By Gus Saltonstall
A group of West Prep Academy students, parents, and community members gathered this week to protest the New York City Department of Education’s (DOE’s) plan to relocate the public middle school after 13 years in the same Upper West Side building.
Members of the school community, joined by the National Parents Union, met on Tuesday in their specialized playground at 150 West 105th Street to demand a stop to the proposed move to the old Ascension School building at 220 West 108th Street for the upcoming school year.
“We want equity. We want accessibility,” said Tyi Ellis, West Prep Academy PTA president. “We want safety for our children. We want to make sure that they have adequate resources to make sure that they continue to achieve greatness.”
West Prep Academy, which shares its building with P.S. 145 The Bloomingdale [Elementary] School, currently has both a large yard and access to the Bloomingdale Inclusive Park and Playground, which has state-of-the-art equipment designed specifically for children of all abilities and needs.
West Prep Academy currently serves around 170 students between sixth and eighth grades, including children from the DOE’s Autism Nest Program, and has more than 40 percent of its population made up of special-education students.
The 108th Street school building has no dedicated outdoor space and a shared gym/auditorium.
“I don’t want us to move. And the cafeteria looks like a prison,” said Logan, a West Prep Academy sixth-grade student. “It’s not fair because we didn’t get the option to choose whether or not we wanted to leave.”
The Panel for Education Policy was scheduled to take a final vote on the school relocation at the end of March, but the date was pushed back until May 22.
The DOE has stated that the West Prep Academy relocation will allow both schools (P.S. 145 as well) to grow their enrollments and have access to additional space that they don’t currently have.
“We never asked for more space,” Cidalia Costa, a faculty member at West Prep Academy, previously told West Side Rag.
West Prep Academy community members have also created a petition to “stop the displacement of West Prep children.”
“Now is the time to act! Please help us save West Prep from being removed from our beautiful space located in the heart of our community,” reads the petition, which has been signed by 2,100 people. “As a parent, student, former student, and/or supporter of West Prep Academy, I am deeply concerned about the proposed displacement of hundreds of children from their beloved school building to an inadequate facility.”
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I don’t have an opinion whether the school should be moved or not. But why is the move being done before the end of the school year. Wouldn’t it make more sense and be less disruptive to the stiudents and teachers to do the move at the very beginning of the school year. Start the school year in a new building.
Why is there so much fuss about West Prep moving from 105th St & Amsterdam to 108th St & Amsterdam?!? It’s 3 streets away!
The school administration may not have asked for more space, but I60-170 students is not enough to offer the classes that should be available in middle school,,.like languages and band. OK, the Ascension building doesn’t have an outdoor playground, but it does have a huge indoor gymnasium. Somebody please explain why autistic kids need access to the Bloomingdale playground, which is designed for wheelchair access.
This all sounds like people who can not deal with change (and who understandably don’t trust the DOE). The elementary school needs room to grow, and middle schools sharing a building with elementary kids isn’t ideal anyway.
And Joey…I am positive NY Public Schools is not proposing moving kids mid-year. They do not do anything that fast. If the CEC & PEP approves it, it won’t happen til fall at the absolute earliest.
Maybe West Prep staff don’t want all the hassle of packing up? Moving is a lot of work.