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VOLUME 24, NUMBER 28
THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
Canon salute for Castle Clinton
Third, and final, school rezoning plan revealed
On Friday, Nov. 25 Castle Clinton celebrated its 200th anniversary, with a bang.
Downtown Express photo by Milo Hess
Methadone clinic’s possible move Downtown comes as surprise BY CYNTHIA MAGNUS A methadone treatment clinic, Gramercy Park Services LLC, has received tentative approval from the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) to relocate to 90 Maiden Lane, according
to one source at the agency. Community Board 1 members were surprised to learn just before Thanksgiving of the clinic’s planned move downtown without any public notification. Catherine McVay-Hughes, C.B. 1 vice chair, said, “No one reached out to
NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2011
C.B. 1 in advance of this plan. We hope at the next C.B. 1 Financial District Committee meeting to get answers to the many questions we have, such as the potential impact on our community.”
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BY JOHN BAYLES The NYC Dept. of Education’s third go-around at a proposal to rezone schools in Lower Manhattan was unveiled on Monday night. And although the plan will likely be approved, it is still unsettling in the minds of some Downtown teachers, parents and education advocates. The major difference between the previous proposals is how P.S. 234 will be zoned. Before Monday night, numerous parents in Tribeca were concerned with the D.O.E.’s decision to split Tribeca, sending children in the southern part of the neighborhood to P.S. 234 and zoning children in the northern part of the neighborhood for P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village or P.S. 1 Chinatown. That plan was heavily criticized and led to District 2 Community Education Council voting down the proposal earlier this month. But keeping the P.S. 234 zone the same will result in a waitlist for parents hoping to secure their kindergarten age children a spot in the
popular school. This school year P.S. 234 had a waitlist of 38 children. At Monday’s meeting, D.O.E. representatives predicted a waitlist just as long come next year. Prior to the latest plan, numerous parents had expressed the view that they would take their chances on a lottery and deal with the waitlist scenario rather than be zoned for a school other than P.S. 234. Tricia Joyce, Community Board 1 member and Co-Chair of the P.S. 234 Committee on Overcrowding, said the biggest problem with the rezoning process as a whole was summed up when one audience member approached a representative from the D.O.E. “A woman walked up and said, ‘I’m begging you to do something or else my children will not have a school seat in my neighborhood,’” recalled Joyce. It’s ultimately the children that are losing due to the current methodology used by the D.O.E. in rezoning scenarios, mentioned Joyce. When asked, “Who is winning?” Joyce noted that
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