Days of Darkness and Thunder in P.S. 234

By Etta Sanders
MAY 3, 2006

The floor shakes, the sunlight is gone and it's pretty stuffy. That's what it's like inside the classrooms at P.S. 234 since a sound-buffering wall was erected last month alongside the school and pile drivers started pounding at a construction site across the street. "It's like there's a giant walking around outside," 1st-grader Aidan Conley said of the steady thumping and vibration.
The wall runs the length and height of the school on Warren Street. Built of three-quarter-inch plywood on the outside and lined with five-eighth-inch soundproofing material, it is painted a cheerful sky blue on the street side and a dull battleship grey on the side facing the school's windows. The wall is the result of an agreement forged between City Councilman Alan Gerson and Minskoff Equities, the developer of Site 5B to the south of the school, to dampen the noise from the pile driving during school hours. The work is expected to last six to eight weeks. "It stinks, but it's not tragic," said Sandy Bridges, P.S. 234's principal. "We can still function." The good news is that the wall does seem to be keeping down the noise. "The feedback I've gotten is that the noise from the pile driving is significantly reduced," said Kevin Doherty, PTA president at the school. "I think it's been an effective measure." But the vibration and the loss of light and air have had an effect on both students and teachers. In Lauren Brown's 4th-grade class, the overheads used for math lessons last month shook so much they were hard to read. Students said the vibration was distracting. "It's really annoying," said Rei Nagaoka, 10. "When I'm reading, the table shakes and I lose my place. We can't concentrate on what we're doing."

Peter Manny said it was also hard to write. "Sometimes when we're writing the ground shakes and our pencils go all over the place," he said.

Kindergartners had a different take on the situation. Abby Kerlin said her class looked out the window and saw the gray of the wall, then they heard the rumble of pile driving and imagined that there was always a thunderstorm.

"The light is definitely what we miss. Every day feels sort of gloomy," Kerlin said, adding, "but I'm impressed with how much sound it's keeping out."
One effect of having to keep the windows closed prompted a letter home from the principal about personal hygiene. "This is the time of year when children in the upper grades in particular experience the beginning of physical changes that result in body odor," the letter stated. "I have asked Jackie Cooke to incorporate this into the health curriculum in coming weeks, but any support from home will be most appreciated."

And then there are the eggs. This is the time of year when 1st-graders study chicks by incubating eggs until they hatch.

"We're worried the vibration will affect the viability of the chicks," Bridges said. "I've got my fingers crossed for the chicks."