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.

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.

By John Friia

Photo By Emily Johnson

The motto of PS 199—Jessie Isador Straus Elementary School, located at 270 W. 70th St.—is “Work hard. Be kind,” and Principal Katy Rosen explains the school strives to fulfill those words. Named after the former ambassador to France and president of R.H. Macy & Co., Jessie Isador Straus Elementary School offers a wide range of programs for children to broaden their horizons.

There are a few basic qualities that the school wants to impart to its students by the time that they graduate, including creating lifelong readers and writers and making students strive for the best. The school aims to do this in a warm learning environment.

“As a community, we place value on knowing our students and families on an individual basis and to work as a school to make sure each and every student achieves their full potential,” Rosen said.

Rosen has been the principal of PS 199 since September 2006 and explained that it is a great community where everyone gets along. “When I come to work, I feel like I am working with my extended family,” Rosen said.

One of her favorite aspects of the job is when she receives mail from students. “Their letters are always engaging and sometimes persuasive. It is gratifying to see the fruits of our daily labor in a well-crafted essay asking for more recess time,” Rosen said.

Seeking to enhance the quality of education for the students, the school partners with different organizations to expose them to fine arts and culture. Rosen explained that the school is currently partnered with Vital Theater, the New York Philharmonic, National Dance Institute, Landmark West, Lincoln Center Institute, Center for Architecture Foundation and Asphalt Green. In addition, there are parent-run programs, including a chess club and lunchtime book talks.

“PS 199 is a barrier-free school and as such, has a long history of educating children with special needs of all levels,” Rosen said. “We have an exceptionally outstanding group of dedicated and caring teachers who love their students and their jobs. They work closely together among themselves and with families to ensure that our students have meaningful learning experiences.” Many of the teachers remain there until they retire, Rosen said.

As is the case at many schools throughout the city, government aid to the school has been drastically cut, and parents of the community want to help maintain the programs provided by PS 199. Rosen explained that the school is fortunate to have the PTA it does. The active parents’ group hosts numerous annual events, including a walk-a-thon, wine tasting, holiday boutique fair and talent show. She also said that the school wouldn’t be what it is without the dynamic and talented teachers and others who work there.

“Thank you for this award and the recognition of our very hard-working staff, which allows PS 199 to be the wonderful school that it is. I am thrilled to share this award with them,” she said.

By Mirva Lempiainen

Throughout high school, college and young adulthood, Michelle Ciulla Lipkin was never the community activist type.

And yet now, at 39, the mother of two finds herself the co-president of the Parent Teacher Association of P.S. 199 for the second year. Lipkin spends up to three evenings per week sitting in meetings, trying to deal with issues like overcrowding and the presence of PCB toxins in schools.

Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, co-president of P.S. 199’s PTA.

“I never imagined this is how I’d be spending my time,” she said.

The former TV producer for Nickelodeon first entered the world of community organizing when her son started kindergarten three years ago. Since then, she has been “in the thick of it all.”

“It just kind of happened,” said Lipkin, who has a 6-year-old daughter in addition to her 8-year-old son. “Suddenly I’m the president!”

It was her children’s well-being that prompted Lipkin to become involved in the school politics of the Upper West Side, a neighborhood she has lived in for almost half of the 20 years that she has spent in the city.

“Once it’s about your kids, you can’t just sit back.”

And sit back she doesn’t: In addition to leading the PTA together with Diane Brush, Lipkin attends community education council meetings, is the district leadership team’s parent representative and sits in the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council.

“I don’t do anything else besides this, it’s my full-time job,” she said.

Not that Lipkin has forgotten her old profession altogether. Nowadays, she is pushing for schools to adopt a media education curriculum, something she feels passionate about.

“Kids need to be prepared for the world they are living in.”

Lipkin wants to make sure her children, and others in the community, get the best start to their lives. The way to do that is to ensure that teachers can focus on teaching, while the PTA will “fight the fights.”

This often means coming home from the meetings after 8.30 p.m., much to the dismay of her kids.

“They’d prefer me home all the time. But that’s not the kind of mommy I am,” Lipkin said, laughing cheerfully.

However, the PTA president is happy that she doesn’t have to go at it alone. Both the principal and superintendent of P.S. 199 are very supportive of the association’s initiatives, she said. “And the district as a whole has amazing parents. It’s really inspiring to be around these people.”

Lipkin said she’s a lover of both the Upper West Side and the public school system. “I wouldn’t have my kids growing up anywhere else.”

As for the reason why she was awarded a WESTY, Lipkin said, “I imagine it’s because I’m working my butt off!”

While it may have taken her a while to become a community activist, Lipkin has now truly embraced the role.

“I really enjoy being a part of it all,” she said. “I really think no one is getting rid of me now.”

West Side elected officials want the Department of Education to quickly remove PCBs from P.S. 199 using recommendations from the school Parent-Teacher Association.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Borough President Scott Stringer, State Sen. Thomas Duane, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and Council Member Gale Brewer wrote a letter Nov. 3 asking for the expedited implementation of the PTA’s recommendations.

“We strongly believe that these and other recommendations included in the PTA’s letter are sensible, practical and should be implemented and followed immediately,” the elected officials wrote to Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm and School Construction Authority Vice President and General Counsel Ross Holden.

The Oct. 20 letter from the PTA to these officials includes 10 recommendations, mostly calls for new testing. The PTA wants PCB testing for new caulk, brick near the PCB-contaminated caulk, soil around the building and school building materials. Also on the list of recommendations is improved ventilation in the school.

Previous PCB remediation at the school caused a drop in the level of the chemical.

“Everything that the PTA has recommended has led to a decrease in contamination,” Duane said. “There is absolutely no downside and only upside to continuing to follow the PTA’s recommendations.”

The cancer-causing chemical was found in caulk at P.S. 199, 270 W. 70th St. between West End and Amsterdam avenues, in May 2008. Since then, there has been a demand for a quick removal of PCBs. In March, P.S. 199 was one of five schools selected for a city and federal Environmental Protection Agency pilot program to study PCB-removal efforts that would then be used citywide.

The Environmental Protection Agency has previously stated that the PCB levels pose no immediate health risk.

“We are seriously troubled by comments of late that continue to stress that ‘short-term’ exposure to PCB contaminated air is not problematic, when the exposure facing our community has been over a period of years, not months or days,” PTA co-presidents Diane Brush and Michelle Ciulla Lipkin wrote.

Natalie Ravitz, press secretary for the Department of Education, said in a statement the city is gaining valuable information on testing and remediation from the pilot program.

“Experts have said there is no immediate health threat, and we believe it would be irresponsible to move forward with a city-wide plan—which potentially carries a billion dollar price tag—before we have better information and complete this pilot project,” Ravitz said in her statement.

West Side elected officials and advocates urged the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Education at an Oct. 7 rally on the steps of City Hall to start investigating the levels of toxic PCBs in hundreds of potentially affected city schools.

The results of a pilot study conducted this year with the federal agency and the city DOE found airborne PCBs that exceeded recommended levels at P.S. 199 on the Upper West Side, P.S. 178 in the Bronx and Brooklyn’s P.S. 309.

From 1950 to 1978, before a Congressional ban went into effect, caulk and lighting ballasts—a fixture that controls electrical flow—used to construct buildings and schools contained PCBs, which studies suggest can cause learning disabilities in children, cancer and cardiovascular and immune system disease.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, an Upper West Side Democrat, wants Judith Enck, regional administrator for the EPA, to immediately expand its oversight of PCB management in the city’s public schools.

“The problem is much more serious than we originally believed,” Nadler said.

The EPA, in a statement, said the elevated PCB levels found in those schools “do not pose an immediate health risk in the short term.”

“Any needed repairs or renovations to address PCBs problems are conducted in ways that protect everyone who works in NYC school buildings,” an EPA spokesperson said in a statement.

The EPA expressed confidence in the study and said it has been communicating with federal and state officials about the feasibility of funding a broader approach.

The city estimates the price tag to remove the PCB to be $1 billion. The EPA wouldn’t foot the entire bill. Already, the city has spent $3 million on remediation efforts. But Nadler said the city would “find the funds if we have to.”

West Side Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Daniel O’Donnell and 15 of their colleagues signed a letter to Enck asking the federal agency to inspect roughly 700 schools that may have PCB-laden caulk and light fixtures. Rosenthal plans to reintroduce her 2008 legislation that would require citywide testing of schools.

“Are we content to let New York City schoolchildren in untested school buildings serve as the proverbial canaries for future generations?” she asked.

Miranda Massie, litigation and training director with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, expressed concern that the agency’s study downplays the risks of PCBs, she wrote in a letter to the EPA.

“It is important to note that independent experts regard the EPA guidances as inadequately health-protective, in part because they are based exclusively on cancer risks” and overlook “the many other substantial, negative health impacts of PCBs,” she wrote in a letter to the EPA.

The EPA, in its statement, said, “We will continue to work closely with New York City on the pilot program, which we believe is providing valuable information about the extent of the PCB problem and measures we can take to address it.”

That continuation will begin this weekend with an additional round of testing at P.S. 199.

Two years ago, the man-made chemical was found in the Upper West Side school, at 270 W. 70th St. between West End and Amsterdam avenues. An investigation revealed that the school was contaminated with the chemical in May 2008, when a contractor hired by the School Construction Authority removed caulk containing PCBs without following state regulations.

P.S. 199 will be a test site for PCB clean-up. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

Elected officials, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take over cleanup, with the city footing the cost.

Last January, the EPA and the city came to an agreement to study the removal of PCBs. Nadler urged the city to pick P.S. 199, one of the first schools in the city found to be contaminated with PCBs, to be a part of the five-school pilot program.

“It’s very good news that the EPA and the city chose P.S. 199 as one of the schools for PCB testing,” Nadler said. “I, along with other Upper West Side elected officials, first brought this issue to the EPA’s attention because of the situation at P.S. 199. It is only logical that P.S. 199 be thoroughly tested to ensure that the kids are not being needlessly exposed to dangerous chemicals.”

Data collected from the pilot program will lead to a citywide approach for removing PCBs in schools and reducing the risk of exposure to the chemical.
Congress banned most uses of PCBs in 1976, though there are buildings that were constructed or renovated prior to that time that may contain the chemical in caulk around windows and doorframes, according to the EPA.
The pilot program will test air in five selected schools, but Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal wants the city to test all schools that have caulk from 1950 to 1978, when PCBs were still being used.

“This is an intermediate step, the pilot program,” said Rosenthal, who recently authored a bill that would require such testing. “This needs to be done throughout the city.”

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.”

“Elaine said, ‘Is this somewhere they can visit?’” recalled musician and teaching artist Thomas Cabaniss, who knows Shapiro both as a former colleague and as the teacher of his children. “Two weeks later they were on a bus upstate to see the wolves. They took their recorders up there and when they came back they had all these pictures of the kids playing their recorder tunes to the wolves, who were howling back at them.”

Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Shapiro began her career in Brooklyn, at P.S. 183, choosing the profession because of her family’ s high value on education and her love of kids. She taught there for 16 years until 1986, when she arrived at P.S. 199, where she has been ever since.
Back then, P.S. 199 was an under-utilized school on a remote corner of the Upper West Side.

“The staff under the principal said, ‘Let’s turn this into a great neighborhood school, where neighborhood people would want to sent their children.’ It’s become this wonderful place to learn and to work,” Shapiro said.

Now P.S. 199 is one of the most sought after public elementary schools in Manhattan, and teachers like Shapiro have sealed its reputation. She is quick to share the credit, saying that without good co-workers and administrators, teachers can feel isolated—but she never does.

Shapiro has taught everything from 1st through 6th grade, and currently teaches 5th grade. One of the constants from level to level is the need to integrate creative ways of thinking and learning into the traditional curriculum—thus her longtime collaboration with the New York Philharmonic and musicians like Cabaniss. She also loves experiential education, having just returned from three days at Frost Valley, the YMCA camp in upstate New York. She and her students hiked and studied water ecology, and took part in other decidedly non-classroom activities, like a square dance.

Shapiro says she lives for the kind of surprising moments that kids give her. When she asked her students to be friendly toward staff members who would be accompanying them on the Frost Valley trip, her class went above and beyond, running up to teachers and regaling them with greetings and compliments in order to make them feel comfortable about the upcoming trip.

“Kids take things with so much enthusiasm,” she said. “Watching them become readers, mathematicians, writers and scientists, artists and composers is rewarding.”

Despite all the excitement, Shapiro’s classroom is marked by a sense of calm and mutual respect.

“I realized that she was a quiet worker, and very sweet to the kids she worked with,” Cabaniss said. “Somehow they had established an agreement from the beginning of the year that they were really going to listen to each other. That was admirable, and in fact extraordinary.”

Shapiro says that when people ask her if she can distill her teaching philosophy, she has a hard time summing up nearly 40 years of experience. But if she had to, it’s about “making sure that every child is heard, and everyone’s opinion is worthwhile.”
–
Elaine Shapiro
5th Grade, P.S. 199

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.