New zoning unanimously approved for District 21

December 16, 2011 Denise Romano
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In an effort to ease overcrowding at P.S. 101, the CommunityEducation Council (CEC) of District 21 unanimously approvedlong-awaited zoning changes at its monthly meeting on December 14at P.S. 215.

Come September 2012, all incoming kindergarteners living in therezoned area – a five-block long by two-block wide area stretchingfrom 86th Street down to Shore Parkway and Bay 40th Street to 26thAvenue, plus a two-block by one-block area bordered by Bath Avenue,Bay 43rd Street, Cropsey Avenue and 26th Avenue — will be requiredto go to P.S. 212 unless they have a sibling already enrolled infirst through fifth grade at P.S. 101.

This was expected, said CEC 21 president Yoketing Eng. TheCEC has been working on it since last year. Again, we knew we wouldhave to do this. It was the right thing to do.

Assemblymember Bill Colton, who attended the meeting, agreed.It’s a very good thing. The result is much better than it wouldhave been otherwise, he said. You had an overcrowded school andan underutilized school and the results came out well. Concernsexpressed by parents were listened to.

Colton went on to say that there is still a distance problem –especially with the truncated B64 route that would have easilytransported overflow students to their new school if the route hadnot been shortened. We will need to use outreach and some creativethinking. I believe the outcome will be good, he said.

The Department of Education estimates that P.S. 101 will be at108 percent utilization by the 2017-2018 school year. P.S. 212 iscurrently at 72 percent capacity and would have gone up to anestimated 98 percent capacity in six years, if the rezoning werenot approved.

With additional reporting by Heather J. Chin.

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