Officials Give Details on the New School

By Etta Sanders

Department of Education officials revealed the first details of the planned 100,000-square-foot Beekman Street school, from the ground-floor cafeteria to the rooftop play area, at a public forum on May 24.

Region 9’s Mario Guzman, left, and Gabriel Feldberg at the school forum. Allan Tannenbaum

The forum, sponsored by Community Board 1, also gave neighborhood parents a chance to ask questions about zoning, curriculum, and what will happen to the burgeoning student population until the new school’s projected opening in the fall of 2008.

One of the biggest questions was whether the school will be a single k-8 or separate elementary and middle schools. Mariano Guzman, deputy superintendent of Region 9, said it is too soon to know.

Several neighborhood parents argued for a k-8.

“If we don’t do a k-8 we’re incorporating another problem when we get to middle school, because we’ll have all these children and they will still need a school,” said Ann DiFalco.
One of the biggest challenges, Guzman said, is determining just how many school-age children will be living Downtown.

The community board is forming a task force to get a better handle on that number by contacting landlords and realtors.

Andrew Weinstein, a P.S. 234 parent, asked what will happen in the next few years as families with children move into hundreds of new apartments Downtown before the new school opens.

“I’m glad to see you’re addressing the long-term problem, but we’ve also got a short-term crisis,” he said.

While few answers were offered on issues of curriculum and zoning, officials provided more information about the planned layout for the school.

It will have a science lab, a library, a 300-seat auditorium, a 5,400-square-foot gym and a smaller gym geared to four- and five-year-olds.

The roof will provide the school’s only outdoor space, a 5,400-square- foot play area.

The entrance to the school will likely be on Spruce Street, but where buses will be able to pull over and safely drop off children is yet to be determined.

There will be no space around the school entrance except for a public plaza between the school and NYU Downtown Hospital. Guzman said that the Department of Education had to work within the site’s limitations.

Gregory Shaw of the city’s School Construction Authority said that the construction schedule will be tight even for the projected fall 2008 opening, but community officials are hopeful that the process will move quickly because the developer, Forest City Ratner, will be doing the full build-out.

Architect Frank Gehry will design the shell of the building, but a different architect, one who specializes in schools, will design the interior.

The school’s name has not been decided, Guzman said.

CB1 member Tom Goodkind suggested a number that fits neatly between that of other local schools, P.S. 234 and P.S. 89: P.S. 567.