What should have been a quick meeting under 30 minutes with less that 30 total attendees including the CEC members, district staff and few parents seemed to be like an old school board meeting where over 50 parents were in attendance. Another thing that reminded me of an old school board meeting was the heat in the new auditorium, and that the air-conditioning was not working, which schools did not have during the school board era.
What little voice the CEC has is when it comes to zoning, the item on the agenda was titled 'Throggs Neck Rezoning' by the Office of District Planning/Division of Space Management. No schools were listed on the agenda for the meeting which was held at the old IS 192 building on Hollywood Avenue. The schools now listed on the agenda were MS 371, PS 392, and MS 467 at the Hollywood address. Having been a Citywide parent leader, when you see school numbers such as those it means that the original school was either closed or redesigned due to continued poor student performance.
As the evening went on the issue was about overcrowding and poor planning by the district and Department of Education. The superintendent of the District 8, I was told is in her second year and it seemed that parents and CEC members (half of whom are leaving as of July 1st) still had no answers as there was a power point presentation concerning the overcrowding at the area public schools. PS 14 and PS 71 will have the temporary transportable classrooms removed (as they should have been during the previous mayoral administration) and PS 14 is to get a 344 seat addition to the building by the beginning of the 2018 school year. PS 14 is currently at a utilization rate of 155 percent. PS 71 is currently at a utilization rate of 138 percent. Information asked for was to be posted online tomorrow, and the following chart was shown in which enrollment figures are missing for PS 14, PS 71, PS 72, PS 304, and PS 392.
Below were the reasons for rezoning.
The current Throggs Neck Zoning is divided into three zoned elementary schools, and two overflow elementary schools currently.
The issue will be revisited in the fall with the new CEC or new school board in place to vote on, as this was an informational meeting only.
The members of CEC 8 with Superintendent Ames in the middle.
Also on the CEC agenda was a resolution to adopt the Superintendent's Evaluation for the school year 2016 - 2017. The resolution passed by a five in favor, zero opposed, and four abstentions.
