in an editoria<\/a>l on Monday, to applause.<\/p>\nAnother P.S. 16 parent, Shannon Gaul had her son Timothy give brief remarks to the council as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love going to school in my neighborhood. I have two little brothers. I hope they can go to kindergarten in our neighborhood too,\u201d the young student said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to be able to walk to school and see their friends from school in their community. That\u2019s how community is built,\u201d Gaul argued, noting the commute would be at least a half hour each way and that overcrowding will occur in every school district.<\/p>\n
Later, Rosanna Silber complained about how overcrowding could have negative effects on youth development.<\/p>\n
\u201cKindergarten is foundational. It is the year children learn to be students \u2026 We need a permanent neighborhood school \u2026 Deliver a solution on the scale of the building the city has embraced,\u201d she exclaimed.<\/p>\n
Amy Kommatas stated that \u201cgrowth was incentivized, infrastructure was not\u201d and criticized that the BOE was now owning the issue, developing no concrete plan or timeline.<\/p>\n
Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little, who represents downtown, said that all electeds are working together to rectify the state aid formula for school, though acknowledged it is unlikely come in time to stop P.S. 16 students from attending the Danforth center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate the parents coming out and making time. You were heard tonight,\u201d added Ward B Councilman Joel Brooks.<\/p>\n
Priscilla Liu also expressed displeasure about the plan for P.S. 16 students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shortens the time children spend time learning \u2026 it significantly limits our ability to participate in school life,\u201d she argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies were informed after key deadlines have passed. It has left us in an impossible position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liu also pointed out that 800 people signed their position against the proposed move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis room is full of angry parents \u2026 Tie new developments to school capacity. Make developers bring solutions,\u201d Yuri Astrakhan declared, adding that the extra total hour for the commute would take a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuditoriums can be used creatively\u2026. Displacement should be the last resort.<\/p>\n
BOE Trustee Tia Rezabala also approached the council, noting she was speaking as a private citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome any conversation that can be had \u2026 in order to assist the residents,\u201d she said about the parents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
Conversely, BOE President Noemi Velazquez said she was there to speak in her official capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do respect the needs at number 16 school. We do want to work with the parents \u2026 We have developed a committee to look for either space or a building we can refurbish,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
She continued that the district has been working with Mayor James Solomon and Ward F Councilman Frank \u201cEducational\u201d Gilmore on the matter for quite some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to get a place for years. There was always an issue with the previous administration. They were always more interested in building buildings than building schools,\u201d Velazquez declared.<\/p>\n
The head of the volunteer school board said they had leads with Public School No. 3, though it requires significant renovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelp us find downtown land for a much-needed school,\u201d she concluded to applause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jersey City parents of Public School No. 16 elementary school students lamented overcrowding, forcing kindergarteners to attend the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[60227,60228,11005,9,11,10,61867],"class_list":["post-147509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-jackie-cox","tag-jersey-city-board-of-education","tag-jersey-city-council","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-public-school-no-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147509","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=147509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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