P.S. 89 Parents Eye Solutions to Crowding

By Etta Sanders
POSTED FEB. 2, 2007

Schools over pools. That was the message sent by P.S. 89 parents at a town hall meeting held by Community Board 1 last month to measure support for carving 10,000 square feet out of the planned Battery Park City community center to create more classrooms for P.S. 89.

At the meeting in the school’s auditorium, dozens of frustrated parents expressed their concern over growing class sizes, especially a fourth grade class with 34 students. When asked if they would support an annex at the community center, nearly every hand was raised. Some parents even suggested that in a neighborhood of luxury residential buildings that have their own pools and gyms, that the entire 50,000 square foot community center space be used for the school.

“This community does not need a pool. This community needs a school,” said a parent, Linda Epstein.

CB1, along with school representatives, will start investigating the annex possibility in the coming weeks. At the same time, efforts intensified to secure a site for a new school in the southern part of Battery Park City known as Site 2B, a location previously earmarked for a women’s museum and conference center. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents Battery Park City, sent a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein recommending that the site be considered for a school.

James Cavanaugh, president of the Battery Park City Authority, said the Authority needs more information from the Department of Education (DOE) before considering a school for the site.

“If they want to use our space and work with us we’re more than open to discussing it,” he said, “but we’re not in the business of determining the educational needs of the city.”

Cavanaugh said the Authority has spoken “informally” to the DOE about sharing community center space with P.S. 89. “The initial sense is that they would much rather locate in a new school rather than an annex,” he said.

Ronnie Najjar, the P.S. 89 principal, said the school is 15 students over capacity. While the parents see the school as bursting at the seams, the DOE said the school is not even full. “P.S. 89 is an elementary school that is underutilized. It is not overcrowded,” DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said in an e-mail.

Designs for the long planned 50,000 square foot community center, to be located at the base of a new residential building near the ballfields, are 95 percent completed, according to Anthony Notaro, who chairs CB1’s Battery Park City community center task force. “Even down to where a little stroller parking area will go. That’s how much detail we’ve got,” he said.

DOE rules would require that a school annex have a separate space with its own entrance. Reducing the size of the community center by 20 percent would mean “a major redesign,” Notaro said. “It sounds simple enough to say let’s just take 10,000 square feet. There’s a big ripple effect.”

Nor would an annex alleviate what is expected to be a growing school population in the next two years when nearly 1,000 new Battery Park City apartments will be ready for occupancy. The community center is not expected to be ready before 2009 or 2010.

“The annex is not a short-term solution.  Our PTA is considering proposing several short-term options. For example: Laptop computers rather than a computer lab are one way to make more space,” Dennis Gault, P.S. 89 PTA president, said in an e-mail. Another parent suggested building out into the schoolyard and putting a playground on the roof.

Notaro said that while more classrooms are needed, the community center is intended to serve a broader community. Taking away space could mean losing a teen lounge or classes for seniors. “We have a serious problem at the elementary school level. We also have a serious problem with teens,” he said.

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