NEW YORK CITY — The city's Panel for Educational Policy is set to vote Wednesday on a dozen proposals to change to school buildings, including two new sites for children with autism and a school closure in the Bronx.
The controversial Bloomberg-backed proposal to co-locate several new schools inside existing schools and common facilities such as the gymnasium and cafeteria.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has touted his policy to shut down larger, underperforming schools and replace them with multiple smaller schools as a way to overhaul the city's educational system.
But the plan has come under repeated fire by parents, teachers union leaders and advocates who argue that cramming too many schools into the same building causes tension and reduces resources for existing schools.
Last month the panel approved 22 school closures and more than two dozen co-locations. Roughly 150 schools have been shut down or are in the process of closing under Bloomberg, according to estimates by the United Federation of Teachers, which has called for a moratorium on the city's school closures and co-locations.
The panel's public meeting begins 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Prospect Heights Campus, 883 Classon Ave. in Brooklyn.
Here are the proposals up for vote:
Bronx
• Plan to open a new site for The School of Cooperative Technical Education, a district program focused on work-based learning for students in grades 9-12. The proposal calls for the new site to be co-located with two existing high schools, Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community Research and Banana Kelley High School, at 965 Longwood Ave.
• Plan to co-locate a new site for students with special needs. The new site, P168X, would enroll students in grades K-8 who have autism or other learning disabilities. The new site would share a building with two schools, P.S. 160 Walt Disney and The Equality Charter School, at 4140 Hutchinson River Parkway East.
• Plan to close New Day Academy at 800 Home Street in the Bronx at the end of the 2012-13 school year. This move follows the panel's February 2011 note to phase out the school based on its poor performance. The school was scheduled to shut down in June 2014, but declining enrollment has sped up the process, the proposal states.
Brooklyn
• Plan to co-locate the Research and Service High School, a new district transfer high school for struggling students ages 16 and older, at 1700 Fulton Street. The school would share space with Boys and Girls High School.
• Plan to co-locate the new elementary school, 17K532, for students in preschool through fifth grade at 1025 Eastern Parkway. In the same building, P.S. 167 is on track to close down by 2016, and a new Success Academy network charter school is under consideration to open in fall 2013.
• Plan to co-locate the new Success Academy Charter School Brooklyn 7 at 1025 Eastern Parkway. The network charter school campus is set to open to grades K-2 in fall 2013.
• Plan to approve the long-term co-location of Lefferts Gardens Charter School, an elementary school that plans to expand to fifth grade by 2014-15, at 601 Parkside Avenue. The proposal asks the panel to extend Lefferts' co-location with P.S. 92 rather than require Lefferts to secure a private facility.
• Plan to co-locate a new program, 75K771, for students with special needs at 845 E. 96th St. The new site of the city's special education program plans to serve students in grades K-8 who have autism or other emotional disabilities.
• Plan to approve revised school building plans for Leadership Preparatory Charter School 4 at 1001 E. 100 St. The new site of the Uncommon Schools charter school network is set to open to students in kindergarten and first grade in fall 2013.
Manhattan
• Plan to co-locate additional grades at Success Academy Charter School Harlem 4 in tandem buildings 20 W. 112th St. and 21 W. 111th St. The proposal would put the network charter school's fifth- and sixth-graders at the sites only for the 2013-14 school year. Four existing schools share the building: P.S. 185 The Early Childhood Discovery and Design Magnet School; P.S. 208 Alain L. Locke Magnet School for Environmental Stewardship; Harlem Link Charter School; and P226M.
Queens
• Plan to temporarily co-locate kindergarten class of P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong at 111-08 Northern Boulevard to make room for new students in the 2013-14 school year. The space would be shared with P.S. 330. Like several elementary schools in the Corona neighborhood, P.S. 143 has been grappling with severe overcrowding, the proposal states.
• Plan to temporarily co-locate the fourth and fifth grades of P.S. 176 Cambria Heights while the school undergoes construction to expand. The proposal would put the two grade levels of the elementary school in the same building as I.S. 59 Springfield Gardens middle school at 132-55 Ridgedale Street through 2016.
Staten Island
• Plan to expand a special education program slated to open in fall 2013, from grades K-5 to grades K-8. The new program, P373R@PS48, is set to share a space with P.S. 48 William C. Wilcox at 1050 Targee Street.
The panel's vote on the proposals for school building changes follows a 45-day period for oral and written comments.
You can view the official proposals at the city's Department of Education website. For more information, call (212) 374-5159.
