{"id":106431,"date":"2026-01-20T22:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106431\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T22:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T22:02:09","slug":"this-school-is-our-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106431\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This School is Our Home’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The front of Center School\u2019s current building at 100 West 84th Street. Courtesy photo<\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/p>\n

Students, alumni, parents, and teachers are pushing back against the possible relocation of an Upper West Side middle school.<\/p>\n

The Center School, comprised of around 250 students in the fifth to eighth grades, is currently located at 100 West 84th Street. While the New York City Department of Education has announced no formal plan to move the school to a new building for the start of the next school year, rumblings of an upcoming relocation have gone on for months, according to parents, teachers, and a petition created earlier in January that has been signed by more than 2,000 people, titled \u201cProtect Center School.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The possibility of the move was confirmed in recent days by Center School Principal John O\u2019Reilly, who wrote in an email to the community, shared with West Side Rag, about a meeting on Thursday at the school with representatives from New York City School District 3. \u201cThe meeting\u2026is focused on the possible move of Center School out of P.S. 9,\u201d the email read.<\/p>\n

The possible move would see the Center School relocated from the building it shares with the P.S. 9 elementary school to the P.S.\/I.S. 191 building at 300 West 61st Street, according to several members of the middle school\u2019s community.<\/p>\n

When asked by West Side Rag if the Department of Education planned to move The Center School to the West 61st Street building for the start of next school year, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said that \u201cno formal proposal has been issued at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

The department\u2019s email statement continued: \u201cAuthentic community engagement is a cornerstone of any thriving school system, and we strive to provide all schools with facilities that best meet their needs.\u201d According to the statement, the department convened working groups throughout District 3 beginning last school year, to identify those needs and look for ways to meet them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we have begun early conversations with families and school leaders about how best to support long-term planning, no formal proposal has been issued at this time. We will continue to consult closely with families, educators, and local partners,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Nor will a formal proposal to relocate the Center School be presented at the Thursday meeting with education department officials, according to sources familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny decision to disrupt a school in such good working order is a bizarre decision,\u201d wrote Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, parent of a seventh-grade Center School student, in an email to the Rag. \u201cAt the very least, it deserves full community input, and a timeline that respects the needs of working families whose children are in a unique generation.\u201d Siddiqi said many of Center\u2019s middle school students had found stability in its academically-centered community. \u201cTo radically disrupt this, without a community-driven plan, is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivia Greer, a parent of a Center School sixth grader, told the Rag, \u201cParents advocating are asking for the same thing: more time. Time to understand the factors that are driving these proposed changes; time to thoughtfully consider the right outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple Center School parents mentioned similar concerns about the possible move to the West 61st Street building, including the loss of a separate gymnasium and auditorium space, the loss of its current large outdoor recess yard, proximity to Central Park, and the effect the move would have on a group of students who already experienced the school disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Center School\u2019s current hallway. Courtesy photo<\/p>\n

The Center School, which was founded in 1982, has been in its current home since 2009, when it moved from the P.S. 199 building at 270 West 70th Street. The Center School runs from fifth to eighth grade, instead of the more typical middle school range of sixth to eighth grade, and it puts students from all four grade levels into the same classes. There are also two theater shows during the year in which every student in the school participates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing that we were getting moved again, after 16 years in our new home in the PS 9 building, brings about a lot of sadness, uncertainty, and concern,\u201d Michael Veve, who has taught at Center School since 2003, wrote to WSR. \u201cWe\u2019ve made a home of this place as a school, and our access to Central Park, The American Museum of Natural History, The New York Historical, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art has enhanced and enriched the educational outcomes for our students. We use New York City as a classroom. It feels terrible to contemplate losing those resources as we face being forced to move again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current Center School students have been told about the possible move and have begun to pen letters to the Department of Education.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A letter to the DOE from a fifth-grade Center School student.<\/p>\n

Other students weighed in with pleas to keep the school where it is, with its auditorium, recess yard, and other resources. \u201cThis school is our home,\u201d wrote one student. \u201cIf we move schools, there won\u2019t be the magic of the school that we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rag will cover Thursday\u2019s meeting at the Center School.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The front of Center School\u2019s current building at 100 West 84th Street. Courtesy photo By Gus Saltonstall Students,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[48199,4337,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-106431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-center-school","tag-department-of-education","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}