By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — P.S. 234, the elementary school that Downtown parents are desperate to get their children into, will open an extra section of kindergarten this fall to accommodate some of the dozens of families on the waitlist.
The education department's decision, announced at a meeting Tuesday night, means that about half of the 50 families still waitlisted for PS 234 will win a seat in the popular TriBeCa school.
The remaining families will be offered a seat next week in one of three other schools, based on geographic proximity: PS 276 in southern Battery Park City, PS 3 in the Village and the Spruce Street School near City Hall, said Elizabeth Rose, a portfolio planner at the DOE.
The city will not bus any TriBeCa children to Chinatown, as they had considered doing last month, Rose said.
The decision to open the extra class comes after months of wrangling between parents and education officials about zoning rules downtown.
The city created the extra kindergarten section at PS 234 by eliminating a first-grade section they had planned to add for families moving into the district. Those first-graders will have to go to a different lower Manhattan school, Rose said.
While the extra kindergarten class at PS 234 made some waitlisted parents happy — “I think I’m in!” one delighted mother called out — others were still upset.
Some of those who believe they will not get into PS 234 don't necessarily want to go to the school closest to them and would like to choose where their children are sent.
“Why not give the parents a choice?” said City Councilmember Margaret Chin, who attended the meeting. “At least [give them] the option to let you know they prefer a specific school.”
Rose replied that while it might sound easy to weigh the preferences of 25 TriBeCa parents, there are hundreds of waitlisted parents on the Upper East and Upper West Sides, and still more in the outer boroughs.
“I understand the parents’ frustration,” Rose said. “But I do need to follow citywide processes and treat all families equally.”
Still, the parents are compiling a list of their preferences, which they plan to give to Rose.
