A joint town hall meeting got heated last week as parents, educators and the District 3 Community Education Council (CEC 3) demanded answers from Chancellor Dennis Walcott and his team regarding a variety of issues facing schools in the district.

Frederick Douglass Academy II Secondary School located at 215 West 114th Street.

The principals of both the Frederick Douglass and Wadleigh schools were present and said their schools have made radical comebacks in recent years. The suspension rate at Wadleigh has dropped by 80 percent and changes have focused on college and career readiness, while Frederick Douglass, which recently faced closure, has seen a turnaround with the support of parents and the CEC.

Walcott said he hoped to continue to emphasize college and career readiness in the district schools and do away with the notion that low income students and those with housing issues present extra difficulties for the schools or “don’t belong” as some believe.

“I do not allow anyone to talk ill of our students,” said Walcott. “They all have the ability to learn at a high level with the proper support.”

In response to the issue of admissions to middle and high schools and the fact that several district 2 schools have district 2 admissions priority while being some of the highest rated and highest applicant rate schools, Walcott said the high school admissions process has improved significantly over the years.

“We have made more options throughout the city with the creation of small schools and new schools,” he said. “There are more schools to choose from, 85 percent of selections are in students’ top five choices.”

Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts located at 215 West 114th Street.

“We have been able to encourage choices and give more quality choices,” he added.

Still Walcott maintained it’s difficult to go back on outdated processes of grandfathering which tend to give unfair priority.

Carl Pressley, a district 3 parent, asked the chancellor and his team why some of the same successful practices used in charter schools cannot be used in district schools. Walcott assured community members the same practices are being used in district schools, many of which are performing well and are “very creative.”

Walcott also addressed the recent PCB leaks in schools across the City and plans to remediate all schools.

“Two years ago we set aside 800 million dollars to address the PCB issue throughout the City, we are the only city that has done something along that line,” said Walcott. He added the two year plan is no longer viable, however, particularly with the current court case on the issue pending.

“This has been a priority for several years and we are working with the EPA,” said Walcott.

Other issues discussed included student privacy and concerns over data-mining and publicizing students’ information, school redevelopment and demolition, class size and overcrowding, general space concerns, the common core curriculum, standardized testing and gifted and talented programs.

The chancellor’s partners assured parents potential redevelopment and demolition processes are still in their infancy in the district and community members’ concerns will be addressed and input solicited before any plans move forward and before the issuance of an RFP.

Anthony, a teacher at Whadleigh, expressed his frustration with remodeling in district 3 schools and its impact on the students.

“We’re having to do more with less space,” he said.

CEC member Joe Fiordaliso agreed overcrowding is a serious issue in the district in addition to a general loss of space due to construction.

Fiordaliso said 1,300 parents signed a petition to create new middle schools in the district, to which the chancellor replied he has committed to developing more middle schools throughout the entire city.

“I set a goal to create 50 middle schools; we’re at 61,” said Walcott. “We are open to new middle schools in D3 and we are starting our portfolio process. Beacon will become available in 2015.”

With regard to the implementation of common core curriculum, parents expressed concern their children were being penalized emotionally by not understanding the new curriculum. There was also general agreement less emphasis should be placed on high stakes standardized testing.

“How can standardized testing determine a kid’s entire future?” asked Elizabeth Rivera, a parent and teacher in district 3.

Walcott said, “We have a responsibility as a system to make sure [our students] are getting a higher course of learning so while I understand the anxiety and pressure, it’s a pressure as a result of making sure students are getting a higher style of learning in schools and are being prepared to take tests.”

“We have a responsibility to teach them why we use the core curriculum and lower their anxiety,” he added.

With regard to high stakes standardized testing, Walcott described a balancing act.

“Our students will do better and better and better but we have to put [the new test] in place and we’re doing that this year,” he said.

While parents worried also about gifted and talented programs and inadequate space for qualified students at schools for accelerated education, Walcott responded that schools are best served by a blend of students.

“I always struggled with this,” he said. “Quite frankly with seat matching and gifted and talented, we need to look at the possibility of a separate system.”

“Invest in us; we’ll rise to the top. Give us a little, we’ll grow a lot!” This was the rally cry of the 700 children and after-school advocates that attended the March 28th rally outside City Hall to save child care and after-school programs. Dozens of after-school programs citywide, including Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center on East 93rd Street, brought representatives to the rally to protest the extreme proposed budget cuts. Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed fiscal plan in 2014 would cut $130 million from after-school programs and leave 47,000 children without a place to go after the school day.

“I think what we want to look at is how kids are staying in school and how our and how these programs build the skills of our youth,” said Cathleen Fitzgibbons, of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the sponsors of the rally, along with the Campaign for Children. “These programs are critical for their overall development, and for shaping them as they’re going through middle school and high school.”

The rally was packed with hundreds of advocates, who brought signs and posters pronouncing their love for the after-school programs: “Help Keep After School Alive!” and “Do Not Close Child Care!” Matt Phifer, Director of Educational Services from the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side, led the rally as MC. He brought to the stage numerous council members like District 6’s Gale Brewer, as well as District 8’s Melissa Mark-Viverito, who both touted the educational importance of these programs. Gale Brewer explained that every year for the past 12 years, the mayoral office has done this “budget dance” where they cut programs they know the City Council can restore.

“The uncertainty is still scary,” said Council Member Brewer.

Children from the after-school programs showed off their extracurricular skills on stage – from double-dutch, to singers and traditional drummers, making for quite an exuberant scene. As for the kids in the crowd, many of the younger students said that they loved playing sports like dodgeball and rugby in their after-school programs. But the older teenagers conceded that the programs keep them off the streets and out of trouble.

“Visibility was great. It was a perfect storm of different concerned parties,” said Phifer. “Hopefully we will be able to make some change.”

Mayor Bloomberg has not yet responded to the pleas of families impacted by these budget proposals. “We’re working with the City Council to deliver an on-time, balanced budget that keeps the city’s fiscal house in order, while also protecting vital services,” said City Hall spokeswoman Lauren Passelacqua.

The budget right now has not included any of the City Council’s one-year funds, which would cause hundreds of programs to have to shut their doors completely. In addition the $10 million proposed cut would slash after-school slots by 75 percent.

This struggle is not new – just last year, similar budget cuts were proposed. But after several rallies last year, many of the funds were actually restored for one more year, according to Phifer.

Emma Woods, a representative from the Campaign for Children, an organization that was started last year in response to the budget difficulties and one of the rally’s sponsors, said that the Mayor should just baseline the money for these programs in his budget, so that this fight would not have to happen year after year.

“In the long term, the goal would be to no longer put these programs on the chopping block,” said Woods. “As the number of kids served goes down, poverty increases.”

And there are other measurable benefits too. A Wallace Foundation Evaluation of Out of School Time Programs in 2006 found that 56 percent of program participants felt that the programs really got them interested and involved in activities outside school. Plus 69 percent of participating students said that they made more friends in the program. Besides social skills, most of the students surveyed felt that their schoolwork improved.

So what would happen to those benefits if budgets were slashed? For Stanley Isaacs Center, the Upper East Side organization at the rally, budget cuts would be devastating. They have four after school programs, and would basically have to chop one completely (P.S. 112), if the budget proposal passed. At P.S. 112, right now, they can only serve 80 kids, with a waitlist of dozens of students who want to participate in the program, said Jeanine Glazewski, the Director of Development at Stanley Isaacs, which oversees a low-income area. She also said that these programs decrease delinquency. One of their board members is Marianne Hedges, the woman who was hit in the head with a shopping cart thrown from the roof of a building over the summer.

“These are just kids with nothing better to do we after school,” said Glazewski. “We would much rather have them doing homework, arts and sports.”

Plus, she said, the after school programs allows parents to go to jobs or do job training/searches. Many of these parents, she said, cannot afford caretakers. So, if there were no after school programs, the parents would have to quit their jobs in order to provide an environment for their children.

“Parents feel strongly about this, but it becomes more and more difficult,” said Glazewski.”People think ‘oh this again? Didn’t we fight this last year?’ When you have to go and argue for something that is creating longterm benefits of the city, you know there’s a problem.”

The Upper West Side community has come down hard on the Department of Education for not communicating to the public about possibly demolishing and rebuilding P.S. 191 on West 61st Street, and P.S. 199 on West 70th Street. At a meeting last week with Community Board 7 and the Community Education Council for District 3, the DOE revealed that it only plans to rebuild one of three schools: P.S. 191, P.S. 199 or The School of Cooperative Technical Education on the Upper East Side, and that the plans are only in the preliminary stages.

“Why are we concerned? The incredible lack of notice,” said Mark Diller, the chair of Community Board 7. “We only found out about the project because a P.S. 199 parent who reads Crain’s noticed an ad announcing expressions of interest for three city owned sites. They gave addresses but never said that they are public schools. But the parent was savvy and recognized the school’s address.”

According to Diller, the whole project has been backed by the Education Construction Fund, a city entity that is used to find and utilize unused air rights of public school buildings – or the number of square feet, both horizontally and vertically that are used on the site. They buy up the air rights, and build a 40-story building in its place. The developer has to in turn agree to use the bottom floors for the school. For this specific project, the DOE has only just sent out a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to potential developers, said Diller.

In an email, David Pena, a representative from the Department of Education, explained that the DOE will continue to engage with the community on the project. The DOE has also maintained that the project, unless it was designated as a special “As of Right” project, would have to go through the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) just like any other city development, before it came to fruition.

“In the past four years, this construction process has developed four brand-new, state-of-the-art school facilities in Manhattan’s Community School District 2 at no cost to taxpayers,” said Pena. “For this project, there will be a two-year planning and engagement process if any of the responses are found to be worthwhile enough to advance to the project level. There is no reason to suggest that either DOE or ECF will not follow the same levels of engagement as in the past for any future ECF projects.”

But despite their proclamations of good intentions, parents at P.S. 199 and 191 are still not convinced, especially parents like Gigi Galen Grobstein, who moved to the district specifically to have her daughter attend P.S. 199.

“I was horrified; I felt like we were blindsided,” said Grobstein.  “How can this benefit any of us? It will benefit the city because they can sell the rights of the building.”

Grobstein, whose daughter is supposed to attend kindergarten at P.S. 199 in the fall, said that if the DOE does knock down their building, she will move out of the neighborhood, because she does not want her daughter to attend a temporary replacement.

Susan Stein, who lives in Lincoln Towers directly behind P.S. 199, and whose granddaughter attends the school, said that she is not surprised to hear that people will move out of the area if DOE goes through with their reconstruction plan. But, she said, the frustration goes beyond the school community.

“There’s already a high rise being built on Amsterdam, and a nearby synagogue’s building will rise 50 stories,” said Stein. “This neighborhood can’t take that many more people. The subway platform is dangerously overcrowded, and it’s narrow too.”

Stein said that she and the Lincoln Towers community plan on continuing to write letters to the DOE, and organizing petitions to keep P.S. 199 away from the wrecking ball.

But Olaiya Deen, a parent at P.S. 191 and member of Community Education Council 3, does not believe that the P.S. 199 community has anything to worry about.

“I think P.S. 191 is more likely to go, because we are a struggling school and P.S. 199 is a historically upper class school,” said Deen.  “I don’t trust the DOE. They will say the want community input on paper, but they go right along and do what they want anyway.”

Deen said that at the meeting with the DOE, they had already speculated Beacon High School as a temporary location for P.S. 191, if it were to be rebuilt. As a high school, however, Beacon would not have a playground or an auditorium for the students.

Regardless of which school the DOE decides to demolish, they have drawn up a plan in the RFEI that outlines what the new buildings would look like. The project is described as featuring “large residential units” and would require developers to build a 105,000 square foot school on the lower levels. At both the P.S. 191 and P.S. 199 sites, the new school should be capable of housing additional students. According to the speculative blueprints, part of the new school would be below ground on the same level as the building’s parking garages.

“Who wants their children to go to school in a basement where there’s no light?” said Susan Stein.

The next step is for the Department of Education to analyze all of the developers’ bids, and issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). Mark Diller said that the process of developing the new site is excpected to begin by the summer.

The public advocate calls on the administration to find alternate solutions for struggling schools

By Public Advocate Bill de Blasio

If something is broken – fix it. Sadly, Mayor Bloomberg adheres to a different philosophy where our city’s education system is concerned. The Administration’s default response to struggling schools has been to close them, without first investing enough time and resources into turning them around. And instead of laying out a thoughtful plan for multiple schools to share facilities in the same building when they “co-locate,” the Administration turns a cold shoulder to community input. Clearly, we need a new approach for our city’s one million students.

There is a time and place to close a troubled school. But that should not be treated as an end goal in itself, nor an accomplishment to boast about. When all other options are exhausted, it should be the last resort. In 2011, the Department of Education (DOE) proposed for Canarsie’s P.S. 114 to be phased out. Yet the unwavering voices of students, parents and teachers of P.S. 114 were eventually heard, and the DOE resolved to work on lifting the school back up. Collaborating with community members like this – and really listening – should serve as a prerequisite for potential school closings. Too many of the schools doomed for closure have not been given the tools to improve, or the time to apply them.

Students at low-performing schools need the most support. But the Administration constantly misses the opportunity to pinpoint troubled schools, invest in them and turn them around. Too often, the Administration opts for the easier route, which is ultimately school closure. DOE’s policies have actually amplified the core problems that contribute to chronic poor performance. Adding more high-need students to poorly resourced and already underperforming schools is just one example. The end result? Performance results for our highest-need students have hardly budged, and educational disparity continues to besiege our city.

We see the same heavy-handedness in the way the City often shoehorns charter schools into existing public schools, without a well-considered strategy for both institutions to thrive. Co-location can be – and has been – successful in this city. Students at four high schools in the Brandeis Educational Complex, on the Upper West Side, learned beautifully side-by-side – until the DOE squeezed a charter elementary school into the building, despite staunch resistance from the school community. Successful sharing of space and resources can only be carried out through meticulous planning and input from all key stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, administrators, community activists and education advocates. Instead, the DOE has alienated school communities by neglecting their input and depriving them of a venue for meaningful engagement on educational policy.

As a public school parent, I know the difference of being involved in your children’s education can make in their academic success and self-confidence. That’s personal to me, and that priority is reflected in the recommendations my office put forth in 2010 to modify Educational Impact Statements and boost parental engagement. But the Administration failed to take our recommendations on community involvement and use of physical space seriously, resulting in a co-location process that is consistently divisive and poorly attuned to the physical demands of mutually-sited school communities.

That’s why, following Mayor Bloomberg’s latest announcement on school closures, I called on the Administration to freeze school closures and co-locations for the rest of the Mayor’s term. Until we can offer a comprehensive, community-driven plan for co-locations and school turnaround, I urge you to join me in pressuring the mayor to put a one-year moratorium on these divisive tactics. After years of disruption instead of progress, inequity instead of opportunity, haste instead of prudence. Enough is enough.

Borough President questions how the DOE can move forward without a review process

Many local residents may be  surprised, as was the Manhattan Borough President, to discover that the Department of Education (DOE) is planning to destroy some local school buildings.

The DOE has plans to completely demolish three schools, on the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side: the School of Technical Co-Op Education on East 96th Street between First and Second Avenues, P.S. 191 on Amsterdam and 61st Street, and P.S. 199 on West 70th Street and West End Avenue.

The redevelopment plan, created by the DOE, along with the New York School Construction Authority and the New York City Educational Construction Fund, has left the public in the dark. Parents, teachers and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer have been up in arms because the DOE has not provided the public with any information on the redesign of these schools. According to Stringer, the DOE owns these parcels of land, so they are not subject to the uniform land use review process, or a public review of the land use. These questions might remain unanswered.

“These agencies should contact the schools and parents immediately and answer their questions,” said Stringer, who sent a letter to the DOE about the issue. “What is their timeline for prospective development? What is the neighborhood impact? What are their plans? We need to have a discussion.”

Stringer said that he is just as much in the dark about the proposal as the school districts themselves. “And I’m the borough president!” he said.“We have to be mindful that major development would increase traffic, impact the character of the neighborhood and add a new population to area that already lacks school seats,” said Stringer.

The borough president said that these schools in particular are experiencing major overcrowding, and that school overpopulation is something that both he and the DOE have been trying to curb. This, he said, is probably why they are looking to redesign the schools. However, he emphasized, that until there is some transparency, they will not know for sure.

Another mystery that parents may be wondering about is why demolish these schools in the first place? In total, the city has spent almost $21,000,000 improving and refurbishing these schools, including exterior repairs for P.S. 191 and capital improvements for P.S. 199 and the School for Cooperative Technical Education.

“We have already contributed major capital dollars to these schools, so why are we investing all of this money to completely rebuild the schools?” said Stringer.

The DOE has yet to respond to Stringer’s letter requesting more information, as well as answers for the community.

When the Department of Education proposed this move, they said the new Washington Heights location would provide Innovation students with their own space and would be a shorter commute for many of them.

But the idea sparked outrage among the Brandeis community, which consists of three other high schools and a charter elementary school, and within Community Board 7. Opponents argued that moving the high school would make the already disadvantaged students lose access to facilities in and around Brandeis like internships, extracurricular activities, a gym and child care for the school’s many teenaged parents. Apparently, their arguments were heard.

“We actively engage with and respond to the needs of the community,” said Department of Education representative David Pena. “Based on additional input from students, parents and community leaders, Innovation Diploma Plus High School will remain at the Brandeis Campus.”
Noah Gotbaum, a former president of the Community Education Council district that includes the Upper West Side schools, said the Department of Education had no justification for the proposal in the first place. He had organized a rally to protest it right before the hearing on Dec. 4, attended by over half of the student body, parents, elected officials and community members.

“They were basically destroying this incredible program,” Gotbaum said. “And that’s why you had 100 students come out to the rally and hearing.”

At the hearing, students presented a video explaining why they want to stay at Brandeis. It was an educational experience for them.

“I actually spoke at the hearing, and the Department of Education people weren’t even paying attention,” said Maria Henriquez, 18, a senior at Innovation Diploma Plus, whose daughter attends the Brandeis daycare. “If we had moved to Washington Heights, everyone would have dropped out. If you take away my education, you take away my child’s future!”

Among her concerns, she said, were issues of safety. “It’s dangerous because there are gangs in that area,” Henriquez said.

Gotbaum said he thought the Department of Education probably decided to drop the proposal because of pressure from the community, not the testimony of Innovation students.

“I am still unhappy that our community and school had to take to the streets to prevent something so egregious,” he said.

IDP’s move apparently did not really suit the Washington Heights community either, said Community Board 7 Chair Mark Diller, who said the neighborhood had wanted a science and technical high school in the space.

When the proposal to relocate IDP was first floated, many members of the community assumed the program was getting the boot to make room for the Upper West Success Academy Charter School to expand from early elementary to include a middle school. Upper West Success Academy refused to comment.

But the idea did not come from nowhere. During the October Community Education Council District 3 meeting, Yael Kalban, a representative with the Department of Education, said that they were planning on making room in Brandeis for an Upper West Success Middle School after IDP moved to Washington Heights.

“I don’t think IDP is given much priority at all,” Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal said. “It’s like a sick child. I don’t think they anticipated so much community outcry.”

Rosenthal did say that it is in the Success Academy contract to expand after a certain number of years, and that the community does need another middle school. Gotbaum said that the most likely option would be to open up a middle school when Beacon High School on West on 61st Street moves in two years’ time.

IS A PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL BEING SHOVED OUT OF THE BRANDEIS COMPLEX TO MAKE ROOM FOR A GROWING CHARTER SCHOOL?

Innovation Diploma Plus (IDP) is a high school designed to give students a second chance. A “transfer school,” it accepts people under-credited and over-aged—typically 18 years or older—who had a rough time in their original school, and are at risk of failing. Of its 189 students, many come from unstable homes. Some have children of their own and work to support their families. All are Black or Latino.

The Department of Education recently sparked a fierce debate when it proposed the relocation of IDP from its current place in the Brandeis Education Complex at 145 W. 84th St. to a building uptown at 601W. 183rd St. The Brandeis Education Complex currently houses five schools in one building: four other small high schools and Upper West Success Academy, a charter elementary school. The Washington Heights building will be vacated next school year, so if IDP were to move, it would be the only school in the building.

According to DOE, giving IDP students their own educational space would be beneficial. “The students will get more space, having their own building, and be closer to their community-based partner,” DOE spokesperson Marge Feinberg said in an e-mail. That “partner” is Alianza Dominicana, a nonprofit community development organization at 2410 Amsterdam Ave. Feinberg also noted that many students will have a shorter commute: 21 percent of students live in school district 6, whereas 7 percent live in the school’s current district, 3.

In October, the DOE released a 10-page educational impact statement that detailed the anticipated effects of the move on students and the school’s community. “The DOE does not anticipate that this proposal will impact the partnerships, programs, extracurricular activities and/or clubs offered at Innovation,” the statement said. “Students would continue to have the opportunity to participate in a variety of extracurricular programs, though the specific programs offered at a given school are always subject to change.” The statement added DOE’s intention to provide facilities for science and physical education classes, which do not currently exist in the building.

Many parents and administrators involved with Innovation, however, disagree that the move would benefit students. Leading up to a public hearing on the proposal on Dec. 4, Innovation community members began speaking out against the relocation, and questioning DOE’s intentions.

“As soon as the [relocation] announcement came out, the writing was on the wall,” said Christine Annechino, president of Community Education Council District 3 (CEC 3). Like many of the move’s opponents, she suspected that DOE’s hope for relocation might be motivated by a desire to cater to the interests of Success Academy, the educational complex’s lone charter elementary school. Success is a prominent educational power in New York, with schools open across the city. The Upper West branch moved into the Brandeis complex last year against the protests of many parents and school officials, who went as far as signing a lawsuit to block the school on the grounds that it would overcrowd the complex and take over arts resources.

Tensions between Success and the other co-located schools remain. With many young, high-achieving students and plans for expansion in the complex, opponents to the move reason, Success has a clear motive for favoring the relocation of IDP’s students.

In an e-mail exchange, Upper West Success Academy did not respond to questions about allegations of favoritism. “We are hopeful and confident that IDP, Success Upper West and the other schools that share space in the Brandeis building can continue to work cooperatively and collaboratively to offer the best education to all students,” the school said.

Favoritism or not, though, opponents to the relocation argued that students at IDP and the Brandeis complex in general both would suffer if IDP moved uptown. “You feel bad for the kids. They’re in a really disadvantaged position,” Annechino said. “Innovation students are going to lose a good, proper school environment. They’re being shifted around without any consideration. I don’t think the DOE takes them seriously.”

“The whole thing is just ridiculous,” said Robin Klueber, president of the Parent Teacher Association for Frank McCourt High School, one of the complex’s other high schools. The four high schools share resources, she explained, so IDP’s extracurricular activities would by necessity be affected. Students from the different schools interact and contribute to the same programs, such as sports teams and clubs. A group involved in an inter-school theater production set to premiere this week, she said, was dismayed that they might not be together after this year.

“The after-school programs are just fabulous,” Klueber added. “We share a community with Innovation.”

Numerous elected officials also have added their voices to the protests. “On its face, it appears that the DOE’s primary impetus for moving Innovation is to accommodate the elementary charter school that co-located in the building against strenuous community opposition,” Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal said. “That opposition was rooted in the fear that the charter school would eventually squeeze out the existing high school students in a quest for more space. Transfer schools such as Innovation Diploma Plus provide motivated students with a last-chance opportunity to receive a high school diploma. Innovation students, having found stability at Brandeis on the Upper West Side, are now having the rug pulled out from under them by the DOE.”

With the loss of access to Brandeis’ science, arts, sports and theater programs, Council Member Gale Brewer contended that “the health of [IDP’s] students in the broader sense will decline.” She added that parents of students at IDP had approached her and were “adamantly opposed” to the move.
IDP Principal Casey Jones did not respond to a request for comments. Some opponents to the move claim Jones’ support, but he has made no public statements against the proposal.

In light of the strong opposition, West Side Spirit asked DOE spokesperson Feinberg to address some of the specific complaints that the community surrounding IDP was raising. In addition to a loss of sports and arts resources, for instance, opponents have also voiced concerns that IDP students will lose access to a program called Lyfe, which provides day care for children so that their young parents can gain enough credits to graduate. Feinberg declined, and stated that all the move’s benefits were explained in the impact statement, which can be read online at schools.nyc.gov.

Opponents note that the proposed Washington Heights location Street is 90 years old, with 10 full-size classrooms and currently none of the amenities that Brandeis shares, such as a gymnasium, science lab, auditorium and black box theater. According to the impact statement, DOE intends to invest $1.5 to 3 million to bring the building up to code for physical education and science.
CEC 3 Councilmember Laurie Frey contended that regardless of facilities, the move would still be “socially isolating” for IDP students. “The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee us quality of success, but quality of access,” she said. “What gets you coming to school? The sports, the arts, your friends—those are the little pieces that get you up in the morning.” She argued that at-risk students like those at IDP need all the incentives they can get. To remove their support network, she suggested, is to cast them out from New York’s education system.

“There’s no apparent reason to move IDP unless you have a civil collusion between DOE and Success Academy,” she said. “There’s a real appearance of cronyism.”

Following last week’s hearing, DOE said that it is reviewing the community’s comments. The department will continue to accept oral and written opinions through Dec. 19, and then DOE’s Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal on Dec. 20.

Jenny Gensterblum transforms cafeteria food into healthy and delectable meals

By Alex Mikoulianitch

Jenny Gensterblum isn’t your ordinary lunch lady working at Léman Preparatory School and flipping hash browns. She’s got an impressive arsenal of cooking skills up her sleeve, all backed by a degree from the French Culinary Institute in New York, which she deploys in earnest to provide delicious, nutritious meals for the school’s students and faculty on a daily basis.

From a young age, Gensterblum was surrounded by a culinary atmosphere. Starting from the garden her family owned, to her mother’s cooking talents, the young Michigan-born girl began budding an affinity for the kitchen that eventually proved to be part of her career.

“Mom was a big cook and really influenced how I like to eat and what I think about food,” Gensterblum said.

She admits it was unexpected for her when she realized her path was going in the direction of the culinary arts, though looking back on it now, it seems all too obvious.

“It definitely surprised me, but I realized I was spending all my free time learning recipes and having dinner parties and spending all my money on exotic ingredients, so it’s definitely something that occurred to me later on,” Gensterblum said.

This realization prompted Gensterblum to travel to the Big Apple and enroll at the French Culinary Institute, which she believes was the most enriching experience she had ever had.

“I think it was the best year of my life,” Gensterblum said. “It’s one thing to enjoy cooking and being able to doing it on your free time. But being able to do it every single day was so amazing. I learned so much and I met so many great people. I think it was a challenge trying to figure out what I was going to do once I graduated, but luckily I found a place.”

Gensterblum didn’t automatically stumble upon a position at the school. She went the traditional route, working at a few restaurants first.

“I started working at a restaurant in the East Village, and I was there for probably around seven months after I graduated,” Gensterblum said. “It really wasn’t something that was resonating with me. I was seeing a lot in the news about school food lunch reform and ways that you could get involved with it, and I ended up finding an opening at [Léman] and I came straight here.”

It was here that Gensterblum began focusing her efforts on school lunch reform. The kind of lunch kids eat at Léman is much different from the average lunch you’ll see at a New York public school. The students go crazy for her kale chips, and she routinely makes healthier versions of traditional favorites, like corn chowder and marinara sauce, from scratch. She’s even compiled her team’s recipes into a cookbook, Secret Sauce, to bring her kid-pleasing fare to the masses.

“I think, for us here, and I know there are a lot of schools out there, especially private schools where they have dining services companies that come in and [they] can change from week to week, but everyone that works here works solely for the school,” Gensterblum said. “We really, really care about the kids. [We want] to make sure they get a good meal and make sure that it’s something that they look forward to. We really take pride in what we put out for them.”

These efforts, which Gensterblum heavily credits to the help of the school administration and the rest of the staff, are what brought her recognition for her outstanding service to the culinary field.
“My staff and I are really honored,” Gensterblum said. “[We] work really hard every day to make sure that the kids are learning something about food and getting a good meal and look forward to coming to lunch. I’m just really grateful and honored to getting some recognition for it.”

Parents in Lower Manhattan say that overcrowding at Battery Park City School (P.S. 276) is nearing a breaking point, and they have launched an online petition demanding that Mayor Bloomberg and the city’s Department of Education take decisive action and limit the number of incoming kindergarten classes for next year and beyond.

Started late last month, the petition has already garnered more than 600 signatures in the hopes that city officials will limit to three the number of incoming kindergarten classes at BPC and help preserve the school’s noted science, music, art and pre-K programs.

Parents and teachers at the school say that continued overcrowding will jeopardize specialized programs simply due to the fact that the classrooms may have to be used to accommodate increasing numbers of students at the school.

“Next year marks the first year we won’t have enough classrooms to maintain programs if we continue to admit kindergarten students beyond our capacity,” said Matt Schneider, a PTA co-president at BPC, via email.

“Our pre-K program could be eliminated entirely. Our science, art and music rooms could be converted to regular classrooms,” he added. “The quality of education for our kids diminishes.”

The three-year-old BPC School was designed to handle only three classes per grade, but Schneider said the school has been forced by the DOE to handle four classes in 2010 and five classes in both 2011 and 2012.

Posting comments to the school’s online petition, BPC parent Tracie Basch wrote: “Both my children attend this well-regarded school and love going to school. It would be a disservice to our children to alter our well respected science, art and music programs as well as discontinue our pre-K program.”

She added, “For our children to be able to compete in this new global economy, we need to find ways to improve our science and arts programs—not take away these specialized classrooms and revert to them being on a cart. That is not how you get children excited about learning.”

At a recent Community Board 1 meeting, BPC’s Principal Terri Ruyter said that for the coming school year there may not be enough classrooms for students in pre-K through 8th grade. She also said that the time is at hand to develop both short and long-term solutions to the school’s dire overcrowding problem.

Solutions suggested by Schneider and the school’s overcrowding committee include, in addition to limiting classes and class sizes, find and lease more interim classroom space to address shortages now, and build more schools in Lower Manhattan as a long-term solution.

“I think the persistent school overcrowding in Lower Manhattan points to inadequate planning or worse, a lack of planning post 9/11,” said Shino Tanikawa, president of Community Education Council 2.

“We need population projections at the neighborhood level, which neither the DOE nor the School Construction Authority currently undertakes. And, we need better methodology for projecting school-age populations, as has been advocated by Dr. Eric Greenleaf for the past several years,” Tanikawa said.

Greenleaf is an NYU professor, a downtown parent and a member of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s school overcrowding task force.

As of press time, the DOE did not return calls seeking comment on overcrowding at BPC.
However, most recently the DOE has said it is “on track” to meet growing demand for school seats in Lower Manhattan, and will make 700 seats available with the addition of the Peck Slip School opening in 2015.

In the meantime, the overcrowding at BPC seems to be taking a toll on students and performance. A DOE progress report for 2011-2012 gave the school an overall grade of C. The progress reports measure a variety of factors including student’s performance on standardized tests from year to year.

One parent at the school, who requested their name be withheld, said, “What I would love to read is how this beautiful state-of-the-art school based in upscale Battery Park has so very quickly become an uninspired disappointment.”

Asked about the school’s less-than-stellar DOE progress report, Schneider did not fully concur with the report’s findings. “There are a host of problems related to the way schools are measured by the progress report, and I don’t believe that report accurately reflects teaching and learning in our school,” Schneider said.

“That said,” he added, “it’s hard to argue that large class sizes don’t negatively affect learning for some students.”

Moreover, Schneider said that teachers at BPC work hard to overcome large class sizes, but time is limited, and teachers can only find one-on-one time with a certain number of students. “That,” he said, “has to have an impact.”

Upper West Siders are particularly susceptible to injury from speeding vehicles, Sladkus believes. With large numbers of children and elderly residents living around cars and trucks that, as she says, use neighborhood avenues as their own personal highways, residents frequently find themselves in danger of being hit.

“Under 30 miles per hour, you have a much better chance of surviving a collision,” she explained, citing statistics from a UK Department of Transportation study that found pedestrians’ chance of survival in getting hit by vehicles moving at 20, 30 or 40 mph to be 98, 80 and 30 percent, respectively. Slow cars by 10 mph, Sladkus contended, and the city would save numerous lives.

Based on recent accident reports, there are still plenty of lives in New York to be saved. The State Department of Motor Vehicles noted that 143 pedestrians were killed in NYC crashes last year. While this number reflects recognized progress in the city’s pedestrian safety in the past decade (traffic fatalities dropped 35 percent from 2001 to 2009, according to the city’s Department of Transportation), it also underscores work that remains to be done: In 2009, DOT reported Manhattan has four times as many pedestrians killed or severely injured per square mile than New York’s other boroughs. Pedestrians accounted for over half of the city’s total traffic fatalities.

To combat speeding, the DOT recently approved 13 “neighborhood slow zones” that reduce speeds in small residential areas to 20 mph. The department launched a pilot slow zone in the Claremont section of the Bronx last November, and following its success, designated 13 new zones around the city in June after receiving over 100 applications for designation from communities. In addition to lowered speed limit signs, the program installs on-street markers and speed bumps in the zones to ensure drivers get the message.

Originally, Sladkus says, the UWSSR thought about submitting an area or two on the Upper West Side for designation in the slow-zone initiative. As she scoped out different neighborhoods, however, she realized that wasn’t enough. “I felt really ethically wrong to say, ‘I want this one five-by-five-block area rezoned, but leave everything else alone,’ ” so she sent a proposal to DOT for a slow zone that encompasses the entire Upper West Side.

DOT has already rejected the request. According to Sladkus, the department said they were interested in opening a few slow zones around local schools, but could not pursue a neighborhood-wide reduction. (West Side Spirit contacted DOT for comments on the rejection, but they did not provide any statements as of press time on Tuesday.)

Sladkus is undaunted. “It’s a traffic engineering challenge,” she said of the proposal, recognizing that it will not win DOT’s approval unless she can demonstrate significant support from the community. Currently she is sending fliers to local schools and senior centers to gauge interest in speed reduction, and seeking endorsements from politicians, community groups and local leaders.

One supporter, Coalition for a Livable West Side President Batya Lewton, has hired a traffic consultant to review the criteria the DOE used to reject UWSSR’s proposal. “We need to analyze the rationale that DOT has used to exclude the Upper West Side,” she said. “There is no excuse for not reducing speed limits here. Is truck traffic more important than people’s lives?”

Sladkus mentioned that she doesn’t think reduced speed limits are the be-all, end-all solution to ensuring pedestrian safety, nor that the limits could be enforced by the NYPD’s current lax approach. She asserted, though, that better use of technology like speed cameras and red light cameras could reduce violations without further burdening cops.

As for a final solution, she admitted, “I envision a city that’s very, very different and not car-centric at all.” But she sees progress as incremental. “Let’s deal with the safety crisis that we have right now,” she said.