Parents and teachers at a popular Washington Heights school have advocated for smaller classes for years, but now some are upset about plans to achieve the goal by sacrificing part of the large schoolyard.
The debate at P.S./I.S. 187 captures the types of tradeoffs facing high-demand schools as the city seeks to comply with a new law limiting class sizes while simultaneously managing a system with declining enrollment. The city's School Construction Authority has proposed building a new addition on the blacktop of the school on Cabrini Boulevard, to create more space for smaller classes by 2030.
But several P.S./I.S. 187 parents say the new facility will lead to years of construction dust and noise and reduce outdoor play space.
“ I also support smaller classes, but it has to be balanced with another cost here. In this case, it's taking over the schoolyard and adding more construction,” parent Einat Lev said.
She’s part of a group of parents who have asked officials to consider moving P.S./I.S. 187’s middle grades to one of several under-enrolled schools nearby.
It’s the type of quandary that education experts say is likely to ensue throughout the five boroughs due to the class size law, which requires head counts of no more than 20 to 25 students depending on grade.
This spring, state lawmakers granted the Mamdani administration’s request for more time to comply with the law, hire teachers and create space. But as popular schools look for additional room, rosters at many other schools have shrunk.
Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters and the leading champion of the effort, has called on officials to shift enrollment to benefit all schools, which she believes will draw more students into the public school system.
“Adjusting enrollment between schools also helps the underutilized schools because their budgets are so limited that they are unable to offer art, music, science or any of the other sorts of programs needed for a quality education,” she said.
Haimson added that “one of the huge advantages” of shifting enrollment “is that it’s quick and cost-free while building new schools and annexes cost billions and take at least four to five years, and by that point current kids in the school have been cheated out of a better education.”
Earlier this month, the Mamdani administration’s class size plan called additional enrollment restrictions at sought-after schools a “lever” officials would “would prefer not to utilize unless it is necessary,” citing concerns about families fleeing the system. Mamdani has pledged to invest $244 million in this year’s budget to hire teachers, as well as $1.5 billion in capital funds for new space.
Mamdani has pledged to invest $244 million in this year’s budget to hire teachers, as well as $1.5 billion in capital funds for new space.
Some of that money will go toward P.S./I.S. 187, where education department leaders have opted against moving students and splitting up the school to address overcrowding.
“Removal of the middle school grades seemed to us, the superintendent, and other members of the community just not a wise decision,” Joshua Adams, an external affairs official for the School Construction Authority, said at a Community Education Council meeting this month.
Shifting or restricting enrollment at popular schools can be a third rail in public education politics. Many popular and overcrowded schools have higher-income families, more white students and well-resourced PTAs than under-enrolled schools nearby. Officials warn rebalancing enrollment may push families locked out of those schools out of the public system altogether – into charters, private schools or the suburbs.
Almost half the students at P.S./I.S. 187 are Latino, and over a third are white. The school is 25% above capacity and only 17% of classes meet the new class size limits.
In contrast, down the hill, nearby elementary school P.S. 48 is only at 66% capacity, and nearby Middle School 322 is only at 43% capacity. Both schools are more than 90% Latino.
Budget watchdogs have long argued against investing billions of dollars in new construction to meet the class size mandate, especially given overall enrollment declines.
“It is not an effective use of our scarce resources,” said Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission which reports the school system has lost some 160,000 students since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic — and is expected to lose many more in the coming years.
At a local community education council meeting this month, city officials with the School Construction Authority said they had landed on the new building after years of input from the community who had voiced opposition to splitting up the school.
In the meantime, the school has made some adjustments to shrink as many classes as it can. This past year, the art room was converted into a first grade classroom. The art teacher now travels between homerooms with what is called “art on a cart.”
Teacher Tara Foley, who used to have 32 kids in her first grade class, now has 21.
“This year has been a breath of fresh air,” she said. “It had a positive impact on all of my students, especially on their achievement, engagement. … I truly do feel like they feel seen and heard and valued.”
