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Only 5 Students Transferred from 'Dangerous' UWS School, CEC Members Say

By Emily Frost | January 8, 2016 12:31pm | Updated on January 11, 2016 8:54am
 Just five students transferred from P.S. 191, education leaders said.
Just five students transferred from P.S. 191, education leaders said.
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DNAinfo/Emily Frost

UPPER WEST SIDE — Only five students ultimately transferred from a local school deemed "persistently dangerous" by the state last summer — another sign the designation was made erroneously and has no factual basis, members of a local education council said.

Although 27 students requested transfers from P.S. 191 this fall under the No Child Left Behind Act, only five ultimately transferred out of the school, said Community Education Council 3 member Noah Gotbaum, who serves as a liaison to the school.

Those five students make up just 1 percent of the 490 attending the pre-k through eighth-grade school, showing "very strong support for the school" among parents and students who deem it safe, Gotbaum said at a council meeting Wednesday.

Principal Lauren Keville shared the news of the transfers at a December meeting with Department of Education officials to talk about the future of the school as it pertains to district rezoning, Gotbaum said.

Keville did not respond to a request for comment.

A DOE spokesman confirmed that there were 10 or fewer transfers, but said he cannot confirm the exact number due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

School leaders and the P.S. 191 PTA are considering sharing more data that will further show the school is not the dangerous place the label makes it seem, CEC members reported. The designation can't officially be dropped until Aug. 1.

As part of a campaign to sway opinion and increase enrollment, the school plans on “deeply recruiting the pre-k families and engaging in more community building with [P.S.] 199,” said CEC3 member Nan Mead, who also serves as a P.S. 191 liaison.

During zoning discussions this fall — when the DOE proposed expanding the P.S. 191 zone and routing families that would have gone to P.S. 199 to P.S. 191 instead — parents raised concerns about the "dangerous" label and academics at the school, based on judgments of state test scores, CEC member Lucas Liu said.

But when looking at a school’s overall scores, it’s not fair to compare an elementary school with a K-8 school like P.S. 191 that doesn't screen students for admission to its middle-school grades, said DOE Superintendent Ilene Altschul.

Unlike other local middle schools, which weigh test scores or students' portfolios for admission, “[P.S. 191] can’t turn any middle school student away; they’re starting with a more difficult population,” she said.

The school also has a much higher ratio of students from poor families or with special needs, CEC3 member Daniel Katz pointed out.

“They have some staggering needs,” he noted.

Funding for guidance counselors and after school programs from local arts institutions and elected officials will help close the gap between P.S. 191 and surrounding schools, council members said.

The new funding has allowed the school to add a community choir, an athletic program and expand its arts program, as well as set up new partnerships with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, a DOE spokesman said. 

But there's also a renewed focus on academics, Altschul added.

“[School leaders] are pushing instruction," she said, noting she has been making nearly weekly visits to the school and meeting with the principal, assistant principal and teachers to guide them.

"They are working on ways to really ...push [students’] thinking, challenge them and get their grades up."

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