Community Education Council District 24 President Nick Comaianni, (l.) and city Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina discuss school overcrowding at a town hall earlier this year. File Photo
Space issues such as chronic overcrowding, the use of mobile classrooms and problems with co-located schools, whereby charter and public schools occupy the same building, have long plagued schools across the city.
So, in an effort to tackle these problems, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s School Space Working Group, formed earlier this year to address space issues, recently released a set of guidelines and recommendations to help make space decisions both more equitable and transparent.
The group, co-chaired by Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina and Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, and comprised of teachers, parents, elected officials and other community leaders, met throughout the spring and summer to “develop solutions to often intractable space issues,” according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office.
Among the group’s recommendations were to help students with special needs to get more space allocated for specialized instruction; increase input for school siting decisions via community education councils; hold public hearings for building-use decisions during the school year only; and create a Guidebook to Effective Co-Location, as well as many other recommendations aimed at solving long-standing space and class size challenges.
In a statement on the mayor’s website, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said, “I commend this administration for creating the School Space Working Group and recognizing what educators, students, and parents have always known—space matters… The recommendations of the
Working Group are a positive step towards moving the needs of students and their schools to the center of all school space-sharing decisions…”
But, some former and current borough education leaders were more cautious upon review of the group’s recommendations.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj, a Middle Village resident, community activist and former member of the city’s Panel for Education Policy, which works to improve the welfare of schools and students in the city, was wary of the suggestions.
“Taking a proactive approach to do what’s right for our school communities are of paramount concern and I believe this proposal attempts to do just that, but ideas are thoughts and only actions will determine satisfactory outcomes,” Fedkowskyj said. “I’ve been involved with hundreds of these co-location proposals during my tenure on the PEP and the community voices were always ignored.”
For his part, Nick Comaianni, president of CEC 24, felt that the recommendations were vague, with not enough specifics.
“The report was basically saying, ‘we’ll do better,’” Comaianni said.
He added that he’s seen these types of Department of Education reports all too often. Asked about co-location problems, Comaianni said they’re hard to address.
“Although it’s not really a problem in District 24, but in many other districts a charter school will come into a school, apply for a co-location, looking maybe to occupy a couple of empty classrooms and before you know it, they take over half the school,” he explained.
Fedkowskij said that the action or decision of the local CEC should be a priority when co-location proposals are decided.
He added that “…Public hearings are important but they are merely a function of the process. When it involves a charter school, the charter group doesn’t show up to make a presentation and the public is left out in the cold.”
Said Fedkowskyj, “I’m hopeful that ‘action’ takes place and that ideas and thoughts of the committee continue, because state laws and our public school system consistently change every year and modifications will be needed to offer a fair plan for everybody invol
By Alan Krawitz
