P.S.276 Crowding Petition

Less than three years old—and yet to have 5th graders move into its classrooms, PS/IS 276 is already nearly full. So parents at the school in southern Battery Park City have started a petition, calling on the Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to limit the number of kindergartners entering the school next year to three classes, the number that the building was intended to accommodate.

In 2010, the year the building opened, P.S. 276 took in four classes of kindergartners. The next two years, the Department of Education ordered the school to open five classrooms.  

"Because of these short-sighted decisions, 28 of our 29 classrooms are already full, with 5th grade set to open in our building next year," the parents said in a statement. "Class sizes are nearing their maximum, yet, as of October 1, 2012, our Kindergarten is still 65% over capacity, 1st grade is 17% over capacity and 2nd grade is 14% over capacity."

The parents say that space for pre-k, art and music classes are threatened by the crowding.

Echoing a call by Lower Manhattan parents over the years, the petition is asking the city to provide interim classroom space to relieve the immediate crunch as well as build new schools in Lower Manhattan.

The DOE has declined to comment on capacity issues at individual schools. But officials have repeatedly said that it does not determine its analysis of capacity based on a school-by-school or community board area basis. Rather, it looks at capacity over a wider geographic area.

"We are on track to meet the growing demand for school seats in Lower Manhattan," DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg told the Trib in October, citing an additional 700 seats opening at the Peck Slip school in 2015. DOE officials have also said that P.S. 1, a school in Chinatown that they say has extra capacity, is also a potential option for Lower Manhattan children.

As of Wednesday at noon, Nov. 28, nearly 250 people had signed the online petition.