By Kathianne Boniello
School Board 26 in Bayside voted to postpone a resolution last Thursday night that would have let Little Neck parents send their children to a less overcrowded school in Douglaston after a large turnout objected to the possibility of making the option permanent.
The option, discussed at an April 19 public hearing, would allow parents of incoming kindergartners who would normally attend PS 94 in Little Neck to send their kids to PS 98 in Douglaston. According to figures from School District 26, PS 94 was operating at 136 percent of capacity in the fall of 2000 while PS 98 was at 89 percent last fall.
Following the April 19 public hearing at which PS 98 parents became upset at the possibility of their school becoming overcrowded with overflow from PS 94, School Board 26 reworded the resolution. About 60 people attended the April 19 hearing.
The altered language of the resolution presented for a vote at last week’s SB 26 meeting held at MS 74 in Bayside, called for allowing the option to be reviewed and either extended or rejected after the 2001-2002 school year.
Before a crowd of roughly 100 to 150 people, the board voted in a 6-1 decision to push back a vote on the resolution to the group’s May meeting.
Elliott Socci, president of the Douglaston Civic Association, spoke against the PS 94/98 resolution at the meeting.
“I came out in support of PS 98 family,” he said after the meeting. “We do not oppose PS 94 children, we’re opposed to overcrowding and opposed to the notion that this an annual event.”
Michele Rowe, co-president of the PS 98 Parent Teacher Association, urged cooperation between the two schools in a statement.
“To have our real concerns be translated as animosity between us is divisive and untrue,” she said. “We plan to work cooperatively to address the sensitive issues of finding a real long-term solution to overcrowding.”
School Board 26 President Sharon Maurer said the resolution on whether or not to shift children from PS 94 to PS 98 was postponed to give parents at PS 98 a chance to discuss the option.
“The board didn’t back down,” she said of the postponement. Instead the decision gave the group a chance “to stop and to listen to the community.”
Maurer said when the option to allow PS 94 parents to send their incoming kindergartners to PS 98 was first presented everyone seemed in agreeable, but the subsequent contention at the April 19 public hearing forced the board to give the option more time.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 299-0300, Ext. 146.
