have a waitlist because there won’t be any change to the zone,” said Rose.

This time, all parties seemed happier with the proposal, expressing concern only over the need for more schools in Lower Manhattan to fully solve the problem.

“I appreciate this new proposal and consider it much better than the previous one,” said Einar Westerland, a P.S. 234 parent from Tribeca. “Most of us move to certain neighborhoods to send our kids to certain schools.”

The CEC had criticized the earlier proposal because it sent children from Tribeca to P.S. 1 in Chinatown, creating divides that would mean children within the same apartment buildings or on the same streets would be in different zones.

“Families felt the proposal was breaking up their neighborhoods, and child safety and transportation issues were also involved,” said Eric Goldberg of the CEC before the DOE presented their proposal. “Based on that feedback, we told the DOE we had to focus on creating a zone for Peck Slip and no other aspects.”

At the meeting, Lower Manhattan parents seemed content with the proposal but still unhappy with the direction in which their local schools were headed as neighborhood populations increase.

“Being on the waitlist is so painful, especially for the child,” said Christine Brogan. Her son was zoned for P.S. 234 but was waitlisted and eventually sent to P.S. 130 on Baxter Street in Chinatown. When room finally opened up in P.S 234, he transferred there. “Waitlists affect the entire district,” she added.

Like Brogan, many parents asked the DOE to simply create more schools. It was the common theme of the night, what many believe will be the only solution to this problem. CEC and community board members already predict new schools will have waitlists before they even officially open their doors.

“We opened a new school last year,” said Rose, of the Spruce Street School. “We have been opening a lot of schools in District 2 in the last few years.” Rose also pointed to Peck Slip, the Foundling School and P.S. 281 at 35th Street and First Avenue, which are to be opened. District 2, which also reaches to the Upper East Side, will have another new school open there in the next few years.

As with the previous proposal, the CEC has until Dec. 14 to approve this latest plan so pre-registration for kindergarten classes in late January won’t be disrupted. Since the entire CEC wasn’t present at Monday night’s meeting, they could not make a joint statement on how they felt about it.

However, Shino Tanikawa, CEC president, said after the meeting she was “personally happier with some aspects of the new proposal.” Goldberg also felt the DOE had heard parents’ feedback and incorporated it into this proposal.

“Even with the Peck Slip School, there are not enough seats,” said Tanikawa. “I still wish the DOE would develop better projections.”

There is still the remaining problem of the Southbridge Towers, cooperative buildings in Tribeca. Similar to the previous plan, Southbridge could be divided between the Peck Slip and Spruce Street schools.

“This will basically cut our community in half,” said Danielle Bello, a Southbridge resident. “I urge the CEC to keep our kids zoned for Spruce Street. By forcing kids to be included at Peck Slip, you’re basically slicing and dicing this community up.”

The CEC plans to vote on the proposal at its Dec. 14 meeting.

The Department of Education rolled out a new rezoning plan last week in the hope of settling the growing problem of overcrowded schools in Lower Manhattan and increasing waitlists for kindergartens.

But it looks like the DOE is the only one that is content with this new rezoning plan.

While the DOE looks to new zones as the answer, parents, elected officials and Community Board 1 see only one real resolution to this problem: Open more schools as the population increases.

“I have a lot of heartache because a lot of parents say they don’t want zoning to be a rebalancing tool,” said Michael Markowitz, council member of the Community Education Council for District 2, at the DOE’s Nov. 8 rezoning proposal meeting. At the meeting, the DOE’s Elizabeth Rose presented its latest proposal, outlining new zones for children in Tribeca, the West Village, Chinatown and the Financial District.

The rezoning will only go into effect if the CEC approves it within the next 45 days, though CEC and CB1 members think there is a possibility they may extend this time limit for the sake of pending amendments.

The latest proposal looks to relieve pressure on P.S. 234 on Greenwich Street, a school that grapples with waitlists yearly. It also creates a smaller zone for the Peck Slip School, set to open in 2015, and changes the zone of the newly opened Spruce Street School, P.S. 397.

According to the latest plan, a new zone for the upcoming school at the Foundling Hospital location in Chelsea will be instituted when it is opened in 2014, along with one for the Peck Slip School. Another major challenge was a split of Tribeca’s zones—under the proposal, children who live east of West Broadway and north of Murray Street will be zoned for P.S. 1, in Chinatown. These children are currently zoned for P.S. 234 and P.S. 397.

“We asked the DOE to leave the P.S. 234 zone the way it was and they decided to take the northeast piece and send it to P.S. 1, which doesn’t have room—and parents don’t want to go there anyway,” said Paul Hovitz, co-chair of CB1’s Youth Committee.

“This plan brings zones in line with what the community needs and what schools can provide, and addresses the feedback we heard during our last proposal,” said DOE spokesman Frank Thomas.

There was widespread criticism, especially from the CEC and CB1, about the Peck Slip School, which just received an increase of seats. Before children can enter the school itself at 1 Peck Slip, they are attending classes at its incubation site at the Tweed Courthouse.

Currently, Tweed offers room for two classrooms per grade, though when Peck Slip opens there will actually be four classrooms per grade. A shared request from the CEC and CB1 was made to increase the incubation classes to three per grade and tackle exactly what a few rooms on the bottom floor of Tweed are being used for.

“Even if it means putting staff in a trailer for a year, I want to see it happen,” said Shino Tanikawa, CEC president. “We gained another section in the school but the zone is smaller.”

Until Peck Slip is opened, students attending classes at Tweed will automatically be transferred into the specified zone for Peck Slip, if the plan is approved. But Rose argues that increasing the number of classes in Tweed doesn’t work—there’s not enough room and trailers cost too much money for a temporary expense.

The last time the DOE rezoned Lower Manhattan due to its increasing population was three years ago. While parents, community members and the CEC bickered with the DOE over the flaws of its plan, there was really only one solution they all agreed on: open more schools to relieve the pressure instead of shuffling kids around neighborhoods.

“Don’t split up communities like parts of northern Tribeca” said Julie Menin, president of CB1, at the CEC meeting. “Additional schools in the Community Board 1 district are needed for additional growth in areas.”

“They basically rezone to respond to new schools,” said Hovitz following the meeting. Currently, Hovitz and CB1 are coming up with amendments to the rezoning plan, although he is unsure if they will actually be used if requested by the CEC. The DOE has not responded on whether amendments to the proposal are possible.

Photo: The proposed rezoning from the Dept. of Education.

P.S. 234’s principal, Lisa Ripperger, has been dealing with the same problem for the last three years: having enough space for incoming kindergartners. With an overcrowded school and a growing population, Ripperger starts each year placing kids in neighboring schools or creating seats in her own. But it doesn’t stop there; she also makes sure students are providing correct addresses.

“I’ve taken it upon myself to check addresses. I’ve staked out apartments,” said Ripperger at a Community Board 1 meeting. “I can’t afford to be that easy with seats.”

As the population south of 14th Street grows in places, spaces in kindergarten classrooms at schools like P.S. 234 decrease.

P.S. 234 isn’t the only elementary school in the area with a wait list problem. P.S. 89, only blocks away, had a wait list of about 10 to 12 children this spring.

“We had a very small wait list, but we were able to place kids in the school,” said Connie Shraft, parent coordinator at P.S. 89. Shraft said the list most likely shrank because of kids moving into gifted programs or private schools. In the end, P.S. 89 was actually able to open up 10 seats for wait-listed kids from P.S. 234.

The lists shorten when children presumably move or switch to private schools. This year, there were 38 children on P.S. 234’s wait list during the spring and summer. By Sept. 8, all of them had been placed at P.S. 276 and P.S. 89, both in the same zone as 234.

“Registers cleared and seats opened up as part of the normal process, and we are happy most parents got their preferred outcome,” said Department of Education representative Frank Thomas in an email. “But when students are wait-listed, we are obligated to provide them alternate offers, as we did in this case.”

For Ripperger, the major feat was not sending any children to P.S. 130 in Chinatown, because it is outside of 234’s zone.

Wait lists are increasing, showing signs of overcrowding in elementary schools. Ripperger is trying to prevent raising the maximum number of students in a class, 32.

“We are starting to see the cumulative effect of years of overcrowding without the DOE addressing it,” said Shino Tanikawa of the Community Education Council.

The DOE has begun combating overcrowding in classrooms with the addition of new schools, including the Spruce Street School, which just opened, and the school at the site of the Peck Slip Post Office. Peck Slip is scheduled to open in 2014, but will soon start taking students in the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers St.

But Eric Greenleaf, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, doesn’t think either will be enough. The marketing professor, who has been on P.S. 234’s PTA and served two years on the Community Education Council, has calculated that by 2014, classrooms will be so overcrowded that these two new schools will make little difference.

“Before Peck Slip opens I predict there will be a wait list [there],” said Greenleaf. He suggested the DOE and the city must look at how quickly downtown is growing in order to project how many seats will be needed. The solution? Build more schools and keep families in Downtown Manhattan.

“Unfortunately, overcrowding scares people away, they move to the suburbs and it hurts the city’s tax base,” said Greenleaf.

In the meantime, the PTAs, principals and the CEC aren’t the only ones bracing for a hectic September each year. Local day cares are providing parents with support and information long before their children are ready for kindergarten.

“I do warn parents that there may come a day when there will be wait lists for those schools,” said Denise Cordivano, the head of the Battery Park City Day Nursery. “They should not take the space for granted and they should get involved with the overcrowding issues.”

The majority of the families at Battery Park City Nursery are zoned for either P.S. 89 or P.S. 276. “We hold meetings in the spring and fall with our parents to discuss kindergarten options,” said Cordivano. “I post notices regarding community meetings and send emails encouraging parents to attend.”

No More Wait Lists? DOE Makes Rezoning Plans

Elizabeth Rose, of the Department of Education, presented proposed rezoning maps for Lower Manhattan schools at a Community Education Council (CEC) meeting in late September. The maps, which are likely to be finalized by December, will be subject to public hearings at which parents can voice their opinions on the proposed delineations. Upcoming CEC school rezoning plan hearings will be held Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at P.S. 158, 1458 York Ave., and again on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 6:30 p.m. at P.S. 11, 320 W. 21st St.