CONSTRUCTION-PLAGUED SCHOOL RELOCATING
By Ashley Welch
The students of P.S. 51 are being relocated after months of protest from parents and teachers about the unhealthy environment created by construction in the nearby area.
For the past two months, the school, located at 520 W. 45th St., has been surrounded by construction projects that will see new high-rise buildings on the block by 2013.
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This Week’s Paper: Charter Schools Courting Innovation and Ire
Chris Whittle
For this week’s edition of The West Side Spirit, special sections editor Josh Rogers spoke with Chris Whittle, the CEO of Avenues: The World School, about his latest educational endeavors in Manhattan and his ambitions to bring his particular brand of for-profit schools to cities across the globe. Meanwhile, a group of parents have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education to stop Upper West Success Academy Charter School from moving into the Brandeis High School complex. Read more
Holy Cross to Close Doors
Students to be transferred to Sacred Heart of Jesus
The ongoing redistricting saga of West Side Catholic schools will have dramatic consequences for some local parents and their children.
A previously threatened West Side Catholic school, Sacred Heart of Jesus, will now remain open, while Holy Cross, a school with 208 students that seemed safe, will close instead.
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Withdraw Charter
To the Editor:
I am the parent of a student at Frank McCourt High School, a new, small, selective high school on the Brandeis campus with four others replacing an overcrowded failing school in District 3 that desperately needs quality public high school seats. The school has attracted a diverse student population, with pupils from all five boroughs attending, many from the neighborhood.
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Hype Fuels Charter Fight
The truth behind Eva’s Moskowitz’s battle to open an UWS charter school
By Josh Rogers
An Upper West Side father whose child was zoned out of P.S. 87 told Eva Moskowitz he was “shocked” when he heard the loud chanting against the charter school she hopes to open in the neighborhood. “It was like a civil rights movement,” he said.
Demand for Help on PCBs in Schools
Elected officials and advocates urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Education (DOE) to start investigating the levels of toxic PCBs in hundreds of potentially affected city schools. Read more
NO BULLYING AROUND
By Dan Rivoli and Reid Spagna
Students will soon have greater protection from school bullying, now that state lawmakers have passed the Dignity For All Students Act June 22. Read more
Haute Flea
Gone are the days of roaming the flea market on Avenue A and finding vintage T-shirts, old records and the guys from Interpol sulking on a Sunday afternoon. Starting this weekend, though, there’s MARTE on 3rd, a weekend market featuring clothing from designer Jackie Hates You, customized housewares from Lightexture, snacks from Georgia’s Eastside BBQ and eTon and plenty more. (MARTE, by the way, stands for Manhattan Artisan Retail & Trade Emporiums.) Read more
WAITLIST UPDATE
Families who were waitlisted at their zoned kindergarten recently received letters offering an alternate placement for the fall. The Department of Education sent 980 alternate offers to students six weeks earlier than last year, when waitlists were also a problem. Read more
Parents, Schools Tackle West 90s Traffic Hazards
West 96th Street, a major four-lane thoroughfare, has long been a problem for parents of young children, seniors or anyone else who can’t react quickly enough. Aggressive drivers barrel out of nearby exits from the West Side Highway, and cross-town traffic streams in and out of the Central Park traverse. Many complain that drivers regularly make turns with pedestrians still in the cross walk. The problem is prevalent on West 95th and 97th streets, too, in the area between Central Park and Riverside Drive. Read more
