After more than a year of debate, the District 3 Community Education Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a rezoning proposal that could relieve overcrowding and help integrate Upper West Side schools.
But when it comes to a separate proposal to redraw school boundaries in Harlem, the council may hit the pause button. Kimberly Watkins, who chairs the council’s zoning committee, said she plans to use a public hearing Monday night to ask for a postponement.
“We really haven’t heard from the parents involved and we want to give them an opportunity to ask more questions and feel more comfortable,” Watkins said.
Rezonings have to be proposed by the city Department of Education — but the plans must be approved by the CEC, a board made of local parent volunteers.
The Harlem proposal surfaced only two weeks ago, shortly after the city Department of Education announced plans to merge P.S. 241 STEM Institute of Manhattan with P.S. 76 A. Philip Randolph, some eight blocks away.
Already in the midst of rezoning schools on the Upper West Side, CEC members used news of the merger to push for a plan in the northern end of the district, too. (District 3 spans from the northern tip of Central Park to 122nd Street on the west side of Manhattan.)
Though the council asked city planners to act quickly — applications for kindergarten open at the end of this month — Watkins said it has become clear that more time is needed to hear from the school communities in Harlem that would be impacted.
Some public hearings have been held since the plan for north of 110th Street was unveiled, but until tonight none of the meetings have been in Harlem, and few parents from that community have spoken up. Watkins said the CEC has until Dec. 24 to vote on the Harlem rezoning proposal.
But Antonette Whittick, a PTA co-president at STEM Institute, said parents feel the merger and rezoning are already a done deal.
“I don’t think we were given time to process what’s going on. It’s being force-fed to us,” she said. “I think it’s intentional to discourage us from fighting.”
The CEC does not have control over the proposed merger — that decision is ultimately up to a vote by the Panel for Educational Policy, a citywide body.
Community Education Council members have also questioned what will become of the space vacated by the STEM Institute, should the merger go through. STEM shares a building with two charter schools. One of those schools, Opportunity Charter, happens to be up for renewal — and has asked to be allowed to expand.