PS 24 annex eases overcrowding woes

By Kate Pastor

PS 24 finally got some breathing room.

The Department of Education formally announced that PS 24’s overcrowded classrooms will soon be able to spill over into space leased in the luxury Whitehall coop across the street.

The announcement makes official what many in the Riverdale/ Kingsbridge area had long suspected. The school is expected to take over the space next fall, but details, such as whether PS 24 will share any of the space with the also overcrowded Robert J. Christen School, PS 81 and what grades or classes will be moved to the new space, remain mysteries.

Councilman Oliver Koppell, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Joe O’Brien from Congressman Eliot Engel’s office all came to witness, and take some credit for, the announcement. They and Community Board 8 have been pushing for the move since the annex was first turned over to schools that admit students on a non-district basis, rather than solely from the neighborhood. Mr. Koppell has been especially outspoken on the issue.

More recently, a group of parents advocating for additional local gifted and talented programs joined the chorus advocating for the “return” of the annex for local school use. But they are likely to be disappointed.

“We’ve got this annex to address an immediate problem here of overcrowding,” said Michael Nolan, one of the Department of Ed officials who attended. He noted that opening the school up to an additional gifted and talented program would mean additional out-of-zone children. That, he said, could defeat the purpose of providing more space to the overcrowded school.

“The Whitehall is great news, but students’ needs still remain,” said Annmarie Hunter, whose son is in kindergarten and has tested into the gifted and talented program for next fall.

“We’re weeks away from the latest round of gifted and talented test results being released and even with the addition of the kindergarten program, chances are we will still have too many children qualifying and too little seats,” she said, adding that she was encouraged by Mr. Nolan’s assurances that program placement would be based on where students who test into the program live.

PS 24’s Parents’ Association, however, expressed its hope that the space would be used to keep class sizes small, not accommodate additional students.

Parents who hoped that the Whitehall annex would accomodate gifted and talented programs are likely to be disappointed.