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.

Some NYC schools are cutting down on recess just as studies show how integral it is to students’ development

It turns out that taking a break from fractions to play football in the schoolyard has more than just physical health benefits. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a statement emphasizing the importance of recess, and touting its benefits for the “whole child,” including academic improvements and the opportunity for the child to grow and learn social skills that cannot be taught in the classroom.

“We went into this study with the attitude that recess was good for preventing childhood obesity,” said Dr. Robert Murray, one of the authors of the study. “We discovered it had a lot more influence than we thought.”

But still, Dr. Murray says that in schools across the country, as many as 40 percent are cutting down on recess, or doing away with it all together, partially because of pressure to perform well on standardized tests.

“Teachers assume that they can teach kids more if they cut recess, but their best bet is to use these recess breaks to allow the child to process,” said Dr. Murray. “Adults take breaks throughout the day, but we just don’t call it recess.”

In Manhattan, a child’s recess experience is as varied as the schools themselves. But of almost two-dozen recent graduates from The City College of New York’s teaching program, 14 out of 16 current New York City elementary school teachers have recess where they work, and most have it every day.

At Ascension School on West 108th Street, a private Catholic School, recess is taken very seriously, and students rarely play inside. In fact, the street in front of the school is shut down every day just so kids can play outside. This has stirred up controversy in the community over the past couple of years from neighbors complaining about the noise. But, Principal Christopher McMahon said, they will continue fighting for their children.

“This struggle will not deter us because recess is too important to our program,” said McMahon. “Recess is a time for kids to release energy. It needs to be unstructured because it gives kids a chance to express themselves.”

According to Dr. Murray, unstructured recess, like the program at Ascension, is actually the best way to go.

“Unstructured recess gives kids maximum control over their own time,” he said. “Some kids may want to read, some may want to play kickball or dodgeball. It forces the kid to be creative.”

At Yorkville Community School on East 91st Street between First and Second Avenues, recess is just as important. The difference is four coaches come to the school every day during recess to organize sports games with the students, thus making the recess experience more structured.

“It keeps every child directed and they have someone supervising them so no one’s straggling off or not keeping active,” said Principal Samantha Kaplan.

Principal Kaplan has also observed that recess has had a positive influence on Yorkville students’ social abilities. She once observed a new student who was shy to make friends bond with classmates through a game of basketball.

“Once kids find common interests they become members of the community pretty quickly,” she said, referring to the atmosphere on the playground.

But despite good intentions, many schools simply do not have the budget for a regular recess program. The Lillian Weber School on West 92nd Street would not have a recess program if the PTA had not intervened. With all of the DOE budgetary restrictions, PTA president Jeanne Moreland said the school could not pay for teacher aides to watch kids on the playground. So, the PTA had to scrape the money together to hire teacher aides on their own.

“There’s not enough money for anything right now. We have enough money for the teachers’ salaries basically,” said Moreland. “I don’t think it’ll fix itself unless there’s a culture change on education and how things are funded.”

Schools have certainly had to get creative to keep recess in their programs. At P.S. 76 on West 121st Street, interns from Americorp come every day to watch the kids during recess, as well as teach them games and sports. As a result, said Principal Charles De Berry, recess budgets are usually not a concern.

Dr. Robert Murray did mention that school budgets were a factor that contributed to quality and quantity of education. And poorer schools, he said, are most likely to cut recess in order to get test scores back up. Ironically though, he said, it’s the kids in troubled areas who need recess the most.

At P.S. 46, on 8th Avenue and Harlem River Drive, recess has always been an important part of the school day. Principal George Young said this is especially important because most of the students come from housing projects and many parents do not want their children playing outside.

“I work in a challenging area. Recess is the only time they get to actually play outside,” he said. “When you see the children getting along and playing with one another, it reinforces the fact that we’re all in this together.”

By Mia Weber

City kids may start to feel a bit pouty as the sun sets on a beautiful summer, so we’ve compiled the perfect guide for everything they’ll need to start the new school year off in style with a smile!

1. The Perfect Pouch
To help your young scholar bring a stylish edge to the classroom, check out these bold Converse shoe pencil pouches. These crafty cases are perfect for infusing desktop organization with some personal panache.
$22.95, coolpencilcase.com

2. Style for Every Subject
With a variety of eye-catching patterns, Staples’ printed Better Binders are sure to make homework a breeze. Try different looks or sizes for classes or assignments.
$8.49-$9.49, staples.com
3. A Bright
Reminder
Make sure no errand goes undone and no homework assignment goes unchecked. With Post-it Super Sticky Shaped Notes, organization takes on a whole new spectrum of eye-catching colors and playful shapes.
$4.25, post-it.com

4. Haute Hipster
What cuter way to ease the sting of summer’s end than with a back-to-school backpack from Hello Kitty? Mustache, the animated world’s beloved feline, proves that a cheeky dose of hipster fun can turn the hallway into a runway!
$45, sanrio.com

5. A Classically Delicious Lunch
L.L. Bean’s patterned lunchbox mixes durable construction and high-tech insulation with a variety of perky prints. Plus, there’s a monogram option so your studious kiddo never gets his or her lunch mixed up in the cafeteria.
$17.95, llbean.com

6. For the Eager Reader
Keep book pages free of creases with Night Owl Paper Goods’ water otters bookmark/ruler. Crafted from eco-friendly, sustainably harvested yellow birch wood, this sweet marker features otter graphics and doubles as a handy ruler on its flip side.
$5, nightowlpapergoods.com
7. Navigating the Concrete Jungle
Ever stop to think how your urban student might yearn for the schoolyard to transform into a leafy jungle? Aid the imagination with animal-inspired Zoo Packs from Skip Hop. Shown here in Giraffe; this sweet backpack is sure to hold everything.
$20, skiphop.com

8. Savvy Snacking
Adorned with smiley fruit friends, Land of Nod’s Disguised as Fruit Snack Pouch makes for the perfect addition to any lunchbox. The organic cotton pouch holds every kind of lunchtime treat.
$16.95, landofnod.com

9. Budding Artiste
Help your child add an elegant splash of color to every poster and art project with Muji’s mini tube of 36 colored pencils. Packaged in recycled cardboard, these vibrant cedar scribblers are the perfect way to bring the rainbow to the classroom.
$11.25, muji.us

10. To Back It All Up
With a full course load comes plenty of typing, online research and tech-powered learning. Make sure your little one protects her hard work with Tokidoki’s Pantera Mimobot flash drive. This USB drive is available in two-gig and four-gig sizes.
$19.95-24.95, tokidoki.it

11. Write With Whimsy
Nothing can spoil a pop quiz like a dull pencil. Keep things sharp as can be with Gama-Go’s Unicorn Pencil Sharpener. This magical trinket will bring a pop of playfulness to any desktop and comes complete with a shimmery silver pencil.
$6, gama-go.com

12. The Academic Aesthetic
Say goodbye to messy backpacks and missing homework assignments. PB Teen’s sleek Gear-Up Houndstooth Homework Holder will assist your busy student in keeping track of every last note, list and assignment.
$25.50, pbteen.com

13. Keepin’ Clean
Pencils and books aren’t the only things that students bring back to school in September. Head lice outbreaks are common, so how can you prevent your child from having to deal with unwanted critters? Fairy Tales Hair Care’s Rosemary Repel Leave-In Conditioning Spray is clinically proven to repel lice without the use of harsh chemicals.
$11.95, available at Kidville locations in NYC and
fairytaleshaircare.com

14. Cafeteria Cutters
You better believe an adorably shaped sandwich or piece of fruit will encourage your little one to eat up come lunchtime. Bento accessories like these animal-shaped food cutters make lunchbox noshes cute enough to nibble for even the pickiest eaters.
$5.75, from-japan-with-love.com

15. Colorful Composition
Creative writing on-the-go has never been easier with these tiny, spiral-bound notebooks and matching Wild Notes pen, which infuses words with bursts of color. Stash one in your child’s book bag for when inspiration hits!
$4.99, crayola.com

Get more tips for back to school shopping at newyorkfamily.com

Students study Hebrew at another location of the Hebrew Charter Network.

A neighborhood that went to battle to fiercely oppose the opening of one charter school in the recent past is now set to welcome another with open arms.

The Hebrew Charter School Center is preparing to open its newest school in Community Education District 3, which covers the Upper West Side as well as parts of West and Central Harlem. Last year, many Upper West Side parents and politicians, as well as the community board and the Community Education Council (CEC), fought to keep a branch of the Success Academy Charter Network from opening there, mostly based on the fact that the school was to be co-located with the Brandeis High School complex.

Despite the vehement objections of education activists and two lawsuits, the school opened last fall and received 515 applications from within the district for 74 seats for the 2012-2013 school year.

But the Hebrew Charter school has received stamps of approval from the CEC and the community board and received its charter from the New York State Board of Regents in June, clearing the way for it to open in the fall of 2013 somewhere in southern Harlem. It will be called Harlem Hebrew Language Academy.

Mark Diller, chair of Community Board 7, said that one of the most attractive parts of the school’s application to the board was that it was committed to finding its own privately owned space and would not be co-located with an existing public school.

“It truly net adds seats rather than reallocating them,” Diller said in an email. “[The school also] has both a commitment to and a track record (at its sister school in Brooklyn) of encouraging applications from and actually enrolling and serving children with a variety of special needs, as well as English language learners.”

Diller said that the presentation made to the board focused on the value of bilingual education; how it can help those struggling with English as well as create a “level playing field” as all of the students learn Hebrew for the first time.

That element, the dual-language immersion program, is the other thing that sets the future school apart from other educational options in the neighborhood. The school will teach secular Hebrew, which board member David Gedzelman said is one of the ways they can attract a very diverse student body.

“We try to create integrated schools,” Gedzelman said. “We try to position our schools in geographic areas where the district itself is diverse so that we can create diversity.”

Gedzelman points to their school in Brooklyn, which he said has about 45 percent minority students, as an example of the makeup they hope to have for District 3.

“Our model of a dual-language program with modern Israeli Hebrew [means] there’s one constituency that naturally seeks out the school”—Jewish families—“and that helps to diversify the school,” he said.

Gedzelman said they’ve been working with churches and community-based organizations in Harlem to get the word out about the school and convince families that it’s not just for Jewish kids.

“Hebrew has gone through a lot of evolution over the last 30 years,” Gedzelman said. “It’s a modern secular language. It’s the language of the state of Israel, which has 7 million citizens—25 percent of the population is actually not Jewish.”

He said that Israel’s growing tech sector, as well as Technion—Israel Institute of Technology’s partnership with Cornell University to build a giant tech campus on Roosevelt Island in the next few years, makes Hebrew an attractive second language for any young children. One of the teachers at their Brooklyn school, an African American and a Muslim, learned Hebrew himself in order to teach gym classes in two languages, Gedzelman said.

The teaching model at the school will be based on immersive language learning as well as constant individualized assessment of students to tailor their learning. There will also be an emphasis on community service. The school plans to open with three sections of kindergarten students, 26 in each class. Its charter is currently K-5, but Gedzelman said they hope to expand up to 8th grade when they renew their charter.

Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, located at 1 Morris St. in the Financial District and headed by school master Drew Alexander, will be opening its doors to Newbery medal winning author Jack Gantos on May 9. Leman Manhattan Prep., which is a K-12 school, has both a Middle School/High School building at 1 Morris St., as well as a Lower School located at 41 Broad St. The Morris St. location opened in Sept. 2010, and is the first independent, nonsectarian below Canal Street.

Gantos will take part in various activities throughout the day centered on his book, Dead End in Norvelt, with different grades participating in different ways. Gantos will introduce himself to students’ parents to start the day, and meet the high schoolers and 8th graders thereafter to see their presentations on his book. After that, he’ll enjoy lunch in the school cafe with grades 4-6 while discussing his writing process as leading a writing workshop. The day will end with Gantos reading from his book to lower school students in the school library and an after-school book signing.

Mr. Gantos spent much of his childhood moving around the country and to the Caribbean, which aligns him with Léman Prep.’s own values, which include cultural diversity and global awareness.

By Dr. Emily Levy

As students progress through school, their organizational demands increase rapidly. They are required to complete lengthier assignments, take detailed notes, study for exams and transport more materials. For many students, these organizational demands can be daunting, and they often become lost and utterly disorganized in this process.

Most students lack a system for consistently organizing all of their papers, notes, handouts and tests. By learning and implementing the three-tier organizational system below, students will become much more organized and systematic with all of the loose papers that come their way.

So how does it work?

The three-tier notebook organization system is composed of the following three parts: a working notebook, reserve notebook a and long-term filing drawer.

The Working Notebook. This is the notebook that should be taken to school on a regular basis. It can be set up in the form of one three-ring binder with separate tabs for each class or in the form of one color-coded spiral notebook (for taking notes) and one folder (for handouts and homework) for each class. What is most important about the working notebook, however, is that it only contains papers that your child absolutely needs to be carrying with him to school.

One day per week (you should help your child choose this day and have him write it down directly in his assignment book each week) will be designated as his clean-out-my-working-notebook-day. On this day, he will clean out all the papers that he no longer needs to take to school with him and file them in his reserve notebook.

The Reserve Notebook. The reserve notebook should actually take the form of a large, multisection accordion folder. For each class, there will be three sections in the accordion folder: one for homework, one for class notes and one for tests or quizzes. For example, for math, your child would have sections labeled “math homework,” “math class notes” and “math tests/quizzes.” He would have similar sections for English, science, social studies, and all other classes. Remember that the working notebook should be cleaned out and transferred to the reserve notebook on a weekly basis.

The Long-Term Filing Drawer. At the end of the semester or school year, if your child has written a stellar essay, completed a notable project or scored sky-high on a particular exam, you may want to save this work for the long-run. This information should be placed into a filing drawer for long-term safekeeping (you should be in charge of this drawer).

You might want to help your child set up this system and encourage him to maintain it on a regular basis. Within weeks you’ll notice that your child is more organized, structured, and systematic in his approach to managing his loose papers and his overall workload.

Dr. Emily Levy is the founder and director of EBL Coaching (www.eblcoaching.com) which offers tutoring and organizational coaching.

Upper West Side parents and members of Community Board 7 demanded construction of a school at the Riverside Center development that would be large enough to alleviate crowding problems in District 3.

“Overcrowding in the southern district has reached crisis proportions,” said Noah Gotbaum, president of District 3’s Community Education Council, which covers the West Side from 59th Street up to Harlem.

The parent council, along with Community Board 7 and the District 3 President’s Council, organized a public hearing May 24 at P.S. 199. The meeting was part of the 60-day public hearing period for Riverside Center, after which Board 7 will make a non-binding recommendation regarding the entire project. That process began after the Department of City Planning certified the project May 24. A City Council vote, which is scheduled for September, will ultimately approve, reject or modify the project. That decision will likely be heavily influenced by residents’ opinions.

“This is your opportunity to have a voice,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer at the meeting. “We cannot think small. We have to stay big.”

Stringer’s office will also issue an advisory opinion on the development.

Extell Development Co., Riverside Center’s developer, has committed to a school as part of the massive project in part to appeal to residents who might object to the plan. Extell is obligated as part of the proposal to build out the school to 75,000 square feet. The city has the option to pay for additional space, up to a total of 150,000 square feet.

“The 150,000-square-foot school is planned to be in one of the first two buildings built and its size is what was specifically requested by the city’s School Construction Authority,” said George Arzt, spokesman for Extell.

The entire Riverside Center includes five buildings spanning West 59th to 61st streets between West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard, with a proposed 2,500 residential units. The project also includes retail space, a hotel and parking lots, and is expected to be completed in 2018. An exact completion date for the school portion is undecided.

Parents want the school to be large enough to accommodate kindergarten through 8th grade, with six classes per grade, totaling more than 1,000 students. They also want outdoor playground space, cafeterias, gymnasiums, computer labs and science and art facilities. Support for these initiatives was virtually unanimous at the hearing, but it’s unclear whether the current design could accommodate all those amenities. There is also no designated outdoor play space for children in the current design, something that parents want.

Currently, some District 3 elementary schools, like P.S. 199 and P.S. 87, have waitlists, while others are near capacity. Students who manage to get into overcrowded schools have to eat lunch as early as 10 a.m., parents said. Separate departments are forced to share classrooms because of lack of space, and one parent even reported “rampant lice” due to crowded closets at P.S. 84, which is at 97 percent capacity.

The spike in enrollment can be partly attributed to the many residential buildings that have been developed in the area. Those include a 19-story rental tower at 200 W. 72nd St. and Broadway, and a 42-story building at 150 Amsterdam Ave. and West 67th Street, which brought around 500 rental units to market, according to Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, co-president of the PTA at P.S. 199. Her school has grown from 537 to 735 students in the last five years, with a kindergarten class that has almost doubled in size.

“If you are going to build a large high rise—or 10—in a neighborhood, you need to build schools,” she said.

Board 7 also wants 20 percent of the residential units in the development to be affordable housing, up from the planned 12 percent. The board has also proposed landmarking the Con Edison IRT Powerhouse and creating more open space.

More public hearings on Riverside Center are scheduled for June and July.

Last year, art teacher Nick Kozak noticed that faculty members kept talking about updating the plaza, but no one had any specific ideas. He had always wanted to implement an architecture unit in his studio arts class, and after asking the principals of each of the schools on campus what they envisioned, he decided to give his students the task of redesigning the space.

Mike Lin, a student at Manhattan Hunter High School for Science, conceived this design for the campus plaza.

Kozak was most excited to present his class with a reality-based project.

“This is actually being discussed, this is not just some lesson conceived out of nothingness,” he recalled telling his students. “I wanted them to go through the steps that an actual architectural firm would have to go through.”

Kozak broke the class into groups of three and asked them to think about all aspects of the space, keeping in mind that it would serve not just their high school, but all of the schools in the building, as well as the community.

Principal Susan Kreisman said the goal is to create a “space that announced both who inhabited the building, which really hasn’t existed, and also a space which was inviting and welcoming.”

Some basic upgrades are also needed. Benches in the plaza are worn down and arranged so that a larger space cannot be created.

“That front plaza is horrific. [The benches have] been the bane of my existence since it was built,” said Council Member Gale Brewer, who has supported the project. “It’s all in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King, but you’d never know it.”

Brewer, along with the schools’ principals and the firm Handel Architects LLP, judged the students’

Benches are worn down and arranged so that a larger space cannot be created in the plaza. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

designs in March. The plans were evaluated for aesthetics, the use of green technology, unification of the space, use of open areas and other criteria. Some ideas included a hydroponic wall (similar to the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center), bringing in large boulders for visual interest and seating, and making the front entrance more handicap accessible.

Many of these suggestions have been incorporated into the recommendations Brewer’s office has sent to the School Construction Authority, seeking funds for the renovation.

While students expected a quick turnaround on the project, Kozak has reminded them that it’s a long process. Still, he was impressed with their level of engagement and is thrilled to see the proposals moving forward.

“It really went beyond the surface of just a place for people to walk around,” he said of the students’ designs. “It made me swell with pride.”

Jewish Home Lifecare, based on West 106th Street, generated some controversy last year when administrators announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art nursing facility on West 100th Street. The organization originally planned to renovate the facility on its current property, but when the economic downturn made it difficult to find a partner developer, Jewish Home swapped its West 106th Street property with Joseph Chetrit, a developer who owned the West 100th Street parcel that will soon become the organization’s nursing facility.

Planning ahead, P.S. 163 school officials and parents are looking to Jewish Home Lifecare for needed space. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Parents are concerned that the hundreds of new residential units built near the school in the past decade could bring in new students to a building that is overcapacity. Students are already using trailers behind the school for additional space.

“It makes a nice space for now, but we’re looking 10 years down the road,” said Carrie Reynolds, co-president of the school’s Parent Teacher Association.

One development proposal would include constructing a new Bloomingdale Library branch inside the nursing facility. A sheltered walkway behind the school would allow P.S. 163 students to get from their building, at 163 W. 97th St. between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, to Jewish Home’s planned facility on West 100th Street.

“It would be a natural situation to take full advantage of that library,” Reynolds said. “I know the library is very excited to work with a school closely.”

The new library would be built partly on the current parking lot, abutting the existing library branch. Moving the footprint of the library away from the parking lot would allow for more open public space, according to Ethan Geto, a spokesperson for Jewish Home Lifecare.

In another proposal, the new facility could be used for pre-K programming, kindergarten classes or music and art rooms, though the library proposal is the frontrunner.

“We’re ready to do it, we can do it in this building, but we’ll have to look together to see where we can get the public funding,” Geto said.

The plan is only in the discussion stage. Exactly how much and what kind of space Jewish Home can provide to students has yet to be determined. But it’s clear that Jewish Home and the P.S. 163 community will have to do this without money from the Department of Education. The department has not allocated funds to the northern part of the school district, which is underutilized compared to the heavily crowded southern part. But that could change when capital funding plans are updated each year.

Money for the project, however, could come from local elected officials, including Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell. Both are supportive of working with Jewish Home to find more space for the school. n

The department is planning to start three kindergarten classes at the school, but the parent council wants that number increased to five. The move, the parent council argues, would help ease pressure at nearby crowded schools, especially P.S. 87 and P.S. 199, both of which are far above capacity. The department, however, shot down the proposal, saying at an impassioned Feb. 24 meeting that I.S. 44’s facilities could not support any more children.

Per department guidelines for any significant changes to school buildings, the Panel for Education Policy will have a final hearing to approve the new school April 13.

When P.S. 452 opens this fall, the I.S. 44 building (above) will house a total of five schools. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The new school would at least temporarily share space with four other schools: the Anderson School, which will shrink from three classes a year to two; the Computer School; J.H.S. 44, which is being phased out; and West Prep Middle School, which is expected to relocate in September 2011. Elizabeth Rose, a representative from the department’s office of portfolio planning, stressed at the meeting that the new arrangement would be a tight squeeze.

“Even though we relocated West Prep to another facility, the school’s capacities don’t change,” Rose said. “We can’t open five kindergartens. Three is the maximum capacity we can fit in this building.”

P.S. 452 is not accepting direct applications for the 2010-2011 school year. Families are being instructed to apply to their zoned school and once the March 12 deadline for kindergarten applications passes and schools process new students, the department will work with the parent council to decide how P.S. 452’s seats should be distributed.

Deborah Lopez, a parent with a child at Anderson, agreed that though demand far outstripped supply, the department should limit the number of P.S. 452 classes to three.

“The new school is welcome in this building,” she said. “But please understand that five schools is a lot of schools in this one building and children in all the schools are going to be affected.”

Lopez worried that the arrangement would adversely impact children’s access to the gym, libraries and the playground.

But many other parents were dissatisfied with the plans, and accused the city of not doing enough to address population growth and subsequent school overcrowding.

“The new school is a stop-gap measure, but it is not really stopping any gaps,” said Noah Gotbaum, chair of the parent council.

He noted that that while 75 families would have access to the new school, there would still be at least 200 other families who won’t be able to send their kids to zoned schools this coming school year.

“Parents deserve to get elementary seats in the zone where they live, or where their kids go to school,” he said.

One idea that has been floated is to relocate the Anderson School, a gifted program that has citywide admissions and could, in theory, be sited anywhere.

But the department rejected the idea of moving Anderson, which was previously housed on West 84th Street with P.S. 9.

“Our recent actions in District 3, including the relocation of the Anderson School, have resulted in a significant gain in elementary school seats for the district. We believe the Anderson School is currently in a facility extremely well suited to the needs of its students and the community, and it would not be productive to move the school twice in such a short period of time,” said Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, a department spokesperson, in an email.

Eric Shuffler, who is looking for a kindergarten spot for his child, said the overcrowding issue is an “insult to parents.” Marcy Drogin, a prospective parent at P.S. 87, added it was “unacceptable” that the school was crowded and demanded there be enough seats at P.S. 87 to serve all local families.

“I would say that parents have grown weary of the DOE’s opaque processes, poor planning and short term solutions,” said Beth Servetar, co-president of the Parent’s Association at P.S. 87, which functions at 120 percent capacity.

Gary Anthony Ramsay, a former NY1 reporter and prospective P.S. 199 parent, was annoyed at the department’s suggestion that parents be patient, should their child be waitlisted at a school.

“In this economy, no one is going to move away or put their kid in a private school,” he said. “This is our version of the Titanic,” he continued. “The iceberg has already hit the ship—when are we going to make things happen?”