We are NYC residents who are very concerned about the serious overcrowding problem in our schools, which needs to be addressed immediately. Children are receiving special needs services in hallways and shower rooms or closets, the art and foreign language departments in many schools are entirely kept on carts, and there are no science rooms in the schools of many children. The list goes on.

Per the well-researched "Space Crunch" report by Class Size Matters (available at http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/SPACE-CRUNCH-Report-Final-OL.pdf), the DOE's own data, and a simple review of actual numbers in the city, show that the DOE's projections in the Capital Plan ignore close to 100,000 children!  The Capital Plan as currently drafted is breathtaking in its refusal to consider the actual data and the needs of our children. How can the DOE educate our children when it is willfully ignoring 100,000 of them? 

We demand that the DOE double the number of new seats in the Capital Plan, as set forth in the June 2, 2015 joint letter to Chancellor Fariña, from NYC Advocate Letitia James and Class Size Matters (see text and link below).  Many CEC leaders have endorsed this letter, as well as Daniel Dromm, Chair of the NYC Council Education Committee and Michael Mulgrew, the UFT President.  

For the Capital Plan and the long term, we fully endorse the June 2, 2015 letter (see below), and demand that our City Council members and other elected officials endorse this letter and also adopt the long term solutions set forth in the Space Crunch Report of Class Size Matters.   Parents signing this petition, please join other concerned parents at https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaceforallnyc/.  

In addition, the DOE has a responsibility to remedy the wait lists of Kindergarten children at their zoned schools, because the wait lists were caused by the DOE's chronic planning failures for over ten years now.  For this year and next year we demand that you immediately find space in their local, zoned schools, for all the Kindergarten children on wait-lists. The solution could be annexes in the neighborhood, for example.  We also demand immediate transparency and reporting on the space for each school with wait-lists and the planned use for that space.

TEXT OF JUNE 2, 2015 LETTER FROM LETITIA JAMES AND CLASS SIZE MATTERS FOLLOWS (linked here: http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2015/06/urgent-please-call-your-council-member.html?m=1):   

"Dear Chancellor Fariña,

As you may know, nearly half a million students already attend schools that are severely overcrowded and the situation is worsening. I am writing with great concern regarding the recent release of the city’s capital plan. Specifically, I am interested in learning more about the rationale for the number of new schools being built. Given the Department of Education’s (DOE) own data on current overcrowding and enrollment projections, the capital plan as currently designed will meet less than one half of the need. According to an audit from the NYC Comptroller, at least one third of public schools are overcrowded, according to the DOE’s own data, without the city having a clear plan to deal with the problem. A third of the city’s elementary schools are at least 138% of capacity.

 At the same time, enrollment is increasing and just-released Census data show that New York City is the fastest growing large city in the country.  Moreover, there is a widespread consensus that the DOE’s formula for estimating school utilization levels in the Blue Book underestimates the actual level of overcrowding and the space needed to provide a sound basic and legal education. Though a working group appointed by the Chancellor made proposals to improve the accuracy of this formula in December, their recommendations still have not been released. Therefore, the City continues to make crucial decisions on co-locations, and now the capital plan based on inaccurate data. The well-documented result is that hundreds of schools have lost their cluster rooms; thousands of students are assigned to lunch as early as 10 a.m., and/or have no access to the gym. Many special needs students are forced to receive their services in hallways and/or closets rather than in dedicated spaces, and class sizes in the early grades have reached a 15-year high.

The Mayor’s ambitious plan to build an additional 160,000 market -rate housing units, on top of 200,000 affordable units over the next ten years will create the need for even more school seats. In addition, his effort to expand community schools will require more room for wrap-around services in schools that are already suffering from an extreme space crunch. Yet, there have been no adjustments or significant increase in the number of new seats since either of these plans was announced. I urge you to double the number of new seats in the capital plan, which would more nearly achieve the goal of alleviating current overcrowding and accommodating projected enrollment growth. According to the Independent Budget office, this would cost $125 million per year. Just recently the DOE proposed a five year contract with an IT vendor, Computer Consultant Specialists, to wire NYC schools at a cost of $127 million a year, renewable for four more, at a cost of more than $1 billion. (Originally the contract was nearly twice that high, at a potential cost of more than $2 billion. But after the media raised questions about the contract, the DOE managed to cut nearly half out of the annual amount.

The city ended up cancelling the contract after it was pointed out that the company was implicated in a kickback scheme that had robbed DOE of millions of dollars.  For approximately the same amount that the DOE was prepared to pay for this contract, the number of seats in the capital plan could be doubled and we could begin to meet the real needs of NYC public school students. As I have advocated previously, I also urge your office to form an independent commission to improve the planning process and efficiency in siting new schools, which now lags far behind private and public development efforts. The OneNYC plan released  by the Mayor’s office projected the need for infrastructure improvements to meet the requirements of a growing population in housing, transportation, health care and many other areas, but gave little or no attention to the worsening crisis of school overcrowding and the need for new schools to accommodate this growth. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely, Letitia James, Public Advocate for the City of New York"