Big Classroom Squeeze

Carrie Melago, Daily News Staff Writer

November 16, 2006

The most crowded classroom in the city is the seventh grade at Public School 217 on Roosevelt Island, bursting at the seams with 40 students, according to data released by the Department of Education yesterday.

Many kindergartens also are cramped, with 536 city schools housing classes averaging more than 20 students, the data reveal.

“It’s not right,” said Rafik Soughou, 12, who is in the crowded seventh-grade class at PS 217. “There should be less. They could do something about it.”

The average class-size details for kindergarten to eighth grade were released for the first time yesterday under City Council legislation requiring the Department of Education to turn over the data twice a year.

High school classroom sizes will be released at a later date, officials said.
Rafik’s mother, Sandy Newell, co-president of the PTA at PS 217, said she feels immense sympathy for her son’s teachers, who have to instruct so many students.

“I don’t see why they can’t say if you need another teacher, here’s another teacher,” she said. “But they can’t do that. They have a budget.”

Leonie Haimson, head of Class Size Matters, a Manhattan-based advocacy group, said she was most troubled by the size of city kindergartens, which average 20.8 students.

The largest average kindergarten class was at PS 35 on Staten Island, with a whopping 30 kids.

“We have made absolutely no progress in that grade in four years,” Haimson said.

Noel Kaufman, who has sons in first and fourth grade at PS 166, says the classes are so overcrowded at the upper West Side school that running is prohibited during recess.

“You can learn in a large class, but it’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s important for kids to run and play tag.”

Haimson was also disturbed by the disparity between classes within the same district, such as District 6 in upper Manhattan, where PS 210 has just 21 students but PS 278 has 30.

“A certain amount of disparity is going to be inevitable,” she said. “But this is a real problem and means very unequal conditions for different kids.”

Schools spokesman David Cantor said the Department of Education supported the release of the data.

“We support greater transparency of information for parents and testified in favor of this bill,” Cantor said.

With Erin Einhorn

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