By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The new elementary school proposed for the Peck Slip Post Office site is moving closer to becoming a reality, the Department of Education said Thursday.
The city entered exclusive negotiations with the United States Postal Service last year to acquire the 1 Peck Slip building, and now the two sides "are in daily communication" to hammer out details, said Elizabeth Rose, a portfolio planner for the DOE.
"There is absolutely a sense of urgency," Rose said Thursday at a meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's school overcrowding task force.
The School Construction Authority is inspecting the post office building now so plans for the 400-seat school can move forward as soon as a deal is signed, Rose said.
Rose also reassured parents that the city is still planning to build the school at Peck Slip, even though Trinity Real Estate just proposed a similar-sized elementary school not too far away, in a new residential tower at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue in Hudson Square.
The DOE's previously announced capital plan money to build a 400-seat elementary school in lower Manhattan will go to the Peck Slip site, not the Hudson Square site, Rose said.
However, Rose said that if Trinity's proposed residential rezoning of Hudson Square goes through, and if the rezoning adds 3,500 residential units to the neighborhood, as Trinity is predicting, then the city would likely agree to fund an additional school there as well.
Trinity's Hudson Square plans were first reported by The Villager.
At Thursday's meeting, downtown's four elementary schools also shared their kindergarten enrollment numbers, which are slightly lower than they were at this time last year.
P.S. 234 in TriBeCa, which has received 166 applications for 125 seats, is the only downtown school that will definitely have to hold a lottery this year. While P.S. 234 has more applicants than the school can handle, the enrollment numbers are still down from last February, when the school had 186 applicants, Rose said.
P.S. 89 in northern Battery Park City has received 64 applications for 65 to 75 seats, down from the 88 they received last year, Principal Ronnie Najjar said.
P.S. 276 in southern Battery Park City has received 78 applications for 75 to 100 kindergarten seats, and the Spruce Street School in the base of the new Frank Gehry tower has received 60 applications for 50 to 75 seats.
Kindergarten enrollment does not close until March 4, so all of the schools could receive more applications.
