By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT – The proposed site for the new Greenwich Village Middle School is just 2 miles from its current location, but it might as well be on another planet, according to some angry parents who attended a meeting on the plan Wednesday night.
The city wants to move the school from the top floor of the 104-year-old, five-story P.S. 3 elementary school building at 490 Hudson St. to the Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway because, officials say, more space will be created for students.
But some parents object to sending their children to the Financial District and are concerned about how much the plan costs.
“What seems bizarre to us is that Greenwich Village Middle School is not going to stay in Greenwich Village,” Democratic District Leader Keen Berger said, on behalf of Community Board 2, at a final Department of Education hearing on the issue.
“We don’t understand why — why on Earth — Greenwich Village middle school would be downtown.”
The middle school is the only one within Community Board 2 that includes Greenwich Village, SoHo, and NoHo.
Instead of moving the school to the Financial District, Community Board 2 wants it to be relocated at 75 Morton St., just two blocks away from its current local. The board believes that Morton St. building, owned by the state, is the best way to make room for students who may not have been able to attend schools within their district due to classroom overcrowding.
But the city says that relief would also come from relocating the school to 26 Broadway.
“The move would make space available,” Daria Rigney, Community Superintendent for District 2, said at the hearing. “Additional elementary school students could be served… and new middles school seats could be added.”
Moving the school further downtown will cost the city at least $3 million per year, part of a larger $250 million deal for the space used as a broader education facility under a 30-year lease, officials said.
“It’s demoralizing and befuddling and makes me angry that this is the proposed solution after we’ve expressed what we want at 75 Morton,” said Greenwich Village mom Camille Giugliano at the hearing. Her daughter is in first grade at P.S. 41.
“It’s like watching a train wreck. I feel like this is a done deal and I didn’t even know this was an option in the first place."
But 75 Morton isn't an option, according to the Department of Education.
“It’s very difficult to find space that is available within a short time frame,” said Elizabeth Rose, Director of Portfolio Planning at the DOE. “We expressed interest in 75 Morton Street to the state, but it’s not available.”
But some parents thought 26 Broadway was a good spot
“They’ll never have Morton St. ready by the fall of 2010,” TriBeCa mother of twin first-grade girls Tricia Joyce said. “We need to plug holes before there are new ones.”
The middle school would share space with Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women for girls in grades nine through 12.
“The school is sharing space again,” said Elzora Cleveland, the president of District 2's community education council. “I still worry.”
