P.S. 234 Principal Says There Is No Room for Pre-k in Fall by Etta Sanders It was a neighborhood rite of spring-parents lining up in the dark of night or anxiously awaiting the results of a lottery to get one of the 36 coveted spots in P.S. 234's pre-k classes. But next year there will be no pre-k at the school. With the student population growing annually, it is likely that the classes for four-year-olds will be suspended until construction of a school annex is completed. The annex is projected to open in the fall of 2007. The news caught some parents by surprise. "I have a three-year-old daughter I expected would go to pre-k," said J.C. Chmiel, who also has a 4th-grader in the school. "We haven't done anything else. Now we have to scramble." The school has had to add one class each year for the past two years. Nearly 130 students have already registered for September's kindergarten class, requiring the school to come up with another classroom. The current pre-k classroom was itself converted from offices two years ago. That room, which is too small to be a regular classroom, will become the art room and the art room will become a classroom. Other public schools in the neighborhood offer no relief. P.S. 89 in Battery Park City is in a different zone. P.S. 150 has decided to switch from two half-day pre-k classes to one full day class in the fall, reducing the number of spots by half. Pre-k classes at both schools are fully enrolled for the fall. One parent of a kindergartner at P.S. 234, who asked not to be named, said she had thought there was no question that her younger son would be admitted to the pre-k in the fall because siblings were given preference. Now she is searching for another school. She is also facing the unexpected expense of private pre-school tuition, if she can find one with space. "I am so angry that this neighborhood encourages so much development and uses the school as bait and there is just no way to accommodate these kids," she said. P.S. 234 principal Sandy Bridges sad she was sorry to lose the pre-k, but that there was little choice. Pre-k is not a mandatory class, but the school must accommodate all children from kindergarten through 5th-grade who live in the school's zone. "It's not in my power," she said. "I can't close kindergarten."