“ The combination of overcrowded classrooms in neighborhoods newly inundated with young children, a recession that is causing some families to rethink expensive private schools, and a new citywide admissions process that requires people to sign up for kindergarten earlier has spread fear of lotteries and rejections across playgrounds and online discussion groups.”
“…newly inundated with young children?” Not exactly.
Though the crisis is clearly worsening, many of these schools have been overcrowded for years. In 2006-7, PS 290 was already at 155% capacity, according to the DOE's "Blue Book." At PS 6, class sizes in Kindergarten reached 28 this fall, and the school was forced to convert their only art room to an extra classroom.
Despite these clear warning signs, the DOE has refused to build, expand or lease any new elementary schools on the
Parent leaders and elected officials have been pressing DOE officials for many years to create a new school to relieve overcrowding at all the neighborhood schools – which so far, they have refused to do. Instead, DOE has proposed creating five new Kindergarten classes, to be inserted into the basement of Wagner middle school next fall – presumably to be moved elsewhere, to a location unknown, the year after. And this is what
I have to tell you, the DoE's books are crap, whatever color they are. They overestimate the number of classrooms and underestimate the percentage of overcrowding. My school is almost 100% more overcrowded than the DoE says it is. And every time we try to relieve it they send us another 500 kids, just to show us who's boss.
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