By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The City's Department of Education has delayed a controversial vote on a revised capital plan that proposes pulling the plug on thousands of planned new public school seats throughout Manhattan.
The Panel for Educational Policy had been set to vote on the plan, which would cut billions in spending over the coming years, during its regular scheduled meeting Wednesday night. But the vote was delayed at the last minute until next month pending state budget negotiations in Albany, DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said.
The capital budget, the latest version of which was released in February, significantly scales back new schools construction, including delaying plans to build four new Manhattan schools.
While a preliminary plan released last November had set aside $7.4 billion for the construction of 50,000 new seats city-wide from 2010 through 2014, the latest version scales that down to $1.8 billion.
For District 2, which stretches all the way from the Upper East Side down to the tip of Manhattan, that cut translates to 1,988 fewer seats thanks to two new primary schools and two primary/intermediate schools whose construction would be delayed.
As a result, the number of new seats in Chelsea-Midtown West is set to drop from 1,127 to 321 compared with the budget plan adopted last year. Flatiron-Gramercy-Murray Hill would lose 98 seats and the Upper East Side would lose 126.
Parents, meanwhile, have raised serious concerns about any proposed reductions, citing overcrowding that is only expected to grow worse.
"I think they're insane," said mom Susan Kramer, whose daughter, Rose, is in the eighth grade at the Clinton School for Writers and Artists, which is temporarily located at 425 W. 33rd St.
She said her daughter was lucky to get into Clinton, which has leased temporary space from the Archdiocese. But even there, she said classes average well over 30 students.
"I don't understand where they're going to stack the children up and where they're going to educate them," she said, adding that proposed teacher layoffs would only make the problem worse.
The DOE blames Albany for cutting state education aid and says that it has done the best it can to make responsible cuts.
"We understand the need to invest wisely during these tough budget times, but the State's decision to cut back on school construction aid means that we will not be able to keep up with the projected demand across the city," Schools Chancellor Cathie Black said in a statement.
But Shino Tanikawa, the first vice president of the Community Education Council District 2, said that the department has its priorities wrong when it decides how to spend its funds.
The Feb. revision, for instance, boosts funding for technology programs by $486 million, a move Tanikawa opposed.
While lower Manhattan faces the most severe overcrowding, she said that classes have swelled throughout the district, with more than 30 students in many fourth and fifth grade classes.
With a growing number of kids coming through the pipeline, she said that any city plan must include more school seats, not fewer.
"We are going to be in enormous trouble," she said. "Pretty soon we're going to run out of room."
The new capital plan is now expected to be considered at the PEP's April meeting. Once passed, it will go before the City Council as part of the budget negotiations.
Tara Kyle contributed reporting.e
