On March 14th, 50 parents from District 2 hunkered down in the PS 3 cafeteria for over three hours to design the size and grade configuration for the new Morton Street School targeted for opening in fall 2015. Veteran facilitator Tanya Odom warned parents that “tonight would not be like last week’s brainstorming exercise where we used the ‘world cafe method’ to surface everyone’s ideas in an unfiltered way.” Rather, the goal tonight was to come to consensus on one proposal which would be presented at the April 22nd meeting hosted by Community Board 2 and the 75 Morton Task Force. Risa Fisher, one of the coalition’s energetic organizers, wasted no time in rallying the parents, “We have started our journey but are now on a sprint.”
There was a quick recap on the alternative school configurations on the table: one big middle school grades 6-8, two co-located but separate middle schools, one 6-12 school, and one K-8 school. Parents were passionate in sharing their view points, expertise, and personal stories of their children and even their own educational experiences. In the room were parents not just from PS 3 and PS 41 in the Village, but from several other District 2 elementary and middle schools, some with very diverse student and family populations. The group dove into their deliberations, using break-out groups of 8-10 and facilitator-led whole group discussions.
Throughout the evening, the parent coalition encountered road blocks inevitable in complex decision making: incomplete information, inconclusive research, personal biases, and, in this case, a probability guessing game in predicting how the DOE and SCA, in addition to the new Mayor, might respond to their proposal. One overarching fact, however, was clear: there is a looming middle school crisis on the West Side of District 2, and even more so in Chinatown and Tribeca, with a 600 seat shortage estimated in five years. Although the new elementary schools coming on board, including the “Foundling” School (in what is now the Foundling Hospital) and the “Trinity” School (part of Trinity Real Estate’s Hudson Square development), go a long way in addressing overcrowding, these schools exacerbate the shortage of middle school seats in the future.
In addition to delving into student population data, parents grappled with some of the “softer” issues around school configuration that even the vast amount of educational research does not always answer in a conclusive way:
- Are small schools better than large schools?
- What even defines a small school?
- How does a large school like Baruch Middle with over 1,000 students create a small school setting through separate “houses”?
- What are the most delicate transition points for students?
- Is it 5th to 6th grade, or 8th to 9th grade?
- Would a middle school benefit from a co-located elementary or high school to smooth these transitions, as well as forge mentoring relationships?
- What size school and grade configuration will maximize the DOE’s funding formula?
- Will opening a large “choice” school (vs. “zoned” school) be too difficult to fill, risking empty seats and lack of funding?
- If empirically a 6-12 school loses half of its 8th graders who leave for a new high school, can new students be recruited to provide critical mass for a high school?
- If Chris Quinn and others are such champions of community schools, should some student seats be sacrificed up-front to provide for community facilities such as a family health clinic in the building (much like the Ryan Center, a school-based community health center operating at PS 11)?
Through deliberate discussion and intentional consensus building, a group decision was reached. As one parent reflected, “You know, I changed my mind a few times tonight and I’m realizing that even though this was not my first choice, good things are going to happen with this proposal and it is all about compromise.”
Conversation quickly turned to next steps, as this was still a sprint. To round out the April 22nd presentation, there would have to be additional work on the building’s design, a possible pre-K, community school elements, and District 75 special ed programs. Parents were already eager to sign up for these sub-committees and get to work on the next phase to be tackled at the coalition’s subsequent meeting on April 4th.
As parents packed up for home, there was a shared feeling of having been through a process that was intense yet collegial, a process that bonded the group and reaffirmed that more good work could be accomplished together. There was much head nodding when Heather Lortie, a parent organizer, encapsulated the moment, “There is no guarantee that our ideas will happen, but our power is in our unity and in the quality of the work we do. We want to demonstrate to the DOE and mayoral candidates that good things happen when parents engage in the process.”
