Education Council Postpones Vote on Plan to Merge South Harlem Schools

HARLEM, NY — The Community Education Council for District 3 (CEC) postponed a vote Tuesday night on a Department of Education (DOE) proposal to shut down South Harlem's PS 241 and rezone its students to three neighboring schools.

CEC President Joe Fiordaliso determined that the body did not sufficiently discuss the plan and could not make an informed decision.

The proposal would move current PS 241 — also known as the STEM Institute of Manhattan — students further uptown to PS 76 for the 2017-2018 school year, according to the DOE presentation. From there the PS 241 zone would be distributed among PS 180, PS 76 and PS 185 and 208 which share the same building.

PS 241 is currently sited in what the DOE calls the M113 building, and shares the building with two charter schools. The building is over-capacity, whereas the rest of the South Harlem schools in the district are under-utilized, according to a DOE presentation. Building utilization could increase from 88 percent to as high as 96 percent at PS 76, from 86 percent to 92 percent at PS 180 and from 73 percent to 79 percent a PS 185 and 208, according to the DOE.

At a Nov. 9 meeting the CEC saw the plan for the first time and did not seem sold on it.

Since July the CEC has been meeting to discuss rezoning schools in District 3, but all of those meetings focused on district schools on the Upper West Side, and not district schools in Harlem. The DOE presented three draft scenarios for Upper West Side school rezoning before drawing up a final plan, but never presented any drafts for South Harlem schools — only a final plan with no prior discussion.

The input of South Harlem parents was also absent in the months-long process, as none of the CEC meetings were held above West 93rd Street until Nov. 14.

The CEC is scheduled to hold its vote at 6:30 p.m. in the Joan of Arc School Complex located on the Upper West Side at 154 W. 93rd St.

Photo: Courtesy of Department of Education