MORE ON P.S. 199 CROWDING

To the Editor: Moving Center School or any another school to accommodate overcrowding is sticking a Band-Aid on a rather large wound.Talk of putting a new elementary school at P.S. 9 seems to help all involved now and in the future. Now you're talking, or should I say thinking. Steve Anderson Center School Parent To the Editor: Thank you for your coverage of P.S. 199 and The Center School. My son attends 6th grade at the latter, and it is clear to me that moving The Center School is a selfish, single-school solution for a district-wide problem. Only P.S. 199 benefits from such a move and only temporarily. Within two years, the school will be overcrowded again and forced to cap its enrollment-exactly the thing that P.S. 199 parents say they're fighting. The Community Education Council might want to think about changing the first "C" in its title to "classist," since its recent resolution in support of moving The Center School tells me that money-P.S. 199's PTA raises approximately $450,000 annually compared to our $5,000-trumps diversity, which is supposed to be one of the hallmarks of the mayor's plan to fix the school system. The Center School's 48 percent minority student body consists of kids from all over District 3, and it has received national recognition for closing the minority student achievement gap. According to the Department of Education's Progress Report, The Center School placed in the 97th percentile of all K-8 schools. Moreover, more than 80 percent of each graduating class is admitted to a Specialized High School or LaGuardia. As New Yorkers, we are all familiar with research that moving is the third most stressful life experience behind death and divorce. That's an unfair burden to put onto students already grappling with a heavier academic load and the unsettling onset of adolescence. But moving The Center School puts more than its students at risk. Successful teaching methods that the school's founder, Elaine Schwartz, and her faculty have perfected during the last 26 years atop P.S. 199 will be jeopardized, too. And that will impact the entiredistrict, which already suffers from a lack of good public middle schools. Frank DiGiacomo Center School Parent Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.