PS 130, at 200-01 42nd Ave. in Bayside, currently mainly serves District 25 students. The school, however, is geographically in District 26 and historically was a K-6 and K-8 school for students living on the Auburndale-Bayside border.
Through political manipulation, the school was closed to local children, and after several incarnations became what it is today. Many of the students are bused in from other parts of District 25, while the local children are bused to overcrowded District 26 schools. This makes no sense considering the effect on students’ education and the prohibitive cost of busing children. Children living across or down the street from PS 130 cannot attend their neighborhood school, which they could get to by walking.
The Auburndale Improvement Association Inc. is circulating a petition calling for the return of PS 130 to neighborhood children. We realize the education of the students currently attending the school must not be disrupted. The changeover would have to be gradual. We also believe the program at the school for special needs students should stay because we believe there would still be sufficient room for local children on the upper floors of the building.
The response that we have been getting from the petition in the community is overwhelming and powerful. The feeling is that returning PS 130 to District 26 is in the best interests of the students and the stability of the surrounding neighborhood.
The civic organization has written to the city Department of Education, the city School Construction Authority, the superintendents of Districts 25 and 26, Community Board 11, local elected leaders and those candidates seeking office in this area this year, concerning this situation.
When the petitions are complete, we will forward copies to all of the above so they can receive the full impact of the comments on those petitions regarding the need to return PS 130 to the community.
Returning PS 130 to District 26 should reduce some of the overcrowding in schools where local students are now being bused to every school day. The present controversy as to where to site a new elementary school in District 26 may then be moot or at least it may place emphasis on siting a new school elsewhere in District 26, or in District 25, at an appropriate place agreeable to the community.
Henry Euler
First Vice President
Auburndale Improvement Association Inc.
Bayside
