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Read the press release here.

New PS 527 to Focus on Foreign Languages, 'Global Studies'

By Amy Zimmer | January 11, 2012 8:41am
Daniel McCormick, assistant principal at E. Harlem's G&T school, will lead the UES's new P.S. 527.
Daniel McCormick, assistant principal at E. Harlem's G&T school, will lead the UES's new P.S. 527.
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DNAinfo/Amy Zimmer

UPPER EAST SIDE — A new public elementary school opening next fall on the Upper East Side will focus the curriculum on "global studies" and teach the wee ones a foreign language, its principal revealed this week.

The fledgling P.S. 527 — which the Department of Education is creating in the former Our Lady of Good Counsel building at 323 E. 91st St. to ease overcrowding in the area — will focus on art, music, science, technology and languages, future principal Daniel McCormick told parents at a Community Board 8 meeting on Monday.

"It's going to have a global studies curriculum with a real 21st century approach expressed in anything and everything," McCormick, who's currently the assistant principal at TAG Young Scholars, a citywide talented and gifted school in East Harlem, told DNAInfo.

Daniel McCormick, the principal of the newly-created P.S. 527, answered questions Monday night at a Community Board 8 meeting.
Daniel McCormick, the principal of the newly-created P.S. 527, answered questions Monday night at a Community Board 8 meeting.
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DNAinfo/Amy Zimmer

McCormick said his mission is to help students understand not only where they live but also how they fit into the "complex world" beyond. 

McCormick's East Harlem school, which serves Kindergarten through eighth grade, teaches Spanish. But he declined to say what language will be taught at P.S. 527. A growing number of elementary schools in the city have included Mandarin in their curriculum, such as the Lower East Side's New Explorations Into Science, Technology and Math (or NEST+m).  Several elementary schools also teach French, including P.S. 125 on the Upper West Side.

McCormick, a graduate of Quinnipiac College in Connecticut, became the assistant principal at the East Harlem gifted and talented school in 2003. Before that, he was a fifth grade teacher there. He grew up around educators: his mother, a high school Spanish teacher, is now an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut.

"I guess it was in my blood," he said. "From the first day I interned at a school, I just loved it."

McCormick said he's eager to work with parents of the school's inaugural class who are concerned about sending their children to an untested school. Some of those parents have already begun organizing to have a voice in the school's development.  

"I'm trepidatious and anxious," said Vivian, a parent whose daughter was zoned for the prestigious P.S. 290 before the DOE's recent changes. She declined to give her last name. "I want to be optimistic. I really do. But it's such a great unknown. You don't want your kid to be a guinea pig."

There will be two information sessions and tours at the school on Feb. 1 and 6., McCormick said.

"Every parent should be concerned about their child's education," McCormick told DNAinfo. "They want to know who is the person behind the curtain running the school."

Dana Gross, whose son is now zoned for P.S. 527, launched a private Facebook group on Monday as soon as the school's name was announced and has been organizing other parents she meets at various community meetings.

"The quicker we get people involved, the quicker we start a community," said Gross, 45, who works in marketing. "People are very interested in getting involved."

The new school's zone was carved out of blocks mainly from P.S. 151, a three-year-old school on East 88th Street that has gotten early rave reviews from parents.  Some blocks were taken from P.S. 290, which had unsuccessfully fought to get fewer blocks removed from its zone.  That school had a waitlist last year of 64 students, but the principal and parents now worry about possible underenrollment with a smaller zone. They claim their waitlist is inflated by many families who register at P.S. 290 like it’s a backup or “safety school," since private school acceptance and gifted-and-talented test results are not known at the time of registration.

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School Zoning Map 4
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Billy Figueroa

"When I first heard we were being rezoned I was upset because P.S. 151 has a good reputation," Gross said. "But at a new, small school, the kids will get a lot of attention."

Parents are concerned that the school's budget will be too small to support much-needed enrichment courses such as music and art.

McCormick assured parents that P.S. 527 would initially be able to cover the enrichment classes because of a boost from start-up funding. But he anticipates that in future years, when the budget is based on the number of students, he would have to turn to community fundraising as is common with other public schools.

P.S. 290's PTA, for example, raised nearly $950,000 in 2009, according to recent tax filings. The Upper East Side's well-established P.S. 6 raised more than $880,000. The newcomer, P.S. 151 raised roughly $75,000.

Schools began their kindergarten admissions period on Monday, a process that will run through Mar. 2. P.S. 257, however, will not yet start doing registration for kindergarteners until after McCormick's information sessions take place next month.

With the addition of P.S. 527, the DOE's Elizabeth Rose told parents Monday, "I think we are finally at a point on the Upper East Side where we have sufficient space for all students, which is a wonderful place to be."