As a father of three children in local public schools and a member of District 3’s Community Education Council (CEC), Gotbaum has led a charge against the co-location of charter schools and has been an outspoken critic of the Department of Education’s policies. He’s also been involved in making the CEC a unified voice for parents from a diverse district that encompasses the Upper West Side as well as Manhattan Valley and parts of Central and West Harlem.

Now Gotbaum has formed a campaign committee and said that he’ll be spending the next six to nine months raising money and garnering support for a potential run, one he will base on his experience as an education advocate.

“I come from a labor family, but I’ve worked for 25 years in the private sector. Public service has always been in my blood,” Gotbaum said in an interview, acknowledging the influence of his father, Victor Gotbaum, a prominent labor leader, and his stepmother, former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, as well as his family’s history of teaching in public schools.

“I see the public advocate position as a way to really stand up and speak up for those who feel disenfranchised, and that’s really expanded, unfortunately, under Bloomberg,” Gotbaum said. He wants to encourage grassroots and community involvement in local decision-making and would point to some of the collaborative successes of the Upper West Side community as models for other neighborhoods.

Education reform will be the cornerstone of any campaign, he said.

“One in every three New Yorkers is involved in the public school system in one way or another. We don’t really have effective advocates for us as parents and for our kids,” said Gotbaum. “We waste money when it’s not being watched. We are wasting literally billions on no-bid contracts, on services that aren’t being delivered, on funds that aren’t even being collected. We have $600 million in special education fees that Bloomberg has not collected that are owed [from the state and federal governments]. While we’re not getting our fair share, we’re threatening to lay off teachers; we need to hire more.”

He said that neither Mayor Bloomberg nor Chancellor Dennis Walcott have done enough to ensure that every student gets a quality education, and is critical of mayoral control of the school system.

“The office of the public advocate is about ensuring that the services of the city are being delivered properly and efficiently and that they work for our communities, for everyone. When you have essentially close to a dictatorship at the top, that doesn’t happen,” Gotbaum said.

He also said that the lack of services applies to other sectors, like the economy and jobs, and that the public advocate should be watching those areas closely.

“In terms of the middle class and working class, we’re not providing the services that we need. We’re not investing properly in education, which is huge—in training our students and our work force adequately,” Gotbaum said. “We’re also not providing the services that enable people to get into the workforce: child care, after-school programs, job training programs.”

Gotbaum said he will wait for current public advocate Bill de Blasio to declare his 2013 plans—he is likely to run for mayor—before making an ultimate decision on whether to run. City & State reported last week that other likely contenders in the race will be City Council Member Letitia James of Brooklyn and Reshma Saujani, who challenged Upper East Side Rep. Carolyn Maloney in 2010 and has been working for de Blasio’s office since. Manhattan-Brooklyn State Sen. Daniel Squadron is also reported to be considering a run.

The message at my “first” meeting was clear. The city’s Department of Education was not thinking about where my toddler would go to school, even though I had been making plans for years.

It was my first meeting as a parent advocate, but as the former editor of another paper I had covered hundreds of Downtown community forums on many topics. Both perspectives have led me to the same conclusion about school zoning proposals: They are developed with little knowledge of communities, little information about future enrollment and little regard for parents.

The first draft of this year’s plan would have blocked me and my Chelsea neighbors from our first-choice neighborhood school only three blocks away. This would have been done to make room for Greenwich Village children who did not want to travel a mile to my first choice, P.S. 11. The school apparently has room to expand, but the city nevertheless wanted to lock out the families who most wanted to be there in order to force Village kids out of their neighborhood schools to make room for Tribeca children zoned out of the coveted P.S. 234.

The madness of the scheme was immediately obvious to many, including the parent leader of the Community Education Council, who described it as such, but it took a few months for the city to back off and offer a new plan that was somewhat better, although it left little time to make changes before kindergarten enrollment began.

This is far from the first time ill-conceived plans have been floated. Two years ago, the city proposed cutting the school zoning line through a Tribeca building complex so that the wealthiest residents would be zoned for P.S. 234, while middle-income tenants would have to travel farther away. The class-based zoning line did not appear to be the intention and it was subsequently altered, but it is the kind of mistake that is easily made when communities are not consulted earlier in the process.

Talking with neighborhood groups, preschool directors and parent leaders early would produce plans that would upset fewer people and keep parents of young children informed early in the planning. These are the parents most likely to be affected and least likely to hear about proposed changes because they are not yet tapped into the school system.

The second draft plan this year satisfied our concerns in Chelsea but was unnecessarily unfair to Village and Tribeca families. Some people living close to the two most desired schools, P.S. 41 and 234, would still be zoned out to provide seats for those living farther away. A new group of families in eastern Tribeca were all of a sudden aggrieved in order to relieve north Tribeca.

District 2’s Community Education Council, a group of parents with the power to reject city zoning proposals, probably took the best available option, keeping the lines the same in Tribeca, the Village and Chelsea— though it may lead to wait lists again this year at P.S. 234. It really is anyone’s guess.

Eric Greenleaf, an NYU professor and Lower Manhattan parent who has closely tracked Downtown population and enrollment figures, argues that the city has avoided doing more accurate enrollment estimates because they would show the need to build more schools. He says Community Board 1 has received better information using urban planning students provided by the borough president’s office.

If there are waiting lists at 234, it will undoubtedly mean another group of Tribeca families will be upset—those living right near the school who could easily be denied a seat.

We have not heard much from them—yet.

I only hope the educators learned something this time around. This year’s decision means another zoning change is coming in a year or two, and my son is due to enroll somewhere in 2015.

Special Sections Editor, Josh Rogers

By Lillian Rizzo

Since October, parents have stood in school auditoriums, before panels and projectors, asking for the answer to a simple question: What school will their children attend in the fall?

These parents from Lower Manhattan neighborhoods have attended meetings at which the District 2 Community Education Council (CEC) and the city Department of Education (DOE) tried to figure out the best way to rezone neighborhoods for new schools being built to prevent wait lists. After three proposals and endless meetings where parents, community board members and local politicians voiced their opinions, a rezoning proposal was finally approved unanimously by the CEC on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Although the new lines have been drawn and parents from Tribeca and the Financial District know where their children will attend school in September 2012, few are happy about the resolution. The discussion constantly circled back to the same theme at every meeting and conversation: Lower Manhattan needs more schools.

With so many people moving into Lower Manhattan, schools in the area have filled up over the past few years, creating wait lists for kindergarten classes. In response, the DOE has opened two new schools, P.S. 276 in Battery Park City and P.S. 397, the Spruce Street School, and plans to open two more by 2015. But the CEC argues this still isn’t enough—once the new schools open, they will most likely have wait lists themselves.

However, without new schools, redrawing neighborhood lines wouldn’t be necessary. When parents hear the word “rezoning,” especially those with younger children about to attend pre-kindergarten or kindergarten, they are automatically frightened, which usually leads to fury.

“Last time, I was told we were being rezoned to P.S. 1; tonight, we’re rezoned to P.S. 397. We’re very helpless going through this process,” said Tom Ryan, a Tribeca parent, at the Nov. 28 meeting. “I ask you to represent us and do the right job by us.”

The DOE must rezone an area when new schools are created; otherwise, there would be no designated children to fill the seats. In the process of rezoning, existing schools come into question, especially those that are either overcrowded or under capacity. Neighborhood lines are redrawn in order to shift children to form balanced schools where classrooms aren’t overcrowded.

“Rezoning is something you have to do when a new school opens, unless you make it a school without a zone—an ‘option’ or Magnet school,” said Shino Tanikawa, CEC 2 president. “But because of overcrowding in Dist245rict 2 that’s not a smart option. Now we need schools.”

Since October, the DOE and CEC have been faced with rezoning Lower Manhattan, primarily because the Peck Slip School, which is set to open in 2015, doesn’t have a zone. Before the building at 1 Peck Slip opens, two classes per grade will be incubated at the Tweed Courthouse, which usually holds incubator classes and offices for the DOE. Resolution 47, the CEC’s name for the approved rezoning proposal, created a new zone for Peck Slip and slightly changed the zones for P.S. 397 and P.S. 89. The P.S. 234 zone in Tribeca was kept the same due to loud outcry from parents.

But now some parents are left questioning what this means for their children and their futures. Many people moved into certain neighborhoods specifically for the school it offered, and are now finding their children will attend different schools.

“Changing every year is not a good way to manage things because people live and thrive on children,” said Amy Ellen Schwartz, New York University professor and director of the Institute of Education and Social Policy. “It matters where you’re going to send your kid, the school they go to, the after-school program.”

Schwartz referred to the last rezoning of Lower Manhattan, which took place in 2009 to create zones for P.S. 397 and P.S. 276. That process was a bit different than the one this year, Tanikawa admitted. Although the three-month proposal hearings were tiring and felt drawn out, she said the recent process went smoothly compared to 2009 when the DOE presented more than one proposal at a time for rezoning options.

“One thing we learned is when you present multiple proposals at one time…it divides the community,” said Tanikawa. “That’s exactly what happened in 2009. We had two proposals and two camps of supporters for them, and it turned into parents against parents. It was really awful.”

This year the DOE only presented one proposal in October and continued to edit it based on CEC and parents’ remarks. A major issue was the zone for P.S. 234, a school that is known for its lengthy wait lists. Over the past two years, the principal was able to add classrooms to the kindergartens, preventing overcrowding but delaying the opening of a middle school in the building. Currently, 6th-grade classrooms are being used for kindergartens, and the date of the junior high school opening continues to get pushed back. P.S. 234 has been slated for many years to expand to 6th grade (it currently goes to 5th grade.) Due to the need for kindergarten space, however, the school has been unable to incorporate 6th grade levels.

While the problems of rezoning, overcrowded classrooms and not enough seats have been plaguing Lower Manhattan community boards and the District 2 CEC since just before 2009, the problem actually started on 9/11. Following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the city feared people would leave Lower Manhattan and buyers and renters wouldn’t want to move into the area. As the city rebuilt itself emotionally and physically, Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged to reinvigorate Lower Manhattan and assured citizens it was a prime place to live.

Millions of dollars were infused into the area, reviving businesses that were decimated on 9/11. There was also a push in building development outside of the Freedom Tower, with numerous apartment buildings springing up in the area. Within a few years, around 2005, the area was revived and became a hot spot for families to start their lives.

“As we look back on the past decade, and as the picture of what has happened here comes into sharper focus, I believe the rebirth and revitalization of Lower Manhattan will be remembered as one of the greatest comeback stories in American history,” said Bloomberg in a Sept 6. speech at an event sponsored by the Asssociation for a Better New York, days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

According to 2010 U.S. Census data, the area of Downtown Manhattan that comprises Community Board 1 grew by 77.2 percent since 2001, a remarkable rate. The population and number of apartments have more than doubled since the attacks.

Bloomberg pointed out that the city invested more than $260 million in park construction and expansion. He also pointed to the 19 new hotels, the millions of dollars put into apartment building expansion and the reconstructed streets and pipelines in the neighborhood, as well as the two new schools built and more than 4,000 seats added for incoming families.

But this, to some, doesn’t seem to be enough. Eric Greenleaf, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a P.S. 234 parent, has done extensive research on Lower Manhattan communities and projected the number of children that will enter its schools by 2015. His numbers are drastically different from the DOE projections, another problem that he and the CEC and community board members continue to point out.

“The worst thing we’ve done is not gotten the scent of this problem a while ago,” said Schwartz. “Probably this is not what anyone had hoped for.”

This year, Downtown took in about 440 new students. Greenleaf projects that by 2015, when Peck Slip opens its doors, there will be about 600 incoming students, if not more. Greenleaf came to this conclusion by taking a count of the number of children born in the area in 2009, the incoming kindergartners of 2015, which increased by 46 percent.

“Even as we talk about zones for existing schools, in the background there is the worry that these schools aren’t enough. Zones don’t create seats, they’re not a substitute for the schools we need,” said Greenleaf. “People begin to worry. If these schools aren’t enough, where will the kids go?”

Greenleaf, Tanikawa, CEC members and parents alike all seem to agree, and reiterated that the DOE doesn’t grasp the situation they are faced with. Tanikawa has repeatedly suggested that developers should be held accountable. “When they build residential buildings, they should kick in an education fund that leads to building schools,” she said at the Dec. 14 meeting. Tanikawa and Greenleaf both wondered if the city had mapped out every possible need for Lower Manhattan when revitalizing it.

“When [the DOE] says,‘We built all of these schools, why build more?’ they’re saying to all of these Downtown families, ‘You moved here because we asked you to. Now move out,’” said Greenleaf.

When DOE representatives and Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who held a town hall meeting Dec. 7 with the CEC, are confronted with the call for more schools, they point to the two that were just opened and to the Peck Slip School and Foundling Hospital School, which will open in a few years. The problem still remains, however, that the longer it takes to build and open these schools, the more wait lists and overcrowding occurs, forcing people back to the rezoning board.

“For five to six years now, parents’number-one concern is the more kids we have, the more schools we will need,” said Michael Markowitz to Walcott at the Dec. 7 meeting. “I completely reject rezoning as a tool to rebalance areas.”

[photosmash id=42 layout='gallery_view_layout']

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.

Lower Manhattan’s Peck Slip School has been given an additional number of seats for students, and it hasn’t even opened its doors yet.

The news came yesterday as advocates such as the Community Education Council, Community Board 1 and Assemblyman Sheldon Silver pushed for a solution to overcrowded schools in the Downtown area.

There will be 20,000 square feet added, or two floors built on top of the Peck Slip building, which will add 180 seats for prospective students. This will bring the total number of spots to 656. Previously, there were only 476 planned for the new school.

According to the DOE, this plan will cost an extra $9 million, which will be paid for by shifting funds within the existing capital plan for 2010–2014. The expansion will also include a gym, which Silver pointed out.

“I am thrilled that the parents of Lower Manhattan will have this expanded, state-of-the-art new school,” Silver said in a statement. “I have been advocating tirelessly for more classroom seats to serve our growing population Downtown, and this expansion of the Peck Slip site is a huge win for our community and for our Lower Manhattan children.”

The DOE noted that there is an additional 20,000 feet in the Peck Slip building currently in use by the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS has yet to say if it will give this space to the Peck Slip School, but has indicated it is a possibility. The news of Peck Slip’s expansion came as an amendment to the 2010–2014 capital plan.

Currently, the Tweed Courthouse at 52 Chambers St., the DOE’s headquarters in Manhattan, is serving as the school’s incubation site—meaning classes are being held there until 2014. Hovitz questioned how these classrooms would accommodate this increase in size. “Is there really enough room at Tweed to incubate this sizable school?” Hovitz said.

Not only does the question of Tweed’s space come into play, there could still be the possibility that this expansion of Peck Slip won’t be enough to provide seats for Downtown’s growing population.

The opening of Peck Slip is highly anticipated in order to relieve pressure at other local schools such as P.S. 234 and P.S. 89. For the past few years, these schools have seen longer waitlists for their kindergartens and larger classroom sizes as the population in Downtown neighborhoods increases.

“We were very happy to get those seats, I think it’s great for Downtown and Downtown school kids,” said Eric Greenleaf, professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “We’re very appreciative to the DOE, but at the same time we need a lot more seats.”

Greenleaf, formerly a parent on P.S. 234’s PTA and member of the CEC, has calculated the number of students that will be entering kindergarten by 2015. According to his numbers, Downtown schools will need room for over 1,200 kindergartners in the next four to five years.

Although he has predicted that even before Peck Slip opens it will have a waitlist, he remains optimistic about the latest announcement.

“It’s more than a small dent because it makes a huge difference; 180 seats is a lot,” he said.

P.S. 145, is according to the Department of Education and Principal Ivelisse Alvarez, a good school.

The city gave P.S. 145, located on 150 W. 105th St. between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, a B in this year’s progress report card. Though the school received poor marks for school environment and student performance, it achieved an A in student progress.

Yet a charter school—often viewed as an alternative in areas with failing public schools—is being planned to open up in P.S. 145’s building.

Success Academy, a charter school network with locations in Harlem and the South Bronx, is seeking a spot in the Upper West Side and recently, the city deemed P.S. 145 “underutilized”.

Student enrollment at the school—currently at 59 percent capacity—declined to 431 this school year, from 524 in 2006.

Alvarez, the school’s principal, sees the situation inside P.S. 145 differently.

“You can say it’s underutilized, but on the basis of what?” Alvarez said. “The classes are being used, the rooms are being used.”

The principal at P.S. 145 believes that a charter school occupying the school building will hamper future expansion plans. She wants to grow the school so that it includes K through the 8th grade.

This year, the school received part of an $11 million, three-year federal grant awarded to eight Upper West Side schools in late September. The funding, $3.7 million for the district this year, is meant to help these “magnet” schools attract a diverse set of students. P.S. 145’s student body is mostly black and Latino.

“It’s not a failing school and there shouldn’t be a charter school in the building,” Alvarez said.

The city, however, seems intent on keeping student enrollment at P.S. 145 low.

The Department of Education presented a draft redrawing of school zones in the neighborhood’s school district Oct. 14. P.S. 145 was the only school to keep its boundaries in the draft rezoning.

“P.S.145 has been identified as an underutilized building. It is the only one on the Upper West Side,” Elizabeth Rose, a Department of Education official, told a crowd of parents and educators at a recent Community Education Council meeting. “Underutilized buildings are very rare.”

The school zones are being changed to ease overcrowding in the southern part of the Upper West Side school district where there are waitlists. Crowded schools like P.S. 199 and 87 in the West 60s and 70s had their zones shrunken, while the catchment area for P.S. 75 on West 96th Street grew.

Alvarez wants P.S. 145’s catchment area expanded to attract new students.

“We don’t have that many blocks in the school zone to register children from,” Alvarez said.

Eva Moskowitz, the former East Side Council member who is the CEO of the Success Academy charter schools, said that Upper West Side parents need a choice now and cannot wait years to see if P.S. 145’s enrollment increases.

“Parents need options now. Their 5 year old can’t wait five years,” Moskowitz said. “What are we going to tell parents on the Upper West Side, ‘Well this school might expand so we’re not going to use the 300 seats’?”

In New York City, charter schools have proliferated in economically disadvantaged areas. But Moskowitz believes parents in the Upper West Side should be able to send their children to a charter school as well.

“Even parents of means have a very anxiety-producing challenge and I didn’t think that should be the case,” Moskowitz said. “There’s nothing in the charter law that says you’re only supposed to serve the most disadvantaged.”

Noah Gotbaum heads the parent body that holds meetings on education policy, known as a Community Education Council. The council has to vote on the new rezoning map for the 2011 school year.

Gotbaum, a critic of Success Academy charter schools in Harlem, is supporting Alvarez, the P.S. 145 principal.

“They also want to be able to grow their school, which is a terrific school and use this federal money to really draw in students,” Gotbaum said. “Harlem Success will stop this in its tracks.”

District 3, which runs from West 59th Street up to Harlem, has been overcrowded in its southern section as more young families have moved into the neighborhood and parents have chosen public school over private education amid the recession.

“It’s a major problem, in terms of a surge in enrollment,” said Noah Gotbaum, the parent council’s president. “The Department of Education’s projections were way off and still are way off.”

City education officials are expected to give their assessment of the overcrowding problem at the upcoming meeting.

The Oct. 21 meeting will be held at
6:30 p.m. at P.S. 76, on West 121st Street between Seventh and St. Nicholas avenues.

Jerry Butler
Center School Parent

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

To the Editor:
Oft overlooked and central to the Community Education Council draft resolution is that most families in the P.S. 199 catchment choose to send their children to P.S. 199, an elementary school offering only a general education program. Might I offer that up as a feather in the cap of public education? Too many families, not enough room. See the problem?

The idea to use space at P.S. 9 as a new elementary school was proposed and considered. Is anyone at all curious as to the Department of Education manpower and resources needed to implement this idea? In these economic times? Seriously?
Further, even if P.S. 199 families were given every seat available in this overflow idea, it would still not accommodate every kindergartener in our catchment for next year. Sending the excess 199 kindergarteners to P.S. 191 and P.S. 87 could hamper or eliminate their choice programs.
Center School is a district-wide middle school. Their passionate argument against relocation infers their program’s collapse. Have faith, wonderful and vital Center School. “Yes You Can” survive a move!

The very best we can do is advocate equitable and age-appropriate choices for our children. And to continue to offer those same choices to the children who come after our children.

The only issue is space. The only solution lies in absolute district-wide fairness.

Becky Neustadt
P.S. 199 and M.S. 54 parent

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

To the Editor:
As with most parents, I would go to the ends of the earth to do what is best for my child. If that included putting him on a bus or taking him on a subway every morning to school, I would do it. But I will not do that when there is one of the best elementary schools in the city one block away—where my neighbors can watch over my child, where I have neighbors who can pick up my child if I cannot (I am a single parent.)

Many of us made sacrifices to move to this area or to stay in this area—myself and several parents (both potential and current) I know are in studios and one-bedroom apartments with one or more children so that we can stay here and send our kids to this school and, more importantly, to stay where we have created a wonderful community.

Two things could change our community: 1) Not allowing any new children into P.S. 199 for at least the next three years, which is what would happen if we don’t gain The Center School space, and 2) if the parents and connected parties to the Center School continue their vitriolic attacks on anyone who disagrees with them.

If this is the legacy The Center School wants to leave, then so be it; but I would hope as an educational institution and as our neighbors they can move beyond that, and we can begin to repair the harm done. We have been called racist and elitist. That is not the community I know and not the one I am fighting for. The community I know includes musicians and teachers and those working hard in the private and public sector as advocates for any number of social causes. And yes, we have a large number of wealthy individuals as well. AND so does Center School. This is not a bad thing to have at a public school—it means our teachers can teach and take home their hard-earned paycheck and not have to pay for crayons and paper towels in their classrooms.

Why doesn’t Center School want a bigger space with more rooms and more resources, where their children don’t have to learn in hallways? I still haven’t heard a compelling argument.

Karen Dinitz
Prospective P.S. 199 Parent

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.