Parents petition to nix construction
Denouncing a plan to sacrifice a playground to construct a four-story addition, parents at the Sheila Mencher Van Cortlandt School, PS/MS 95, are circulating a petition asking that the idea be scrapped.
They are concerned about losing a playground, but they are particularly furious that most of the new classrooms won't serve their children.
Instead, three of the four floors in the new building will house students of the AmPark Neighborhood School, an alternative school founded last year by a committee of parents and educators at the Amalgamated-Park Reservoir Housing Cooperatives.
The new building will rise on PS/MS 95's small playground, east of the Hillman Avenue entrance. Plans call for the first three floors to serve as classroom space for AmPark, which will grow to a kindergarten- through-fifth-grade school. Science labs and an art room - but no classrooms - will be built on the top floor for PS/MS 95 students. All told, the building will add 461 seats.
Construction is slated to begin in April 2008 and be completed by the 2010 school year.
PS/MS 95 Principal Serge Davis and AmPark Principal Betty Lopez-Towey have been meeting with the School Construction Authority to firm up the design for the new building, which was announced in the city Department of Education's 2007 Capital Plan and is expected to cost $35 million.
News quickly spread of the construction, angering and worrying some PS/MS 95 parents.
At a meeting last week, the school's parent association passed around a petition asking to reconsider the construction site. Former parent leader Angel Vicioso called the plan "ridiculous."
"They are taking space away from a very populated school," he said. "It's an inadequate plan."
When he was in first grade, his son, now a seventh-grader, played in the yard that will be eliminated by the new building, Mr. Vicioso said. Compared to the barren rear concrete playground, the side playground features a jungle gym and hopscotch surrounding a large globe painting.
AmPark "should look for another area if they want to build another school," Mr. Vicioso said, adding that he will circulate the petition at bus stops near his Mosholu Parkway home.
Councilman Oliver Koppell held a meeting with 20 PS/MS 95 parents on Oct. 3 to discuss the construction.
"There was some confusion," said Eleanor Edelstein, Mr. Koppell's education aide. "Parents thought it was only going to be for AmPark."
Other parents at the meeting addressed questions of safety for children attending school near a construction site.
Another parent anxiety is the shrinking playground space at PS/MS 95. Mr. Davis, PS/MS 95 principal, reminded Ms. Edelstein that the school has created seven classrooms in what was once an indoor play yard. The new building will eliminate more play space.
Ms. Edelstein said there is "some talk" about creating a recreation area on the roof to compensate for the loss of playground.
Overcrowding is an issue all too familiar at PS/MS 95. It currently serves 265 more students than its capacity of 1,100. For many years, the school has used additional space at the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center, just down the block, to deal with the spillover of students.
Up until two years ago, when the Van Cortlandt Village school experienced a dip in enrollment, it also used the Workman's Circle Building, at 3990 Hillman Ave., to house students.
The city Department of Education handed the underutilized space over to the AmPark school, which opened in September 2006 with 36 students. It currently enrolls 81 students in kindergarten, first and second grade.
Under the initial agreement established between the school founders and the Department of Ed, the school accepts half of its students from the Amalgamated Nursery School and the Van Cortlandt Village area and the other half from the larger PS/MS 95 catchment zone.
Mr. Koppell's office is currently coordinating another meeting with the School Construction Authority to address more parent concerns about the new building.
