City Denies Daycare: Let the children play, but where?

Williamsburg parents are branded by their choice of child care: stay-at-home moms or dads, Tibetan or Jamaican nannies, DIY child care collectives, home-schooling (apparently people consider a two-year-old home-schooled), Williamsburg Northside, Mi Escuelita, Williamsburg Neighborhood Nursery School (WNNS). Each option signals something meaningful, with very subtle differences, about who these parents are, how much money they earn (it costs $12-18/hour for a nanny and $15-25K for nursery schools), and what they believe about parenting, be they progressive, ambitious, bohemian, or conservative.

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Stunning recent charges of cheating at PS 31 in Greenpoint and PS 257 in Williamsburg have rocked the two communities. The schools have been regarded as two of the city’s best public elementary schools. In March I wrote about the problems that have now arisen: “The best way to keep effective teachers in our public schools is to have principals who are knowledgeable educators. I have spoken to many teachers who feel today’s principals are driven solely by test scores, since principals and teachers receive merit pay based on the results of standardized tests. Well-rounded curricula, arts, and even gym time are sacrificed year-round for additional test prep time in many of today’s public schools. If we are serious about improving our schools, we must take steps to improve the conditions teachers are forced to work under, while also selecting the best teacher candidates, providing higher salaries to compete with those of suburban schools, offering better support and mentoring systems, and ending merit pay.”

It seems that teachers at IS 318 (a middle school that just won the chess championship) saw a huge drop in the test scores of students coming into the school from from PS 31 and PS 257, the same students who had higher scores from tests administered the prior year.

According to a staff member at the IS 318, who was quoted in the New York Times, “In some cases, students with perfect scores dropped from being in the 99th percentile to the 30th percentile. It was impossible.”

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The location of a month-long series of free workshops sponsored by School of the Future, an alternative-style, inter-generational school, is a little known, underutilized park called Sgt. Dougherty Park at Anthony Street and Vandervoort Avenue—at the northern-most edge of Greenpoint, under the BQE.

“It’s an empty park where nothing ever happens. We felt like it needed our help!” said the school founders Cassie Thornton and Christopher Kennedy, who for the occasion also lugged along some colorful benches and books to spruce it up.

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