No room for new students

Five-year-olds are relegated to waiting lists as schools fill up fast

By Kate McNeil

Even though she can see PS 24 from her apartment window, a local mother is worried that the school will not have a spot for her son this fall.

When she tried to register her son for kindergarten on April 15, the school's administration apologized, told her classes were capped and wrote her name on the waiting list. A waiting list? For a public school a block away from her home? The mother was appalled.

Unfortunately, it's a grim reality for Riverdale parents - top local schools simply don't have room for the flood of families moving to the area.

"I moved here for the schools," the distressed mother said. "How can I live my summer with this uncertainty?"

PS 24 officials told the mother they haven't seen a demand like this in 25 years.

"This is a new development," said Principal Philip Scharper. "We are working on a plan to accommodate the change."

On March 10, PS 24 and the Robert J. Christen School, PS 81, opened registration for their five kindergarten classes on a first-come, first-served basis. With classrooms capped at 25 students, both local schools have room for 125 students. As of Friday, 111 kindergartners were registered at PS 81 and Principal Melodie Mashel expects a waiting list to develop soon.

"We will have similar issues" with overcrowding, said Ms. Mashel. "And it's a trend that's going to get worse."

For the past three years, PS 81 has had a waiting list for kindergarten spots. To accommodate a 130 kindergartners last year, the school hired an additional kindergarten teacher to meet studentto- teacher ratio requirements. But extra hands might not be an option for PS 24.

"We're facing budget cuts," Mr. Scharper reminded. "There are some tough decisions to be made."

Ms. Mashel said development in Riverdale brings an influx of families, vying for spots at the top public schools. Last year, the school's fifth-grade classes were so full, four students were bussed to classes at PS 24, where there was more room.

"Unfortunately I can't reciprocate," Ms. Mashel said of PS 24's situation.

The mother on PS 24's waiting list was not alone in blaming the local building boom for her plight.

"Elementary school boundaries rule Riverdale real estate," said Annmarie Hunter, mother of an incoming kindergartner.

The Hunter family moved to Riverdale from Manhattan last summer and only looked at apartments in the PS 24 zone.

"We understand people want the best education for their children and we're proud they are interested in our school," Mr. Scharper said. "There's only so much we can do inside the school."

Although Mr. Scharper said there is usually some "attrition" to the registration roll - with families moving away in the summer - he does not have "clarity as to what will happen" in the fall.

Concrete answers won't come until September, said Andy Jacob, a spokesman for the city Department of Education.

If a school is full, they notify the DOE's Office of Student Enrollment, which creates a capping plan that sends the waiting-list students to other schools in the district.

The city's slowness in allotting slots to gifted and talented students has exacerbated the uncertainty for some parents. The mother on PS 24's waiting list said she had held back registering her son because she was waiting to hear from the city's gifted and talented programs.

Kindergartners who score in the top three percent on the admissions tests are eligible for enrollment in three Manhattan gifted schools.

Parents were promised replies by the end of March, but the department delayed the response to the end of April.

For now, the only reassurances she has are the first spot on the waiting list and an invitation to kindergarten orientation on June 4.