DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of the New York Daily News
Teachers and parents at a high-achieving Flushing elementary school signed hundreds of letters last week opposing a city plan to place a new school in their building.
Ironically, it was a new city policy – seeking input from schools with usable empty space – that tipped off parents at Public School 21, mobilizing them to protest the Education Department’s plan for the school at 147-36 26th Ave.
The new notification policy set off alarm bells for concerned parents. But it ultimately may be welcomed as a needed change – as it was by leaders at a Bronx school, which now shares space with a charter school.
At an emergency PTA meeting at PS 21 on Thursday, more than 100 people discussed the city’s bid to make room for a program that threatened to displace the school’s wait-listed prekindergarten classes.
“They just left the parents out of this. I guess they felt like if they just came in and did this, the parents wouldn’t say anything,” said Laura Del Greco, PS 21’s PTA president, who enlisted officials to help.
The Education Department backed off Tuesday. Spokeswoman Melody Meyer said, “There was never anything slated for that particular school.”
City records initially overestimated unused classrooms, a liaison for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein wrote in an e-mail. But PS 21 parents aren’t letting their guard down just yet.
“We still are very wary about what’s going on,” said Del Greco, who wants a pledge in writing.
Parents accused the city of secrecy, but the outcry came only after Principal Deborah Buszko received a letter as part of the new initiative to seek input before finalizing plans. Some 200 identical letters went to schools citywide.
The policy began this school year, after several Daily News reports about parents protesting unexpected school mergers.
The Dec. 20 letter included a data sheet and requested Buszko reply with details, corrections and elaboration on facility and population figures for the school.
“We also strongly urge that you share this information” with school leadership, the letter said.
“I definitely think it’s an improvement,” said Stephanie Pryor, parent association president at PS 93 in the Bronx.
At her Soundview school, parents picketed the chancellor’s office when the city ignored their protest of plans to place a high school in empty classrooms. “We want to talk to the communities before we make the final determination,” Meyer said. “That doesn’t mean in a school where there’s extra space and the community doesn’t want it, they won’t get them. But we always think the principal has valuable input.”
