Big Education Ape: NYC Public School Parents: Despite parent protests, DOE to go ahead with plan to push class sizes to 46 at PS 11Q Queens & violate building code

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

NYC Public School Parents: Despite parent protests, DOE to go ahead with plan to push class sizes to 46 at PS 11Q Queens & violate building code

NYC Public School Parents: Despite parent protests, DOE to go ahead with plan to push class sizes to 46 at PS 11Q Queens & violate building code:

Despite parent protests, DOE to go ahead with plan to push class sizes to 46 at PS 11Q Queens & violate building code

For more on the class size violations this plan will trigger, and the opposition of elected officials and parents, see DNA info here and here. The plan also includes busing Kindergarten students to three different schools for three years in a row. You can send your comments toD30Proposals@schools.nyc.gov before 5 PM today, to be voted on tomorrow night at the PEP meeting at Prospect Heights HS in Brooklyn.

Dear Panel members:

I see that the plan to build an annex at PS 11 in Queens is again on the agenda, to be voted on at this week's meeting on Wednesday April 9. This will mean doubled up class sizes in grades 1-3.

Please see attached chart, showing proposed room usage next year at PS 11 in which eleven rooms will violate UFT class size limits, with class sizes up to 46; and ten rooms that will violate the building code. These are the worst class sizes I have seen in over a decade of advocacy work. Building code violations are simply unacceptable and unnecessarily will risk children's safety.

There is an obvious alternative. Delay construction for one year until PS 339 nearby is completed. DOE's claim that the money to build the annex could not be put into escrow for one year makes NO sense at all and should not be accepted at face value.

Whatever the solution, these doubled up class sizes should NOT be allowed to occur. They are unfair to children, will severely undermine their educational trajectory for life, and are probably illegal. I urge you to vote NO on this proposal.