HARLEM — A West Harlem elementary school is facing space issues even after eliminating its art and music rooms as enrollment demand outpaces the school’s space, parents and officials said.
The Teachers College Community School, at 168 Morningside Ave., has been one of the top performing schools in District 5, but its sought-after reputation may be the source of the overflow, parents and officials said.
Laurie Kindred, co-president of the school’s parents’ association, said the space issue has riled a number of parents, who worry not only that current students’ siblings and new students will have to be turned away, but they may have to cut a grade entirely.
“Because there is no plan in place there could be a mass exodus of students from the school,” she said. “Our pre-K [program] this year didn’t even have room for siblings let alone take on applications from new students.”
The school also receives roughly 400 applications a year for 50 seats in kindergarten, she said.
“We know that we have a good school, but we also know what the school was designed to be and built for and why parents chose this school,” she said. “It’s not the one the [city Department of Education] is following through on.”
The school opened in 2010 as a partnership between the DOE and Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Each year since, it has added a grade, starting with kindergarten and then pre-K. The school currently teaches up to fourth grade and will phase in fifth graders this fall, which could put more pressure on the school’s enrollment, Kindred said.
The school was at 100 percent enrollment for 2015-16 school year with a total student population of about 266, according to city DOE data. It has an average of 25 students per class.
“This year when we hit the capacity for the building, we had to move the music and art room,” she said.
The school now plans on putting the art and music programs in the school’s gymnasium.
The parents have created plans to address the issue, but Kindred said their concerns have been ignored.
“There has been no answer whatsoever,” she said. “It’s more upsetting that the DOE and the Superintendent hasn’t even come to us with a sound plan.
“There has to be some attention to this issue and we know that our school is a role model for that.”
A representative from from the school did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In a letter provided to DNAinfo New York, City Councilman Mark Levine, state Sen. Bill Perkins and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer called on the DOE to fix the space issue.
“We strongly urge the DOE to have a solution on October 2016, when the Middle School Directory is published, so that the school’s status will be clear,” the officials wrote.
“The preferred resolution is to locate the entire (school) in one facility with the capacity to expand enrollment to 700 students," they continued. "However, in the immediate future, TCCS needs a minimum of 10 additional classrooms by September 2017 to accommodate its natural growth.”
The politicians said that the school may have to continue to chip away at resources to accommodate students if the space is not given.
“If the space issues for the middle grades are not resolved in a timely manner, it will mean the loss of its library the following year,” the letter said.
The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
