East Harlem, New York

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

New York City Council Committee on Education
Testimony on the NYC Department of Education 2016 Five Year
Capital Plan
Chairman Dromm, members of the City Council Committee on
Education:
Thank you for allowing the public to weigh in on the DOEs capital plan
today. My name is Marie Winfield and I am testifying as the parent of a
child in a small progressive school with a long legacy in East Harlem (a
neighborhood selected for rezoning through the Mayors housing plan).
Smaller class sizes are a hallmark of Central Park East 1 Elementary.
In four years, weve seen unbelievable plans that included proposing a
sixth school in her school building a high school, a phasing out JHS,
two charter schools, our elementary school and a proposed middle
school. In a situation where students were already receiving related
services in a closet. Only due to a lawsuit was the sixth proposed
school found a more appropriate location.
Recently, our school was selected to house an additional pre-K class
with no indication from the DOE as to where this class will go, nor a
guarantee on current or future space allocations necessary for the
schools progressive curriculum. This type of decision making pits
current families against future families instead of creating spaces
where we are collaboratively planning as a school district and as a
neighborhood, together.
Having poured over building utilization plans myself and continually
heard criticisms of DOEs analyses, it is clear that reform is necessary.
In D4 in Manhattan we require over 900 school seats to bring
overcrowded schools back to 100% utilization but according to the
DOEs capital plan D4 will receive no new additional seats.
In East Harlem, there are currently plans for affordable housing
development on an entire block on East 111th to 112th street where at
an R10 upzoning that could add possibly up to 860 new units on one
block. And this is before the rezoning! How is it possible if this is only

the start of increased density for East Harlem that D4 needs no new
additional school seats?
Due to my persistent advocacy as a member of the land use/zoning
subgroup for the East Harlem Neighborhood plan process, the following
recommendation was included:
3.2 Require DCP, DOE, ACS and SCA to adequately project the impacts of new
development on school seat requirements and establish opportunities for new
early childhood education and school facilities to be built in the base of new
developments. Approaches for making student projections should include detailed
analysis, such as the clear definition of school building capacities based on
current surveys. Require coordination around and appropriate timing of
development of school facilities as units are developed.
Selecting low-income, communities of color for rezoning and not
sufficiently planning for needed services and infrastructure is a terrible
thing to do to our communities. I ask this committee to please listen to
our personal testimonies, the tireless work of Class Size Matters, and
reform the school planning process so that projected increases in
density are accompanied by the necessary capital resources for these
neighborhoods that have been neglected for too long.
Thank you so much for your time.
Marie Winfield//winfieldmm@web.de//347.286.1336
https://opencd11-mmw.squarespace.com