When you’re the author of over nine books and an NYU/New School Journalism professor, and your husband is a successful television and film writer, your profession is bound to rub off on your home. Such is the case for Greenwich Village-based writer Sue Shapiro and her husband, Charles Rubin. Their fifth-floor apartment, located off Broadway a mere stone’s throw from their respective campuses—Rubin also teaches, at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts—is a dazzling collection of books and hallmarks from their careers.

The arrangement of their abode, which was fashioned from two units purchased in the 1990s, is a perfect compromise for the couple who have distinct preferences when it comes to working. As Shapiro leads a tour through her home, she notes that her open living room—a space that could easily contain most New Yorkers’ entire apartments—often serves as a literary salon for her many classes and workshops and as a reception space.

It was here that she recently hosted a book party for her newest work, Unhooked: How to Quit Anything (Skyhorse Publishing, 2012), which she penned with her former therapist, Dr. Frederick Woolverton.

While Shapiro enjoys the company, Rubin prefers the solitude of one of his two writing rooms, one of which the couple has dubbed “the murder room,” since it houses Rubin’s vast collection of mystery literature.

The bookcases in the living room are decidedly Shapiro’s realm and include everything from offbeat sculptures and trinkets to a collection of her work, like the whimsical, cupcake-inspired cover of the Italian version of her book Five Men Who Broke My Heart, which is currently being adapted into a film. The walls, however, are Rubin’s terrain and are lined with framed comics from publications he once worked for.

“I’m a neat freak; he has his collections,” Shapiro said of their respective living styles.

The couple, however, seem to share an affinity for black, as evidenced in their kitchen and bathroom, where the shower features black marble tiles. And one thing the couple can agree on is that their apartment, at around 2,500 square feet, was a sound purchase as the abode would now fetch in the seven figures if put on the market.

Shapiro and Rubin, though, have no plans to sell any time soon. “This is the fantasy…the dream home and office,” she said.

The problem has been acute in the southern part of District 3, where massive building projects have led to overcrowding at P.S. 199 and P.S. 87, in particular.

“There are more zoned students than there are seats because students largely choose to go to their zoned school,” said Elizabeth Rose, a representative from the department’s office of portfolio planning, at a Jan. 20 Community Education Council meeting. She credited the work of parents who “spent an enormous amount of time gathering data” in changing the department’s strategy.

“At the end, I think we called ‘uncle,’” Rose joked at the meeting. “I don’t think anyone thought we would be here announcing a new school in this area at this time.”

As recently as Dec. 16, the department was backing a two-year capital budget for the district that included no new seats or construction for new capacity. Although education officials agreed that schools were strained by crowding, they believed the problem could be alleviated through adjustments like rezoning.

Now, the city is planning to open a new elementary school in fall 2010 with three kindergarten classes, totaling 75 students. It will be housed in the I.S. 44 building, on West 77th Street, along with the Anderson School and the Computer School. As the new school grows over the next six years, it will end up with 450 elementary school seats.

To create space, though, Rose said the community now faces a “painful set of decisions.” The department will be relocating a new middle school, West Prep, within a few years, and the Anderson School, a citywide gifted school, will reduce its enrollment from three classes (or “sections”) a year back down to two.

In the new enrollment process, there will be no district-wide kindergarten lottery for the most overcrowded schools, which are filled largely from their own catchment zones. Enrollment priorities at zoned schools will first go to students in the catchment area who have a sibling at the school; then zoned students who don’t have older siblings at the school; and finally to out-of-zone students from District 3 who have a sibling at the school. The new process, which would give catchment students priority over non-catchment siblings, will be “reaffirming the chancellor’s regulations on enrollment priorities,” Rose said.

The new school’s zone could be determined in one of three ways: The city could draw a new permanent catchment zone between P.S. 87 and P.S. 199; it could allow families zoned for P.S. 87 the chance to choose this new school first; or it could allow the new school to be filled with the overflow from families who do not get into P.S. 87 or P.S. 199.

At P.S. 199 and P.S. 87, six kindergarten classes will be maintained, the most either overcrowded school can handle.

Rose stressed that no changes, other than the decision to create a new school, have been set in stone. After the first year under this new plan, Rose said, “We will need to monitor kindergarten enrollment carefully,” to see how it works, particularly after the next round of kindergarten intake in February.

At the meeting, members of the public and the parent council expressed gratitude to the department for taking this step.

“One of the things we have achieved in the war room, working with the borough president, working with the DOE is that [the department is] no longer determining unilaterally how many kids can fit,” said Noah Gotbaum, chair of the parent council.

Still, many worried that the plan didn’t go far enough. Several parent council members said they felt the new school was a stop-gap measure, and that the same crowding problems would crop up in a few years.

“We definitely gain from a three-classroom school,” said Helen Rosenthal, co-chair of Community Board 7’s education committee, which has been looking at District 3 data. “However, data shows we really need a six-classroom school.”

Others clamored for the department to purchase real estate, worried that a space shuffle would not be enough to solve the problem.

“We need to push the DOE to find or build new space to at least double the new school’s size,” Gotbaum said. “Otherwise, just about every elementary school in the southern portion of the district will be over-enrolled within 12 to 24 months.”

Looking a few more years down the road, he added, “And middle school overcrowding is following closely on the heels of this as our elementary kids move up.”

The many supporters of this proposed school are calling it the Frank McCourt High School of Journalism, Writing and Literature, named after the famous Stuyvesant High School teacher who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his poignant memoir Angela’s Ashes. Although city regulations do not allow schools to be named after living individuals, the growing legion of supporters are using his name in the hopes that one day the new school will honor America’s most famous teacher. That’s an idea we can all support: naming a new school after a successful and much beloved educator.

The content and vision of the school has infused uptown parents with excitement; a school emphasizing journalism, writing and literature would highlight a broad spectrum of communications, from expository essays to digital presentations. We live in an age when a multi-media approach to learning is required, but the common thread is good writing and a powerful use of language.

Although some forms of journalism are experiencing challenges, there will always be a need for a Fourth Estate to be a watchdog of our government and those in power. Creative writing will always enchant us and help fuel our popular entertainment, whether on a printed page, a Kindle or the big screen. Expository and essay writing will always be necessary for lawyers, academics and other professionals.

This new high school will be able to draw on a great pool of writers, literary professionals and published journalists and authors to attract teaching talent and guest lecturers. It will become a diverse place where kids of every race, ethnic group and socio-economic background can flourish as writers.

The school’s supporters say they will encourage students to write in other languages, with a strong emphasis on Spanish bilingual writing programs. Already, a few esteemed local institutions have expressed interest in becoming partners, including The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Symphony Space and Fordham University.

We wholeheartedly endorse this idea and applaud local leaders like Borough President Scott Stringer, Council Members Gale Brewer and Melissa Mark-Viverito, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and State Sen. Tom Duane, who have been early supporters of this proposed school. Publisher Elinor Tatum of the New York Amsterdam News, the city’s largest and oldest African American newspaper, has also voiced her support of this idea, as have many Harlem parents.

Let’s encourage the Department of Education to work with this diverse group of parents and local leaders to make this proposed school a reality in 2010.