151015 zoning committee minutes - draft

7/23/2019 151015 Zoning Committee Minutes - DRAFT

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COMMUNITY EDUCATION COUNCIL DISTRICT 3154 West 93rd Street New York, New York 10025 - Room 204 Tel (212) 678-2782 Fax (212) 678-2804 Email: [email protected]

Joseph A. Fiordaliso Nan Eileen Mead Zoe G. Foundotos Kristen Berger Kimberly Watkins

President First Vice President Second Vice President Secretary Treasurer

Council Members: Noah Gotbaum Theresa L.C. Hammonds Pradnya Joshi Daniel Katz

Lucas Liu Vacant, ELL Member Vacant, Student MemberIlene Altschul District 3 Community Superintendent

DRAFT Meeting Minutes – Zoning CommitteeThursday, October 15th

(9:00 am – 12:00 pm)

Joan of Arc Complex 154 West 93rd

Street

Attendance: 43 members of the community including 5 CEC members, Superintendent Altschul, SarahTurchin from DOE District Planning, and four elected official representatives.

Chair reminded the group that the session was being taped and that to hear recorded podcasts of theZoning Committee, visit www.spreaker.com/user/8322048.

Reminders also that on Saturday, October 17 at PS191, the second public hearing will take place. OnMonday, November 2

nd, at Joan of Arc, the DOE will make final presentation to community. This triggers

the 45 day window for the CEC to vote. Thursday, November 19 is the Calendar Meeting of the CEC,

during which members will vote on a plan. This meeting takes place at PS87.

With the goal of the meeting to dissect the DOE draft rezoning plan, the group began a discussion of the

major themes since its unveiling for the first time on September 28 at the last committee meeting and thefirst public hearing on October 7.

Though many members of the community have expressed the desire for more time to understand thezoning process, meetings and events have been very well attended so far. 150 members of community

present at last week’s first public hearing; 50 people spoke. The most abundantly clear message that thecommunity offers is that very few stakeholders favor this proposal as it is currently constructed.

CEC members have been mining the data of online comments and on CEC3 website questionnaire and

emails sent. The following recurring themes have been posted:

1. Timing of this rezoning – asking for more time, which is an option. The CEC could simply vote to

reject the DOE's plan but that would carry with it a number of consequences, including the untenable

overcrowding at PS199 and the under-enrollment at PS191. It could, in fact, have an impact on the entiredistrict, as other schools would absorb the waitlist families.

2. Desire to determine zone lines based on older buildings, coops/older buildings, etc. The DOE has

stated publicly that they do not draw lines based on owned v rented units and the age of a building; furtherrepresentatives reminded us that the lines must be contiguous, so the map lines where a building is simply

zoned out because it is new, or an old building is zoned in because it's been around for a long time are not

necessarily possible.

3. What to do about making 191 a place where everyone wants to send their children, especiallygiven proposed larger zone size?

http://www.spreaker.com/user/8322048






Sarah Turchin then took the group through the proposal again with the one difference that the superzone

map now includes the “bowtie” portion set to be rezoned to PS452, as that school expressed the desire toincrease its size to confirm to its original school structural plan (with three classes per grade).

Dialog re “bow tie” at 71st street and Broadway/7th Avenue/Amsterdam (slide 10)

Request for additional data (on actual enrollments vs. residents in the zone); Sarah will try to get this

information ASAP (based on what can be shared with privacy laws, etc.)

School

Zone Enrollment(% of students from within

the zone)

Zone Retention(kindergarten residents that

have entered in the DOEsystem)

199 98% 89%

191 67% 56%

452 77% 70%

Shifts to existing zones would be done for 2016 school year with the stipulation that the opening of PS342

in 2018 is included in this proposal as a shared zone school with PS191, or with the three school superzone.

DOE Super Zone ScenarioModification from the first super zone schematic pulls the “bow tie” east of Amsterdam Ave over to

PS452 as it does in the zoned scenario map.

New slides were also added to the DOE proposal related to the super zone. The DOE draws zone lines to

have all residents within 0.5 mile where possible. This is not possible with the super zone scenario.

With super zone proposal, families would rank preferences as they do now. Offers would go out to thespecified number of students per school, and that offered school then becomes the student’s “zoned”

school. A school’s “wait list” would be comprised of all non-zoned students, and as slots opened up, the

wait list would be managed by number. So the 199 wait list would be even bigger than it has been in the past.

Another drawback to the super zone is the elimination of the neighborhood school. This criticism has beenwidely discussed, as many stakeholders believe that the neighborhood includes both schools. However no

conclusion was highlighted and the issue will continue to be discussed.

Sibling GrandfatheringIn a discussion about grandfathering siblings into a zone if one’s building moves to a new zone, CEC

members expressed that precedent that is strong for adding sibling clause into Rezoning Plan.

342 IncubationSI Altschul and DOE responded to the idea of incubating the new school now that there wasn’t enough

time to do so and that there isn’t space in the southern part of the district, including at PS191.

Persistently Dangerous ranking at PS191

Many community members continue to remark about the implication for the PDS at PS191. SI Altschulremarked that the school is doing its part in terms of extra reporting and oversight. She said that hopefully

it will be off by end of the year. The new list is published at the end of July, which means, however that



the PDS status will remain during the next admissions cycle. SI Altschul also indicated that until it goes

away, families have “option” to transfer under state law, but they are not guaranteed transfer – it is basedon space.

School Pairing – grade splitsSI Altschul indicated that for pedagogical and logistical reasons, she does not support pairing approach.

She but does not believe that grade splitting provides educational continuity. It is also not supported by the

DOE, by the Chancellor.

Capacity vs. enrollment

These figures were put on the board so that members could have an understanding of where students are in

schools relative to the stated/safe size of the buildings in which their school resides.

School

Zone Enrollment(% of students from within

the zone)

Zone Retention(kindergarten residents that

have entered in the DOEsystem)

OShea 1191 TBD

199 738 912

191 644 425

Solutions to 191

Committee members then listed a number of possible ways to improve PS191, given that the entire zoning

exercise really hinges on the ability to get newly zoned families to accept that school.

1. Phase out 191 middle school – it’s severely under enrolled, it isn’t screened, and many kids

travel to 191 from outside of the district. In addition, the DOE has stated that it prefers K-5model, so make all three of these schools (191/199/342) K-5.

2. Expand 191 early childhood/Pre-K – PS191 could add a fifth PreK class to meet additional

demand for Universal PreK.3. Pairing (191/342 or 199/191/342) – SI may not prefer it, but other schools have done this

successfully so committee members plan to explore more4. Move 191 into new building – state of the art PS342 could be a great location for a struggling

school

5. Integrate Amsterdam Housing into 3 schools – this would make a meaningful impact on the

diversity statistics. Instead of adjusting the denominator, the numerator would move, which

means more minority children would attend PS199.6. Get more information on incidents at 191 to put parents more at ease. This is a tough situation,

because the CEC has been working on this since the summer. Officials have requested redacted

data through FOIA to no avail.7. Add Gifted & Talented at 191

8. Make deal with developer at 200 Amsterdam - Insert school into bottom floors. Offer the

developer even more floors as bonus.9. Eliminate rental loophole for 199 (DOE has stated publicly that they do not believe this

problem to be wide spread, however 199 parents believe that it is)

10. Create stronger math curriculumfor 191

11. Add bilingual education in 191

Next Committee Meeting: Monday, October 26

Joan of Arc Auditorium, 154 West 93rd

Street

151015 zoning committee minutes - draft

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