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-- New Study Assesses Sufficiency of School Construction by Community –
-- Trailers primarily used in lower-income, recent-immigrant communities --
New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released a comprehensive study finding that the Department of Education (DOE) will leave tens of thousands of students in overcrowded facilities despite new schools being built or planned.
The study, Underprepared for Overcrowding: Department of Education School Construction, 2008-2017, identifies communities across the city where new seats being provided under the DOE’s 2005-09 and new 2010-14 Capital Plans will not end overcrowding, provide space to reduce class sizes or appropriate numbers of science, art and computer rooms, or eliminate the use of temporary class room units (TCUs or trailers) and temporary mini-schools.
“Stories of parents having to place their children on wait lists to attend their neighborhood primary school have become increasingly widespread,” Thompson said. “These are the consequences of poor planning and underinvestment, including flawed enrollment projections. The DOE is particularly failing lower-income and recent-immigrant communities by disproportionately teaching children in trailers and other temporary facilities.”
Thompson’s new report – available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov - follows his May 2008 study of DOE capital planning for new classroom space. The new report focuses primarily on elementary schools because the vast majority of elementary school age children typically must attend their zoned school, and if a zoned school is over capacity, the alternatives are limited. Thompson assessed the impact of DOE school construction in communities where enrollment in primary and primary/intermediate schools exceeded school capacity.
For individual school enrollment and capacity data, Thompson’s staff relied on the most recent DOE Enrollment-Capacity-Utilization Report, commonly known as the “Blue Book,” issued in November 2008 and reporting data as of October 2007.
Thompson unveiled the report outside P.S. 290 on the Upper East Side, where all of the school buildings were substantially overcapacity; P.S. 290 had a 153% utilization rate.
“It seems that when it comes to building schools the Department of Education is always playing catch-up. This report shows that the Department’s slow response to addressing school overcrowding is leaving our children without the classroom space they need to get a well-rounded education. I thank Comptroller Thompson for issuing this timely report and I hope the Department will work to better assess our community’s enrollment needs both today and in the future,” said U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney.
“I applaud Comptroller Thompson for putting together this report,” said New York State Senator Liz Krueger. “Overcrowding and the lack of much needed school construction continue to be two of the most important factors inhibiting us from reaching our goal of having one of the best school systems in the country. In District 2, the school district I represent, parents have shown extraordinary leadership and advocacy by contributing ideas that will help to alleviate overcrowding on the east side and we need to continue to support them in that effort. I look forward to continuing to work with parents, other elected officials, and the DOE so that we can finally curb the severe overcrowding throughout District 2 and the city."
“Comptroller Thompson’s report quantifies what any fourth grader could tell you; the fuzzy math used by the Department of Education to determine the need for new classrooms just doesn’t add up,” said Assembly Member Micah Z. Kellner. “No matter what the DOE’s formula says, it doesn’t change the reality that our kids are still being shoved into increasingly overcrowded classrooms.”
“More and more families have moved into my Assembly District on Manhattan’s East Side and all of New York City over the past few years to experience all that this City has to offer,” said New York State Assembly Member Jonathan L. Bing. “Unfortunately, school construction has not kept up to meet the demand created by these new residents. During these difficult economic times with more and more of my constituents choosing public education, Comptroller Thompson’s report highlights the desperate need for new school seats to be created throughout the five boroughs to accommodate all children who wish to attend their local public school.”
New York State Assembly Member Deborah J. Glick added: “Just as the Department of Education prefers to outsource essential department functions to expensive outside consultants, the Chancellor and Mayor prefer to lease properties in a haphazard fashion rather than build the needed space to reduce the outrageous overcrowding we continue to experience.”
New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said: “A ‘promise’ of mayoral control was that it would lead to greater interagency collaboration to benefit our schools. Over the past seven years this mayor has developed more commercial, residential and sports facilities than any mayor in recent history, but failed to ensure that there were enough schools being built. It’s a shame that this mayor hasn’t compelled developers, with all the tax subsidies they’ve received, to build more schools throughout the city.”
“We started the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) 18 years ago because of chronic overcrowding in City schools,” said New York City Council Member Robert Jackson, Chair of the Council’s Education Committee. “Despite the infusion of state and city funding that landmark lawsuit produced, our classrooms remain far too crowded. Comptroller William Thompson’s report accurately portrays the unacceptable conditions that parent advocates convey daily and points to the obvious: the Mayor, as the head of our schools, must provide enough classrooms to reduce overcrowding. Where are his priorities? Surely our children need seats in classrooms, not stadiums!”
“Going to school shouldn’t be a question for New York families. But this year, for the first time ever, Manhattan families were put on waitlists for their neighborhood schools. Even now, in the neighborhood I represent, there are 65 families who had to accept ‘alternative offers’ because their neighborhood school was too full to take them,” said New York City Council Member Jessica Lappin. “That is unacceptable. Parents deserve to send their children to their neighborhood school. The DOE needs to start building schools now and not stop until there is a seat for every child.”
"We are facing serious overcrowding problems here on the East Side and across the city,” said New York City Council Member Dan Garodnick. “The DOE will forever be playing catch-up -- and we will lose more and more art rooms, science labs and other cluster spaces -- until we fix the flaws in the capital planning process.”
“The Mayor brags about making the city a better place for the middle class to raise a family,” said Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters. “Yet in his complete refusal to honestly address the crisis of school overcrowding, he is guaranteeing that the problem will only get worse in years to come -- making this city essentially unlivable for any family that wants to be sure that their children will have a seat in their neighborhood public school.”
Andy Lachman, Co-Treasurer of the Manhattan New School Parent Teacher Association, said the problem is clear at P.S. 290. “The enrollment at P.S. 290 is approximately 645 students,” he said. “When you add in staff and teachers, the school is almost at double the legal occupancy of 423. There are schools across the city in similar or worse shape. Instead of making small classes smaller so teachers can focus on developing critical thinkers and creative problem-solvers prepared to face the challenges of the future, the City jams children into schools and is satisfied creating a generation of test-takers.”
Among the findings reported in Underprepared for Overcrowding:
- New school construction will fall short despite DOE projections that it will have completed nearly 30,000 primary and middle school seats between 2008 and 2012 -- 26,840 seats under the 2005-09 Capital Plan, which the DOE expects to complete by 2012, and 2,484 seats under the 2010-14 Capital Plan.
This new capacity will be inadequate to end overcrowding in primary and primary/intermediate schools in communities ranging from Lower Manhattan to Sunset Park and from Bayside to Richmond Hill, where primary and primary/intermediate school enrollment exceeded capacity according to the DOE Blue Book.
Some communities where schools were overcrowded will receive no new seats by 2012, particularly in: the Bronx, including Fordham, Kingsbridge , Morris Heights, Pelham Parkway, Soundview, Throgs Neck and University Heights; Manhattan, including Greenwich Village, Murray Hill and the Upper West Side; Brooklyn, including Bensonhurst, Bergen Beach, Ditmas Park and Flatlands; Queens, including Bayside, Douglaston, Fresh Meadows, Glendale, Hollis, Little Neck, Jackson Heights, Maspeth, Rego Park and Woodside; and Staten Island, from Tottenville and Brighton.
- Between 2013 and 2017, an additional 19,971 primary, intermediate and primary/intermediate school seats are projected to be completed under the 2010-14 Capital Plan, including 7,772 seats carried forward from the 2005-09 Plan. When all of the new capacity becomes available, every borough still will have communities with overcrowded primary and primary/intermediate schools. Additional capacity will be needed in the 2010-14 Capital Plan to comply with class size reduction mandates, provide all schools with art, science, music, and computer rooms, and eliminate trailers and older mini-schools. This will be the case for: District 2 in Manhattan; Districts 8, 9, 10, 11and 12 in the Bronx; Districts 22 and 20 in Brooklyn; Districts 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 in Queens; and Staten Island.
- The DOE 2005-09 Capital Plan promised to “end the reliance” on classroom trailers by 2012. Yet, many of the 9,829 primary and intermediate school students now being taught in trailers will remain there long after 2012. Unlike the 2005-09 Capital Plan, the DOE 2010-14 Plan does not pledge to eliminate trailers, which often force students to endure poor learning environments.
In addition, according to Blue Book data, 12,527 students were taught in temporary mini-schools and classroom buildings, which typically occupy part of a school’s playground space. The 2005-09 Capital Plan pledged to eliminate mini-schools over 20 years old by 2012. It is highly unlikely that this goal will be reached by 2017.
- Thompson’s study found that temporary facilities are located disproportionately in lower-income and recent-immigrant communities. The Bronx has substantially more than its proportionate share. Between five and ten percent of elementary and middle school students in some Bronx communities were taught in temporary facilities.
- There should be approximately 145 primary school students per “cluster” room on average. Citywide, however, the average was 290 students per “cluster” room; some Bronx and Brooklyn districts had 400 and one Queens district had nearly 800 students per cluster room. Some large primary schools with more than 1,000 students had no cluster rooms at all when at least five cluster rooms were indicated.
- Enrollment projections by the DOE’s long-time demographic consultants significantly underestimated enrollment growth in eight districts, and in nine other districts it over-projected enrollment growth. Their projections were based on past trends that do not take into account many less tangible factors such as parents’ intentions to remain in the City and send their children to public schools.
- The unreasonably slow pace of siting and completing new school buildings is delaying relief in the many communities that have the most overcrowded schools. The estimated completion dates for many schools carried forward from the 2005-09 Capital Plan to the 2010-14 Capital Plan have been extended for several years. For example, the DOE has indicated it will locate a 318-seat Early Childhood Center in Throgs Neck, the Bronx, but it has been delayed from 2011 to 2014. Similarly, in District 27 in Queens, a 431-seat school designated for has been delayed from 2010 to 2015 and a 520-seat school from 2011 to 2013.
To address his findings, Thompson recommended that:
- The City reallocate more than $900 million earmarked for Department of Corrections jail renovation and expansion projects in Brooklyn and the Bronx to the DOE Capital Budget. That would help create more than 8,000 new school seats, based on a cost of $112,000 per seat.
- The DOE end the use of trailers and mini-schools more than 20 years old as promised in the 2005-09 Capital Plan.
- The DOE fix the enrollment projection methodology by projecting enrollments on a community, rather than a district basis, incorporating data on residential construction and actual birth data, use parent surveys and closely monitor pre-school enrollments and immigration trends.
- The DOE ensure that schools have the appropriate number of cluster rooms where music, art, languages, computer skills, and other similar subjects can be taught.
- The DOE adopt a rolling five-year capital plan, rather than the fixed term five-year plan it currently uses.
- The City improve the School Construction Authority school siting process by much more affirmatively involving parents, community boards, and local elected officials.
- The City improve the transparency of and public access to the capital planning process.
Additional news available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov
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