Gale Brewer (left) and Helen Rosenthal.
Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council member Helen Rosenthal said the recent hearings over how to rezone Upper West Side elementary schools were “meaningless” because parents and local officials didn’t have access to all the information they need.
“At best, this is a show of bad faith,” they wrote in a joint letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina.
The Department of Education has floated two proposals to rezone local schools to make them more diverse, and to ease overcrowding at popular schools. Officials also indicated they were working on a third option, presumably to address worries from parents at PS 452, which could be forced to move. But they have not released a map of zoning lines for that third option.
Brewer and Rosenthal’s letter, sent before two public hearings on Sept. 17 and 19 that drew large crowds of parents, indicates that the third plan does exist and has been shared with principals. But it hasn’t been available to parents.
“On September 14, the Office of District Planning shared that they are now working on a third potential rezoning scenario that will include P.S. 452 “possibly” staying in its current building. Additionally, schools in the northern part of the district will be rezoned. While the principals of the schools in this new scenario have seen “Scenario C”, we were told that there would be no new scenario map until the September 28th Special Meeting of the Community Education Council (CEC).”
Local politicians have attended the zoning meetings or sent their staff, but they’ve generally avoided taking specific positions on the contours of a potential rezoning. The city’s last attempt to rezone local schools failed amid an uproar from some parents who would lose access to their preferred schools.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Read the full letter here.
But what does dannyboy think about all of this?
Ken M, thank you for you consideration…
“The city’s last attempt to rezone local schools failed amid an uproar from some parents who would lose access to their preferred schools.”
Can’t have parents lose access to their preferred schools, can we. Unacceptable!
(Ken, I am trying to learn to use sarcasm, that’s what is called ‘snark’ these days?
How long has this been going on for?
For how many years now have there been serious issue with PS 191, PS 199, PS 87, PS 452…?
For how many decades has the Department of Education failed at its job?
Wow!
Admittedly I don’t know the process –but since PS 199 is such a coveted school, why can’t the city make it bigger? I say this cause it is on a very very wide street and they could extend the building.
So now it’s the DoE’s decision?
no part played by the parents?
Then a decision will be made immediately
Well it certainly is not the Department of Sanitation!
I would think that given the word “Education” is part of their name, that the DOE would be the one responsible for this. Of course that would include the mayor as well. There needs to be some leadership, some ownership, some adults in the room.
Years, if not a decade into this, and the problems persist. PS 191, PS 199, PS 87, PS 452… all have major issues that continue to somehow not be resolved.
agree, then let’s agree that the DoEDUCATION Proposal is Final. Great ending to a long drawn-out process.
“I guess the fact that education around NYC is in the gutter is a reflection of that – of the fact the DOE is not as competent…”
thank you for clarifying your position
I would tend and want to agree and frankly don’t know enough of the DOEs proposal, but, I also know that the DOE has mis-handled many issues in the past and thus is by no means smart and constructive in its initiatives. I guess the fact that education around NYC is in the gutter is a reflection of that – of the fact the DOE is not as competent as it should be. Thus, parents may very well have a logical reason to oppose the DOE, as would perhaps any more competent and logical and astute person.
These politicians “generally avoided taking specific positions”.
Ha!
Rosenthal and Brewer are supposed to be so “progressive” and so are their constituents.
Once parents find out their kids might have to go to school with kids from the projects they’re suddenly a bit less progressive.
This is why no politician will go near this controversy.
State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, Congressman Nadler and State Senator Brad Hoylman have chosen who they represent and who their constituency is.
And they aren’t those who need help.
The DOE has failed miserably with PS 191, and they have failed the children at 191. I put 100% of the blame on the DOE and the district 3 Superintendent Ilene Altschul. It is unacceptable that the children at 191 have to wait until their school has more white middle class children in order to get a better education. The DOE should have flooded that school with resources as soon as the DOE learned of the abysmal test scores at 191. They should have had more student teachers from colleges and grad schools to help the children, broken out into smaller reading groups, etc. The SuUperintendent has never taken any responsibility to improve 191, she continually states that more white middle class children will solve the problem, she tells parents to go to the school and make it better. No Superintendent, you make it better. Even if more white middle class children went to the school , what happens to the current population at 191, they get left behind. It is so unfair to the children at 191, and the DOE has the sole responsibility to improve the education at the school. The difference between a good school and a school with low test scores can’t be the money the parents raise. This is public education and every child deserves to good education, not just the ones where the parents raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. The superintendent should get out of the way, step down and let someone else with more ability and desire take over.
What about parents in the local pubvlic housing?
I’m hearing that there is going to be a rally tomorrow at 185 West End Avenue to urge the DOE not to split up Lincoln Towers in any rezoning plan. The rally is going to be led by State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, Congressman Nadler and State Senator Brad Hoylman.
Glad to see our local politicians getting involved. And we wonder why the state only extended mayoral control over public schools for 1 year.
Why should Lincoln Towers all go to 199? This isn’t about proximity since the northern boundary or 199 blocks out some buildings closer than the southernmost Lincoln Towers buildings. Why, in the eyes of Public School, would Lincoln Towers residents be more important than any others? If you want to hand pick the student body open your own private school.
You’re disgusted by residents complaining about what they see as unfairness in the DOE’s zoning plans that do not make sense and which are not supported by any published data?? Aren’t individuals in a community allowed to voice their opinions when it comes to unfairness? I believe your disgust is misplaced. Lincoln Towers residents are upset that children in their community in neighboring buildings are getting split apart by zoning plans that favor newly developed luxury high rise buildings, including a 51 story building, which has not even been built yet. Not to mention, plans that expand the zone north to include luxury buildings that were never in the zone (whereas the proposed zoning plans exclude two Lincoln Towers buildings nearly across the street from PS199). Yet, the DOE states their proposed zoning plans increase socioeconomic diversity and reduce overcrowding while taking into account travel distance. Something just doesn’t seem right.
Must be a lot of votes and campaign contributions come out of Lincoln Towers then.
NYCHA-run Amsterdam Houses maybe not-so-much?
Helen Rosenthal doesn’t care about 452, 199 or 191 parents, her kids go to private school.
It makes me utterly sick how Helen Rosenthal makes suck blatant political calculations when deciding which causes she will weigh in on.
Its easy to attack the DOE. But she turned her back on me and my family when we came to her for help because there were no votes to be gained.
I will NEVER forget my experience with Helen and Marissa and will rejoice when the UWS is finally rid of them.
Unfortunately, Helen Rosenthal spends most of her time pandering to folks like dannyboy by promising to protect their entitled rent controlled apartments.
She knows this is where the votes are.
She won’t waste her time on anybody else.
Shamir and other boys,
I have asked you not to repeat this lie many times. I have requested that you not demand that I prove myself innocent (what countries allow such personal attacks?).
I will no longer respond to your Birther-like accusations.
I know you boys have created this Birther knockoff and are all excited by your new toy.
But don’t get too excited because lying this way is neither original or clever.
It’s lying, plain-and-simple.
I agree that this is a funding issue. P.s. 191 Should NOT have a middle school. They have the least $ and have to split the resources they have from PreK-8?! That’s a lot of different needs to cover with a low budget. They need different electronic programs. They need different play structures. They need different books.
The “good schools” have enough PTA funds to pay for classroom assistants. P.s. 191 can’t afford them past PreK. “Good” schools have assistants in Kindergarten and even beyond. “Good” schools supplement school lunch with healthier options.
They have cooking classes, karate, yoga, well funded music & arts programs. P.S. 191 doesn’t. And it’s 100% Cash based.
There’s a lot that could be improved quickly by throwing $$ @ underperforming schools. 191 is no different. And yes, that’s our politicians who can fix this aspect, and quickly.
We just choose not to fully fund schools, and it’s a trickle down apathy at the federal, state, and local level.
I agree that P.S. 191’s situation would drastically improve if the middle split off from the elementary. Principal Lauren is trying really hard, but managing 10 grades is really too much.
I think the DOE would be hard pressed to name one high or even medium performing prek-8 school in District 3. It is an outmoded model that discourages kids from considering a broad range of middle schools in the area like WESS or Computer School.
Even worse, it creates a system where only the parents and administrators really care about the grades and test scores in the elementary grades. The kids get into their school’s middle regardless.
The elementary students of P.S. 191 need to be encouraged to try to get into the best middle school that they can. Then they need to be given the supports needed to set their learning targets to make it happen.
It’s not easy to compete against middle and upper class families, but with the current situation these possibilities are not even on their radar. The DOE is perpetuating class inequalities with the prek to 8 model and it has to stop!
Oops- I meant only the teachers and administrators care