By JULIE SHAPIRO
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Friday backed a group of TriBeCa parents fighting a plan to send their kids to school in Chinatown.
The city last week told more than 25 families who are waitlisted for TriBeCa's popular but overcrowded P.S. 234 that they would have to attend the stricter, predominantly Chinese P.S. 130 instead.
"These are young children," Silver told reporters. "You don't want to send them out of their neighborhood. . . I disagree with moving children, especially at tender ages."
The city's plan sparked outrage among the waitlisted parents, who raised concerns about the more traditional educational philosophy at P.S. 130, where students must wear uniforms and address teachers by their last names, as opposed to the more progressive P.S. 234. Parents also worried about the longer commute to P.S. 130 on Baxter Street, which is about a mile from P.S. 234.
The waitlisted parents have started a petition asking the city to place their children in lower Manhattan's P.S. 276 or the new Spruce Street School instead. Just 24 hours after the parents posted the petition online on Thursday, it had already gathered more than 160 signatures.
Speaking to reporters after a tour of the soon-to-open Spruce Street School, Silver urged parents to remain optimistic. Spaces could still open up at P.S. 234 and other downtown schools, if families move over the summer or receive gifted and talented placements, he said.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott told reporters he was looking into the waitlist situation and would have more information soon.
"We're meeting with our team [and] getting information on the waitlist," Walcott said. "We'll be getting back to [the parents]."
The parents' petition also expresses concern about the impact of the city's plan on P.S. 130, which may be forced to turn away siblings of current students in order to accommodate the TriBeCa children.
"It breaks up families," said one waitlisted P.S. 234 mother, who asked that her name not be used. "That's not what anyone wants to happen."
