The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF OCTOBER DECODING DELACROIX ◄ P.12
4-10 2018
THE SCHOOL THAT TIME FORGOT PLAY SPACES There is no place to play but the street for the children of P.S. 290 on the UES — so their parents, beset by safety concerns, have cast their gaze upon the roof BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
now” as one of his four areas of focus for the school year. (The other three: accelerating learning and teaching, engaging and empowering communities, developing people.) The word has salience in District 3, which includes the Upper West Side and parts of Harlem, where schools have historically been starkly divided along racial and economic lines. In June, the city Department of Education adopted a plan to increase diversity in District 3 middle schools through an overhaul of the admissions screening process. Carranza drew both criticism and praise early in his tenure for tweeting video of a tense public meeting on the plan bluntly headlined “WATCH: Wealthy white Manhattan parents angrily rant against plan to bring more black kids to their schools.”
There are 505 public schools in Manhattan. Virtually all of them house gymnasiums or provide other designated spaces for mandated physical education programs in their buildings or off campus. And then there is P.S. 290 on the Upper East Side. It has no stand-alone gym. No adequate courtyard space to hold recess. No “gymnatorium,” or converted auditorium. No indoor play space nearby. What it does have is the street, mostly closed to traffic, in front of the school, where more than 600 elementary students are forced to go for their recess, exercise and other physical activities. That has raised safety and security concerns — and fueled a campaign by parents, politicians and school administrators to retrofit the rooftop for use as an outdoor play space or green roof or both. Advocates want to get the kids off the street and into protected space atop the building. To fund those efforts, they’ve held bake sales, raised cash through Participatory Budgeting and banked $2.25 million. But cost estimates keep skyrocketing. Initially pegged at $2.8 million, projections first doubled. By some accounts, they trebled. Hard figures aren’t easy to come by. The city’s School Construction Authority, or SCA, which builds and renovates schools, didn’t provide them by press time. Nor did the city’s Dept. of Education (DOE).
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Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza fielded questions on technology in the classroom, dual-language education and other topics during a Sept. 26 town hall meeting at P.S. 163 on the Upper West Side. Photo: Michael Garofalo
CARRANZA TALKS EQUITY AT UWS TOWN HALL EDUCATION Schools chancellor discusses diversity, charter schools during visit to P.S. 163 BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
“Equity” has been Richard Carranza’s calling card since he took office as city schools chancellor in the spring. Carranza used the word at least a dozen times over the course of an hour during a Sept. 26 town hall meeting with students, parents and teachers at P.S. 163 on West 97th Street. He spoke of equity for students in access to resources; equity in school enrollment and admissions; equity of facilities; equity for students with disabilities. He named “ensuring equity — not yesterday, not tomorrow, right
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No child attending New York City public schools should have to play in the street during recess,” Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright
PTA activist Tom Wrocklage and his fourth-grade daughter, Georgia, outside P.S. 290 on East 82nd Street this weekend. The 9-year-old girl and her classmates have to nowhere to play but the street. Photo courtesy of Tom Wrocklage
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