School Board Cancels Public Hearing to Discuss Upper West Side Rezoning

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Community Education Council District 3 (CEC) has cancelled a Tuesday night public hearing to discuss rezoning Upper West Side elementary schools. It's the second such public hearing the CEC has cancelled or postponed since releasing its rezoning plan, which ignored many of the most vocal rezoning opposition groups.

The CEC previously postponed, and never rescheduled, a public hearing scheduled for Saturday Oct. 29. Tuesday night's meeting was cancelled "due to a delay in receipt of a DOE Draft Zoning Scenario," the same justification for postponing the Oct. 29 meeting.

In October the CEC sent a letter to NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña detailing a rezoning plan that ignored pleas of some of the most vocal parent groups in the neighborhood. In an effort to desegregate the school district the CEC advocated to re-site PS 452 to the building currently occupied by PS 191, 16 blocks south of its current location.

The CEC also proposed rezoning three of the eight buildings in the Lincoln Towers community from high-performing PS 199 to PS 191, which was once on the "persistently dangerous schools" list and pulls most of its students from the Amsterdam Houses — a public housing development.

When the CEC released its letter — Oct. 19 — a DOE spokeswoman told Patch that the department valued its partnership with the council.

“We value the CEC’s leadership and partnership, and will continue to solicit feedback, host meetings and engage in robust conversations as we work to submit a final proposal that best serves all of the students and families in District 3,"DOE spokeswoman Toya Holness told Patch in a statement.

While the CEC has made its rezoning preferences clear, the DOE ultimately will submit the final proposal and the CEC will vote on whether to accept it or not. Whether or not the DOE's final plan will adopt the recommendations of the CEC remains to be seen, but the two bodies will have to work together in order to pass a plan.

The CEC has a zoning meeting scheduled to be held Nov. 3 at the Joan of Arc school complex. The CEC will vote Nov. 9 on whatever proposal the DOE ends up putting forth.

Photo: Patch