PHOTOS: PS 191 Moves Into New School Building On Upper West Side

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — One of the schools at the center of a heated rezoning battle on the Upper West Side is moving into a brand-new complex in the Riverside Center for the upcoming school year.

PS 191 has begun to move into a 122,00-square-foot complex in the Riverside Center on West End Avenue and West 61st Street for the start of the 2017-2018 school year. Elected Officials, city schools officials and the PS 191 community celebrated the school opening Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Principal Lauren Keville said Wednesday that when she walks through she still can't believe it belongs to PS 191.

"I can't wait to see the kids' faces on the first day of school," Keville said during the ribbon cutting ceremony.

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Starting this school year PS 191 will be known as the Riverside School For Makers and Artists and will focus its curriculum on the arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs, according to school officials. The school has entered a partnerships with Lincoln Center and Studio in a School to support its arts programs and MakerState to enhance programs in robotics, computer science and design.

In its new complex PS 191 will have access to state-of-the-art music, arts and science facilities. The school, which contains 692 seats for kindergarten through 8th grade, also has access to two rooftop recreation spaces, a new library, an indoor gymnasium and a cafeteria. The school building is fully accessible to people with disabilities. (Check out photos of the new school complex at the bottom of this post).

"Our community is thrilled to start the upcoming school year in a new building with exciting new resources and state-of-the-art facilities," Keville said in a statement. "We're eager to welcome a cohort of students next month, and offer rigorous instruction in our brand new science lab, music room, art space and library."

PS 191 is moving into the new school building in accordance with a rezoning plan passed by the Community Education Council (CEC) for School District 3 in late 2016. The rezoning plan was passed after eight months of heated debate between officials and many neighborhood parents who were unsatisfied with being placed in different school zones.

One of the most vocal contingent of parents strongly opposed being rezoned from PS 199 to PS 191. In the years prior to rezoning, PS 199 was a consistently high-performing school made up of mostly white kids; a low percentage of its student body receives free lunch. On the other hand, the PS 191 student body is mostly poor, black and Hispanic.

The rezoning and new school building for PS 191 are steps toward equality in education on the Upper West Side, many officials said Wednesday.

"When you talk about rezoning everyone thinks the sky is falling," NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said Wednesday. "And yet when you talk about rezoning where everybody wins, and I want to reassure you that in this case everybody won but most particularly the kids."

"When you have a school [PS 191] that has increased its attendance for September, that already has a gifted and talented class in third grade, that has more pre-k seats than they have ever had before and that probably, as news goes out, will have a long line to register for empty spaces — you know you're on to something," Fariña said.

Check out more photos of the new PS 191 complex below:

Photos by Patch