Community Board 2 held a hearing last night to discuss NYU's plans to offer free space to build a 600-student public school as part of the university's expansion plans.
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Gary Parker represented NYU at the meeting last night.
Leonie Haimson, director of Class Size Matters, began the meeting by giving an overview of the overcrowding problem in New York City public schools.
"The [Department of Education] likes to say that we have pocket overcrowding," Haimson said. "But actually it's a systemic problem throughout the city."
Assembly member Deborah Glick advocated for the use of an outdated state building on 75 Morton St. as the location for a new public school.
"I have a suggestion, and that is that NYU join with the community and work to get the city and the state together to make 75 Morton St. a new school that we need," Glick said. "It's close, it's real, it exists and it's a viable resource that could be converted."
Shino Tanikawa, first vice president of the Community Education Council District 2, emphasized the need for more than just classrooms.
"What about the right number of bathroom facilities for students?" she asked. "The capacity of the cafeteria? It's time we look at the real facts and do the real analysis and change the future now."
Michael Mirisola, project support manager at the New York City School Construction Authority, cited the Authority's duties and its progress in meeting the growing demand of the public.
"We wish we can build a new school in every community every year," Mirisola said. "But we have our limitations as well. It's the money. In these economic times, we have communities that are very, very desperate for space. We have to accommodate everybody's needs."
Gary Parker, director of government & community affairs, stepped up to represent NYU's efforts to give back to the community.
"The need for a public school has been prominent in our dialogues with community groups," he said.
The donation of space is included as part of NYU's expansion application, which must go through Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.
"Generally, these types of commitments don't come until the very end of ULURP," Parker said in an interview prior to the meeting. "The university made the offer over a year ago before planning to submit the application to demonstrate goodwill and to avoid politicizing the commitment."
NYU's proposed public school is within its future "Zipper Building," which will replace the Coles Sports Center, or on the LaGuardia retail strip, between West Third and Bleecker streets.
Lee Frissell, director of field projects at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, presented programs that could be made available to the public school such as America Reads, America Counts and Steinhardt student tutors nearby.
Many board members asked whether NYU would consider aiding the community in the construction of a public school outside of the planned superblocks.
Parker promised to take the suggestion back, though the audience did not seem optimistic about NYU's review process.
"We should not wait for the DOE or NYU," said Keen Burger, a chairperson on the Education Council committee. "We've been waiting for a long time already."
