Community Education Council District 2
333 Seventh Avenue
New York, New York 10001
Tel (212) 356-3915 Fax (212) 356-7506
www.cecd2.net
Shino Tanikawa, President
Simon Miller, 1st Vice President
Elizabeth Weiss, 2nd Vice President
Sarah Chu, Treasurer
Tamara Rowe, Recording Secretary
Beth Cirone
Demetri Ganiaris
Cheryl D. Glover
Eric Goldberg
Michael Markowitz, P.E
Resolution #64
On Creating Separate Elementary School Zones for PS 3 and PS 41
for School Year 2014
WHEREAS, PS 3 (John Melser Charrette School) was established in early 1970s to offer an
educational alternative within the PS 41 (Greenwich Village School) catchment zone;
WHEREAS, PS 3 and PS 41 have shared an elementary school zone for 42 years;
WHEREAS, Community Education Council District 2 (CECD2) recently adopted Resolution
#62 on December 6, 2012, to create a zone for a new school known as the “Foundling School”,
effective Fall 2014, reducing the size of the shared PS 3 and PS 41 zone;
WHEREAS, historically PS 3 has served families seeking an arts-integrated curriculum from
within the shared zone and across the district;
WHEREAS, due to significant increase in student population within the shared zone, PS 3 has
recently been unable to accommodate as many “out-of-zone” students as compared to prior years
and accepted no out-of-zone students for the current 2012-2013 school year, this despite
Greenwich Village Middle School having moved out of the shared building in Fall 2010;
WHEREAS, PS 3 has applied to become a “District-wide Choice School” on three separate
occasions, but has had its request denied each time by the Department of Education;
WHEREAS, both PS 3 and PS 41 have faced issues of ever-increasing school overcrowding,
increased class sizes, and PS 41 in particular has experienced chronic waitlists;
WHEREAS, the enrollment at PS 3 has grown to 813 in 2012, - a 108% utilization rate; and the
enrollment at PS 41 has grown 782 in 2012 – a 127% utilization rate;
WHEREAS, DOE reluctance to establish section count and student enrollment caps adequate to
limit overcrowding has forced PS 41 to convert “cluster rooms” intended for art, music, and/or
science into general education classrooms, and nevertheless led to increasing class sizes in all
grades and kindergarten class enrollment levels at the UFT contractual maximums, and which
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has in various years caused each of PS 3 and PS 41 to lose their ability to offer Pre-K programs;
WHEREAS, given the disproportionate demand for PS 41 within the current shared zone, it is
unlikely the school will be able to reduce overcrowding or class sizes or wait lists as long as the
zone remains shared;
WHEREAS, CECD2 believes that the shared zone in recent years has detracted rather than
enhanced the educational offering and environment within the catchment area and has hampered
the progress and growth of each school;
WHEREAS, the shared zone has resulted in a difficult and uncertain enrollment process that
diverts valuable leadership attention from learning towards administrative and coordination
activities;
WHEREAS, the DOE has been unwilling to engage, or make written commitments to, the
reasonable requests and proposals from both PS 3 in terms of “zone+choice”, and PS 41 in terms
of capping, that would allow a shared zone to function in the best interests of the schools and the
community;
WHEREAS, the CECD2 held numerous Zoning Committee meetings, attended by the DOE, to
solicit feedback from the school community and the community-at-large, reached out to
preschools in District 2 using the best available contact list, and created opportunities for
families to provide input via email and social media channels;
WHEREAS, the CECD2 considered arguments for and against splitting the remaining shared
zone, weighing carefully the issues raised, including but not limited to:
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Equitableness of preserving choice for some families after having eliminated choice for
those families in the new Foundling school zone;
Administrative burdens on the two schools arising from managing waitlists in a shared
zone;
Uncertainty surrounding the DOE’s projections for 2014 based on 2012 registers, and the
effects of the Foundling school on overcrowding in the shared zone including the impact
of a lack of information about younger siblings of current students;
Alternative nature of PS 3 and the importance of choice to the school culture;
Lack of certainty for families who choose PS 41 due to overcrowding and waitlisting;
WHEREAS, the CECD2 recognizes the possibility that overcrowding and waitlists at PS 41 and
PS 3 may not be eliminated by a separate zone;
WHEREAS, CECD2 has worked with the DOE to revise the draft proposed zoning plans in
response to community feedback;
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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that CECD2 adopts the attached zoning line proposal as
submitted by the Superintendent’s designee for 2014, establishing dedicated and separate
catchment zones for PS 3 and PS 41, and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, as the zoning lines are to be approved without
the benefit of more accurate data and population projections as requested by CECD2, that
CECD2 requests DOE to monitor application and enrollment trends at all schools and engage
CECD2 to determine if the student population has been properly and equitably distributed, and to
develop a plan if proper and equitable population distribution has not been achieved; and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that CECD2 requests the DOE put in place
section and student enrollment caps to alleviate overcrowding at both PS 3 and PS 41; and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that CECD2 requests that the DOE
immediately put in a place an enrollment process for this upcoming 2013-2014 school year that
consists of a unified and centralized application process that allows families to indicate their
school preference, and which maintains a single zone-wide lottery-ranked waitlist, so as to ease
the administrative burden of the shared zone, balance enrollment at both schools, and provide for
equitable treatment of all families in the shared zone; and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that CECD2 supports the administration and
families of PS 3 in their pursuit to fulfill its mission of offering an arts-integrated curriculum for
families and students within its catchment zone; and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that CECD2 believes, if the arts-integrated
curriculum of PS 3 is put at risk as a result of this rezoning, that in conjunction with the
development of new proposed schools in Greenwich Village (i.e., 75 Morton, Hudson Square,
and NYU), DOE reconsider the prior proposal by PS 3 to become a district-wide option school.
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that CECD2 requests a revised map that
zones 3 blocks bound by Perry, Washington, Bethune and West Streets into the PS 3 zone.
Adopted and approved by CECD2 on January 23, 2013.
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