To: Dennis Walcott, Chancellor, Marc Sternberg, Portfolio and Planning, Richard Bocchicchio, Space Planning, Susan Cofield, Deputy Chief Executive, Office of Enrollment, Inez Dickens, Council Member, Robert Jackson, Council Member, Bill Perk...
Dennis Walcott: Help us expand our enrollment for the local school community and gain fair use o...
There are gross inequities that are occurring against the students that attend PS 125M, The Ralph Bunche School. This school is a co-location site. The other schools are Columbia Secondary School (a selective NYCDOE school) and Kipp Star Charter School. The current issues are with CSS which has co-located in our building since 2007. Each year they have increased in size, which in turn has decreased the amount of space we have for our classes. This has caused a number of issues that we know are unfair to the children who live in this community.
First, the children that attend PS 125 have been limited in using the shared spaces in the building such as the gym, lunchroom, library, yard and auditorium. Our children use the gym for limited hours. They are not getting the necessary time allotted for physical education. CSS students get preference because high school students have to fulfill their PE credits in order to graduate. This school year our children, who are in kindergarten through 5th grade, are eating lunch at 1:00pm. This is unfair to young children. If anything an older child should be able to wait and eat lunch at a later time. There seems to be no understanding of this fact. Furthermore, it has just come to our attention that for the next school year PS 125 students will not be able to use the school’s lunchroom at all! They will be banned from the lunchroom and relegated to eating lunch in the basement of the Kipp Star charter school that is actually in another building next door and to access that lunchroom students will have to travel through a dimly lit passageway in the basement. This passageway can be frightening for early childhood students and it is in no way a standard corridor as in the rest of the building. Also, we have learned that the library will be demolished and turned into classrooms for CSS students. Again another resource is being denied to our students. All of these “shared spaces” are not shared equitably by the student body of PS 125. And according to those who are setting these unequal rules, the students of PS 125 may not get to use those spaces at all next year.
Second, parents that live in the community want to enroll their children in kindergarten at PS 125 but have been told that a second kindergarten class will not be permitted to be started. Why is it that PS 125 is not allowed to expand to service the children in this community but CSS is allowed to grow? Most of the students that attend CSS do not live in the community. CSS as a selective school along with the Office of Portfolio and Planning, can select not to continue to add so many students knowing that it conflicts with our ability to expand our classes. The parents that support PS 125 and already have children attending this school do not want their children in a smaller building across the street (PS 36M). Not to slight the parents of that school but we want our children to be able to have access to the resources that this school building offers such as a gym, yard and a pool for physical education, an auditorium so our kids can showcase their artistic skills and participate in various school functions, a library to do research and study and a lunchroom to use that is in the building in which our students are attending.
Please recognize that we are not against co-locating with the other school but we want PS 125 students to have a quality learning environment. CSS must not be allowed to continue to expand at the expense of PS 125 being downsized and/or eliminated. As it stands this is not occurring. Our shared spaces should really be shared and priority should not be given to one group of students over the other. They must be distributed in a fair and equitable manner. PS 125 must have the right to expand and open classrooms as needed, starting with a second kindergarten class for the 2013-2014 school year, to service the community. The children who live in the immediate area have the right to the school’s resources as well. Currently this situation is a prime example of “separate and not equal” educational opportunities. We see it happening and the students are experiencing it! Help us to change these unfair practices for the success of our students’ futures.
Respectfully yours,
Coalition for Concerned PS 125 Parents
First, the children that attend PS 125 have been limited in using the shared spaces in the building such as the gym, lunchroom, library, yard and auditorium. Our children use the gym for limited hours. They are not getting the necessary time allotted for physical education. CSS students get preference because high school students have to fulfill their PE credits in order to graduate. This school year our children, who are in kindergarten through 5th grade, are eating lunch at 1:00pm. This is unfair to young children. If anything an older child should be able to wait and eat lunch at a later time. There seems to be no understanding of this fact. Furthermore, it has just come to our attention that for the next school year PS 125 students will not be able to use the school’s lunchroom at all! They will be banned from the lunchroom and relegated to eating lunch in the basement of the Kipp Star charter school that is actually in another building next door and to access that lunchroom students will have to travel through a dimly lit passageway in the basement. This passageway can be frightening for early childhood students and it is in no way a standard corridor as in the rest of the building. Also, we have learned that the library will be demolished and turned into classrooms for CSS students. Again another resource is being denied to our students. All of these “shared spaces” are not shared equitably by the student body of PS 125. And according to those who are setting these unequal rules, the students of PS 125 may not get to use those spaces at all next year.
Second, parents that live in the community want to enroll their children in kindergarten at PS 125 but have been told that a second kindergarten class will not be permitted to be started. Why is it that PS 125 is not allowed to expand to service the children in this community but CSS is allowed to grow? Most of the students that attend CSS do not live in the community. CSS as a selective school along with the Office of Portfolio and Planning, can select not to continue to add so many students knowing that it conflicts with our ability to expand our classes. The parents that support PS 125 and already have children attending this school do not want their children in a smaller building across the street (PS 36M). Not to slight the parents of that school but we want our children to be able to have access to the resources that this school building offers such as a gym, yard and a pool for physical education, an auditorium so our kids can showcase their artistic skills and participate in various school functions, a library to do research and study and a lunchroom to use that is in the building in which our students are attending.
Please recognize that we are not against co-locating with the other school but we want PS 125 students to have a quality learning environment. CSS must not be allowed to continue to expand at the expense of PS 125 being downsized and/or eliminated. As it stands this is not occurring. Our shared spaces should really be shared and priority should not be given to one group of students over the other. They must be distributed in a fair and equitable manner. PS 125 must have the right to expand and open classrooms as needed, starting with a second kindergarten class for the 2013-2014 school year, to service the community. The children who live in the immediate area have the right to the school’s resources as well. Currently this situation is a prime example of “separate and not equal” educational opportunities. We see it happening and the students are experiencing it! Help us to change these unfair practices for the success of our students’ futures.
Respectfully yours,
Coalition for Concerned PS 125 Parents
Why is this important?
We don't want our children to be displaced from their community school and we want them to have access to the resources in their building such as the cafeteria, gymnasium, library, auditorium, and the pool! Also, PS 125 should be allowed to expand its enrollment to service the community especially when there are waiting lists of parents that want to enroll their children specifically in our school. Our children are being subjected to "separate and unequal" educational experiences and in the year of 2013 that should not happen!