Crowds at PS 321 Making Parents Nervous
According to a Wall Street Journal article, the overcrowding problem at PS 321 has Park Slope parents worrying about both their children’s education and their property values. With 1,300 students on its roster right now, the school is at 117% of capacity. No zoned kindergartner has been turned away or put on a wait-list for…
According to a Wall Street Journal article, the overcrowding problem at PS 321 has Park Slope parents worrying about both their children’s education and their property values. With 1,300 students on its roster right now, the school is at 117% of capacity. No zoned kindergartner has been turned away or put on a wait-list for the school yet, but the possibility is growing for a lottery system or that the PS 321 area will be rezoned to funnel kids into different schools. (PS 133, for example, is expected to open on Baltic Street by September 2012.) According to Streeteasy.com, the PS 321 zone brings in $6 to $19 more per square foot than adjacent real estate zoned for other Park Slope schools. Even an unmarried Novo resident, without children, asserted, “I would certainly be fighting very vehemently anything that takes the building out of the zone.”
PS 321 Draws a Crowd, Sends a Chill [WSJ]
“Seems PS. 321 should look to expand their space if possible. ”
The problem is the budget. They had to pare down their staff this year as is, with big whopping budget cuts over the past 2 years (same as other schools) – they don’t have the budget to hire more teachers. Unfortunately, I don’t think Chancellor Klein reads Brownstoner.
Does anyone know if there’s been an official DOE response to any of the several overcrowding articles that have run in various papers over the past year?
ishtar – I agree with you – except I will say that I dont believe it is much related to the “economic” part of socioeconomic. If you take a family that doesn’t value education, is anti-intellectual, etc… and give them tons of $, there kids arent going to be much higher achieving than they otherwise would have been (ala the Palins) – vice versa – if you took many of these families and stole all their money, the kids are still going to do well in school. But otherwise I agree – it is so much more the families/kids than the schools.
Part of the problem is that the school allows students to continue attending there even after the family moves OUT of the school zone. Take away this rule and it would alleviate much of the crowding.
I take it back…a lot of people liked 150 Lincoln.
I was remembering another house. Nevertheless, it’s in contract and will be curious to see what it sells for.
Food Co-op too crowded. PS. 321 too crowded.
These are signs of a healthy, vibrant, sought after community.
Seems PS. 321 should look to expand their space if possible.
Otherwise, the property value argument doesn’t really hold water for me because many of the largest sales in Park Slope take place in the named Streets above Union which are in PS. 282.
150 Lincoln Place has entered contract. Asking price 3.2 million. It was the modern reno that a ton of people hated when it was HOTD. I loved it. It’s in PS. 282.
I always find these school discussions funny. A school is only as good as the families who send their students there. Majority of these students, given their socioeconomic backgrounds, would do exeedingly well no matter what school they attend because most of their learning likely takes place at home first.
The actual student population is closer to 1400, and class sizes at 321 are indeed bigger this year due to the combination of budget cuts and an increase in new students.
For a lot of people, buying one of the new 4th ave. condo units is an affordable option that allows their kid to get into this school, and for that I can hardly fault them – it shouldn’t be a school just for those who can afford a brownstone (or for the other middle-class option – rent for a year and then move 3 neighborhoods away).
OTOH, what do people in these buildings expect, when so many housing units have been added to a given school zone, with no financial give-back to the school (either from the developer, who made a huge profit from the school’s success, or the DOE) to accommodate this very large increase in student population?
PS 107, PS 10, PS 39 and other nearby schools have greatly improved in the past few years. If 133 opens with a good, motivated principal and parents who are willing to get involved in their PTA as much as the ones at 321, 107, et. al., then there’s no need to worry about property values in a rezoning.
gemini – the WSJ is trying to make a move on the NYT as more of a ‘local’ paper as well as a business daily.
Your not going to get the 321 story if you buy the WSJ in San Francisco.
As to the problem…I dont think it really is one. First, its at 17% overcapacity – but there is no indication what it “normally” is. I bet it has been over capacity for a very long time. 2nd the big building (4th Ave) push has abated, so I believe that a large % of the ‘new’ residents are likely in the school already; and as they age, go private and move – the over crowding will subside. 3rd there is still a fair number of non-zoned students who are waived in, are ‘lying’ about their true residence or who otherwise really arent eligible for the school. Better enforcement and an end to waivers will happen before a rezone IMHO (if only because the administrators will want to avoid the shit storm of a rezone at all costs)
I never would have thought that in NYC you’d get an overcrowding problem.