COMMUNITY EDUCATION COUNCIL DISTRICT 3

154 West 93rd Street New York, New York 10025 - Room 204 Tel (212) 678-2782 Fax (212) 678-2804 Email: CEC3@schools.nyc.gov
Joseph A. Fiordaliso
President

Nan Eileen Mead

First Vice President

Zoe G. Foundotos
Second Vice President

Council Members: Noah Gotbaum Theresa L.C. Hammonds Pradnya Joshi

Lucas Liu
Vacant, ELL Member
Vacant, Student Member

Kristen Berger
Secretary

Daniel Katz

Kimberly Watkins
Treasurer

Ilene Altschul
District 3 Community Superintendent

Zoning Committee, CEC3

Sub-Committees on Grade Pairing and Data
Draft Minutes
Thursday, November 12, 2015
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss grade pairing options as have been discussed in previous full Zoning
Committee meetings. With Dan Katz, Chair of the Subcommittee on Data also in attendance, attendees could opt to
join him in the smaller office to discuss the PS452 allocation and data points in reference to that aspect of the
rezoning proposal from the DOE.
Representatives from PS191 and PS199 were both given the opportunity to reiterate/summarize the positions held
by their school leadership teams.
Kajsa Reaves, PTA President and SLT Member from PS191 reiterated that PS191 prefers not to be part of a superzone with a lottery based enrollment system. The school would like to be paired with the new school, PS342 when it
opens in 2018 and they are open to a pairing of all three schools in the southern part of the district, PS191, PS199,
and PS342.
Liz Sutherland Co-Chair of the PS199 SLT reiterated that PS199 wants to keep its K-5 grade structure intact, that it
does not support the proposed three-school pairing of grades. She referred the group to the letter submitted to the
CEC for additional detail on educational and cultural reasons cited for their position.
The timeline was then reiterated, that this subcommittees goal was to feed information into the larger Zoning
Committee, which is meeting next on Monday, November 16. That meeting, which was originally scheduled to begin
at 6:30, was moved to take place from 6:00 pm 7:00 pm. The shorter meeting is planned because the CEC3
called for a Special Calendar Meeting on that day to roll call vote several zoning related action items.
The current zoning calendar calls for the DOE to make its final presentation to the community next Thursday,
November 19 and the CEC will vote on December 2.
For the purposes of this meeting, grade pairing would be implemented in 2018 when PS342 comes online. It is not
believed that the school will open earlier than that school year.
Complete audio recording of meeting: https://www.spreaker.com/user/8322048.
Zoning Chair Kim Watkins turned the meeting over to the Subcommittee Chair Kristen Berger. These were the
findings:
Areas of Agreement
1. Recommend to the CEC that there will be no changes to the southernmost line in the district for the current
zoning cycle for the upcoming calendar year.
2. Push for the 342 to come online sooner than Fall 2018.
3. Work with 191s SLT and principal to do what is best for the school.
4. Ask DOE to commit a guaranteed level of funding to 191 regardless of student population for the next 5
years.
5. Recommend to the CEC that no pairing-related solutions will be recommended in the current zoning cycle
for the upcoming calendar year
6. Subcommittee to examine the viability of school pairing (see below for steps)
Pairing Analysis

In order to present the full Zoning Committee the most helpful information when used to make a recommendation to
the CEC, the analysis of grade pairing should include, but is not limited to the following:
1. Research that is inclusive of current/past educators and administration/leadership from the district,
current/past/future parents and students, and third-party experts.
2. A survey and other mechanisms (e.g., direct outreach) focused on getting input from the community at large
(including those within and outside the current school system), including the identification of the source of
input that is gathered.
3. Dialog and conversations with public officials
4. Comparison of pairing to other potential solutions
Timeline
Next Subcommittee meeting: Monday, November 30, 2015 Joan of Arc, Room 204 (6:30 pm)
The goal is to produce grade pairing analysis in concert with full Zoning Committee for CEC recommendation by
March 31, 2016.
Search for PS342 Principal will need to begin by the Spring of 2017.