{"id":164083,"date":"2026-03-15T11:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164083\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T11:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:17:11","slug":"one-upper-west-side-school-was-saved-after-a-hot-mic-flap-now-parents-want-their-schools-saved-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164083\/","title":{"rendered":"One Upper West Side school was saved after a hot mic flap. Now parents want their schools saved too"},"content":{"rendered":"

After shelving a plan to shutter an Upper West Side middle school in the wake of a racially-charged hot-mic controversy<\/a>, Chancellor Kamar Samuels is moving ahead with a broader plan to close or relocate three nearby schools \u2014 as miffed parents question why they weren\u2019t also afforded a second chance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Education officials say the moves are necessary amid enrollment and space issues for the long-term sustainability of local schools.<\/p>\n

But parents believe the master plan is misguided, and their schools deserve a closer look, just like Community Action School \u2014 affectionately, \u201cCAS\u201d \u2014 received after the controversy exploded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got exactly what they should have gotten from the beginning, which is attention, care and consideration,\u201d said Tiffany Rodriguez, a mom of two kindergartners, a sixth grader, and a graduate of the Riverside School for Makers & Artists, one of the impacted schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got what they were owed, and what we should get.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for CAS,\u201d she added. \u201cBut it shouldn\u2019t have come to a hot-mic moment. It should have been because you were considering the children to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposals \u2014 which impact The Center School, Manhattan School for Children, and The Riverside School for Makers and Artists \u2014 are part of a complex plan to rethink the use of three school buildings, from 61st to 93rd Street, as the education system\u00a0deals with enrollment and space challenges<\/a>\u00a0that impact its bottom line.<\/p>\n

Community Action School, which shares a building with Manhattan Children School, was at risk of closure.<\/p>\n

But the school was granted a reprieve after a Center School parent, Allyson Friedman, unmuted during a school board meeting while a Community Action School student was speaking, suggesting the children were \u201ctoo dumb to know\u201d they were \u201cin a bad school\u201d and misquoting a Black historian. (Friedman has said her words were taken out of context.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just met with so much relief,\u201d said Nicki Holtzman, a mom of a sixth grader who attended the meeting. \u201cThey definitely were able to begin moving forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Riverside School for Makers and Artists. (Google)<\/p>\n

But with the other elements of the plan still on the table, a citywide education panel vote is scheduled to vote on the proposals next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York City Public Schools has a responsibility to thoughtfully plan for the long-term strength and sustainability of our schools to give students access to robust academic programs,\u201d said Chyann Tull, a spokeswoman for the public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese proposals are intended to strengthen elementary programming in the district while ensuring our students are enrolled in well-rounded middle school options. They are the result of more than a year of conversations<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur families care deeply about their schools, and we remain committed to an open dialogue as the proposals go through the formal public review process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Manhattan School for Children. (Google)
\nEnrollment declines, class size law<\/p>\n

The plan was put in motion when Samuels was serving as the local superintendent of District 3.<\/p>\n

In his former role, the now-chancellor implemented similar reforms in Harlem<\/a>, which earned him the praises of his colleagues for coming up with creative solutions to a citywide problem of enrollment declines, though generating pushback in the local community.<\/p>\n

In total, middle schools across District 3 can fit up to 4,450 students, but fewer than 3,370 are currently registered, according to planning documents. Schools are largely funded on a per-pupil basis, meaning when a school loses enrollment, they may also face challenges to offer a full slate of programming.<\/p>\n

The Mamdani administration has also faced pressure from fiscal watchdogs to find savings in education spending<\/a>, as the mayor looks to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While some schools are under-enrolled, though, others are bursting at the seams \u2014 an increasingly time-sensitive problem as the system faces a 2028 deadline to comply with a recent law to lower class sizes citywide<\/a>. Under the law, classrooms must be limited between 20 and 25 students, depending on grade band, which will require more and better use of physical space.<\/p>\n

\"SchoolsSchools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, right, speaks at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in Manhattan on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

If approved, the plan would give over the entire building to P.S. 9 Sarah Anderson, a nationally recognized<\/a> elementary school, an overcrowded facility with a 106% utilization rate on 84th Street and Columbus Ave., In turn, The Center School, a small but well-regarded middle school, would be moved out of the P.S. 9 building.<\/p>\n

The Center School would then be moved into a new building on 61st Street and West End Ave<\/a>., which currently belongs to the Riverside School for Makers & Artists, a K-8 school that would retain its elementary grades, but shutter its middle school amid declining enrollment.<\/p>\n

Written plans said moving the Center School would bring a \u201cproven, high-quality middle school option to the southern portion of the district.\u201d Officials are trying to frame the loss of RMSA\u2019s middle school as good for their school too, saying it would enable it \u201cto focus exclusively on building a quality elementary school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enrollment at RMSA\u2019s middle school has declined 28% since the pandemic to 128 students, with just half of fifth graders staying for sixth grade, according to the documents. Fewer than 1 in 5 students are considered proficient readers or mathematicians, compared to a district average of roughly two-thirds \u2014 statistics that parents blame squarely on the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are not failing because they\u2019re dumb,\u201d said Rodriguez, the RMSA parent. \u201cThey\u2019re not failing because they can\u2019t learn or the teachers can\u2019t teach. They\u2019re failing because the district has failed us, and now we\u2019re being kicked out for P.S. 9.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farther north, on 93rd Street and Columbus Ave., Community Action School is no longer facing closure. But the proposal to phase out the middle school at the Manhattan School for Children \u2014 a K-8 school known for its progressive values and services for children with disabilities<\/a> \u2014 in the same building remains under consideration.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Center School. (Google)<\/p>\n

MSC has struggled to retain students from elementary to middle school: Enrollment in the older grades has declined by 17% since the pandemic to 160 students, and between 9 and 14 fifth graders remain for sixth grade each year, according to the proposal. But parents say they have a new principal who is improving the retention rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a moment of really significant growth,\u201d said Olivia Greer, a mom of two incoming kindergarteners and a fourth grader at MSC, \u201cand what I would describe as rebirth for the middle school \u2014 just at the moment where the district is trying to pull the rug out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a done deal\u201d<\/p>\n

The optics don\u2019t look good.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cP.S. 9 is the whitest and wealthiest school in the district and has tremendous resources,\u201d said Green, who also has a sixth grader at Center School. \u201cThe request from P.S. 9 is that Center School must be out at the end of this year \u2014 with no explanation for what the urgency is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Riverside School for Makers & Artists students, 91%, are from families of high economic need. After an influx of immigrant students during the migrant wave that started in 2022, 2 in 5 students are learning English for the first time, according to planning documents.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, the RMSA parent, said she found out the middle school was at risk of being closed when Center School was touring their building. While officials told parents it remains a proposal, they already announced the school would no longer offer a popular summer program<\/a>, sending\u00a0a different message to families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pretty much saying it\u2019s a done deal,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Parents, including some at the Community Action School no longer facing closure, have promised to push back against the plan, before a final vote by the city\u2019s Panel for Educational Policy on April 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne\u2019s off the chopping block today. Three more schools to go,\u201d Greer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all still in this together, and that\u2019s something that we really want the district to understand, is that we view all of these children as our children. They\u2019re all District 3\u2019s children, and we\u2019re responsible for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After shelving a plan to shutter an Upper West Side middle school in the wake of a racially-charged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[67,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63],"class_list":["post-164083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164083","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=164083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}