By: Sara Hendrickson
Much attention this election season has been given to urgent educationissues,but a topic that does not make for dynamicstump speeches is the fundamentalbusiness of planning and building schools. What should have been an avoidable problem could turn into an unavoidable crisis of school seat shortagesif the next administration does not pay close attention to the nuts and bolts of runningsuch a rapidly growing school system. For starters, a well-conceived 5-year capital plan from the Department of Education (DOE) and its sister organization, the School Construction Authority (SCA),must be an immediate priority.
Lack of Planning Has Consequences
Concerns about the DOE’s long-term planning wereflagged some years ago. In 2008, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (now Democratic candidate for NYC Comptroller) and his overcrowding task force launched a campaign called “A Better Capital Plan for School Construction” for moreproactive planningto keep pace with the tidal wave of new residential construction. The campaignmobilized the public and politiciansatCity Council hearings, neighborhood protests, and a rallyatCity Hall just prior torelease of the new 5-year capital plan. The quest from constituents to build more schools to address overcrowding has not let up. In the DOE’s 2013 School Survey, for the fifth year in a row, the number one request of parents for school improvementswas smaller class sizes.
Packing classrooms with more students has been one of several band aid approaches used by the DOE in lieu of proper planning. Pre-K programs have been closed to makeroom for the flood of kindergartners. Science, art, and music rooms have been converted to wheeled carts. Future middle school seats have been cannibalized by grade reconfigurations. Whole schools have been relocated. Studentsstuck on wait lists have been enrolled in schools outside their neighborhoods, often with a long commute. At a recent Community Education Council District 2 (CECD2) meeting, Drew Patterson from the DOE’s Office of Portfolio Planning for Southern Manhattan referred to some of these measures as “musical chairs.” When redrawing zoning lines was the only resort, Patterson likened the process to using a“blunt tool to arrive at a razor thin target – the sweet spot for the ideal number of students in a classroom.”
TheDOE/SCA Tag Team
Dissecting the internal departments at the DOE and SCA to understandthe planning processis not easy, and some complain that the agencies are too opaque aboutinternal procedures on major decisions. TheDOE’sDivision of Portfolio Planning wields tremendous power, as it manages the entire “portfolio” of City schools, spearheading decisions on new schools, charters, school closures, co-locations, zoning, and enrollment policies. The SCA sits under a different division on the DOE organization chart, the Division of Operations, but is linked at the hip to the Division of Portfolio Planning when it comes to planning and building new schools. Serving essentially as the in-house general contractor for the DOE, the SCA has managed the construction of 65 new schools over the last five years with 65,000 new seats, however, the SCAalso has “sole responsibilityfor the Capital Plan”and thus plays a major role in creatingnew schools.
Divide Over Data
The SCA typically retains outside data experts to formulate analysesthat drive its capital planning, butthe data used by the SCA and DOE has frequently been called into question. Members ofcommunity education boards and parents, some of whom are data experts themselves, have crunched their own numbers,pointing toerrors in theDOE’s data, and flaws in methodologies that failed to plan on a neighborhood level. Downtown parents faulted the DOE for projecting birth rates and numbers of families with public school children at the same rate for downtown neighborhoods as for all of Manhattan, when, in fact,young families havedominated these neighborhoods since the post 9/11 renaissance. Parentactivists behind the campaign to build a new school at 75 Morton Street in the West Village similarly had to generate their own set of data to make a compelling case to the DOE. Thisdivide over data has driven a wedge between parents and the DOE, but there finally appears to be universal agreement that the sub-district south of 14th Street will need at least 1,000 new elementary school seats within the next five years.
Scramble for Real Estate
The desperate need for new schools has forcedcommunity members to moonlight as real estate agents to bolster the DOE/SCA team in identifyingnew school sites. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who formed his own overcrowding task force several years ago, complainedthat “unless the SCA is told by the DOE, they will not look at sites.” Parents’ efforts to nail down locationsled to the formation of multipleschools downtown, as well as theupcoming Morton Street School.Community Boards have done an exemplary job mandating new schools as a quid pro quo for approving large scaledevelopments. In Chelsea, the huge Hudson Yards project with thousands of new residential units will build a 750-seat K-8 school. Trinity Real Estate, the developer of the newly rezoned Hudson Square district, will build a new 444-seat elementary school (the Trinity School) in the base of its apartment tower at Sixth Avenue and Canal Street.
However,even these new schools coming on stream will not be enough. In a report to constituents, Stringer wrote that the new Trinity School “will not alleviate the existing school needs…and the SCA should continue to work with the community to identify new public school spaces and fund other potential spaces, such as the new school proposed at NYU campus, which remains unfunded.” Villagers have not given up hope that NYU’s contentious “NYU 2031” plan to spend $6 billion inadding 2 million square feet will include a 600-seat elementary school. Another property that recently popped up on the radar screen is the massive St. John’s Terminal, with 1.3 million square feet along three blocks of the West Side Highway atHouston Street. Acontrolling interest wassoldearlier this year, and air rights to build residential towers could be acquired if theHudson River Park Bill becomes law. Community members are already dreaming ofthe vastpossibilities ofa school, hospital, affordable housing, open space, andmore.
Planning Requires Partnering with Communities
When the DOE announced last springthat PS 150 in Tribeca would be relocated to the new Foundling School in Chelsea in 2014, parents instantly formed an army of activists and mobilized politicians to stop the move. A letter to Chancellor Dennis Walcott signed by keyelecteds(Nadler, Stringer, Squadron, Glick,Chin) criticized the DOE’s planning process, pointing out that a decision on relocating PS 150 just prior to the new 5-year capital plan made no sense, as the plan will “necessarily involve considerable restructuring of the public school system in Lower Manhattan…to resolvesuch a large projected seat shortage.” When the DOE announced in early September it was dropping its proposed relocation, the PS 150 community was ecstatic. The shift was encouraging, and downtown parents now have more time to workon a long-term solutionin an ongoing partnership with the DOE. District Superintendent Mariano Guzman was reflectiveat the September CECD2 meeting, “this galvanized the community in a very different way…the power of these parents became very clear.”
The DOE has worked on creatinginnovative academic programs to attract students to underutilized schools. At an AugustCECD2 meeting, Guzman promoted a new dual language program at PS 1 in Chinatown where there are 300 empty seats. Village parent Heather Lortiecommended the DOE’s emphasis on programs instead of rezoning as it “creates positive energy and gives families options.” So far, downtown parentsseem hesitant to make the leap into a new schoolthat is over a mile away for many, andremain steadfast inbuilding moreneighborhood schools.
Since the DOE is in such a catch-up mode for building new capacity, it will also have to work closely with communities to provide interim space for newly approved schools, as planning and construction typically takes three to five years. The basement of the DOE’s Tweed headquarters was converted some years ago into temporaryclassrooms for new downtown schoolsbeing built. If the Morton Street School timetable is not on track, parents will look to partner with the DOE on securing a temporary facility for the first class of 6th graders by their targeted opening date of fall 2015.
Mayoral Transition Requires Vigilance
The transition period between Mayors will be tricky, particularly as the process forfinalizing the new 5-year capital planstraddles both administrations. When Chancellor Walcott met with Silver’s overcrowding task force in April, he committed toaddressing the problem of school shortages in the capital plan being prepared. In his sunsetting months he proclaimed, “We’re at a golden point right now of collaborating together…so we’re ready to mobilize as quickly as possible.” When the SCA’sdraftplan is released in November, CECD2 members willbe diving into the data and dollars and pressuring politicians, both outgoing and incoming, to ensure the plan includes enough new schools and funding. Prepping for public hearings,meeting with DOE/SCA officials, tracking key dates, coordinating with community boards, leveraging advocacy organizations, mobilizing parents, and continuing to get in front of the right people at the right moments, will all be crucial in the battle to build new schools. Revisions to the planwill need to be lobbied for swiftly. In February, the plan goes in front of the new City Council for hearings, debate, and,ultimately,a vote that carries major impact for years to come. As citizens that care deeply about our City schools, we all need to be vigilant as the planning and decisions unfold, and our voices will need to be heard.
