Plan to move NYC school sparks allegations of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment

A plan to move one of two programs that share a Manhattan school building into a former Catholic school has touched off a painful debate, with allegations of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment exploding into public view.

The dispute has pit two schools against each other: West Prep Academy, a middle school and its specialized autism program with a largely Black and Hispanic student body, against P.S. 145 The Bloomingdale School, an elementary school that caters to many of the city’s newly arrived immigrants. The two have shared a building on 105th St., between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves., for more than a decade.

But over the last two school years, the elementary school, which offers classes in Spanish and Russian as well as English, has grown, welcoming upwards of 150 young children from Russia, Ukraine and South America seeking asylum in New York, according to school officials.

It’s a point of pride for the P.S. 145 community, which already enrolled a large number of immigrants. Still, the growing number of students has exacerbated space constraints, costing the school its library, music room and other beloved facilities.

The city’s proposed solution: Move West Prep into a dilapidated, 127-year-old building a few blocks away that it acquired before voting on the plan.

Now, the proposal is facing blowback from middle school families who say the century-old building is a downgrade — and even dangerous for its students with disabilities. They are not looking for more space and questioned why they should be the ones to move.

“West Prep families felt like we were being pushed out,” said Tyi Ellis, PTA president at West Prep. “Why push out the Black and Brown youth to add a Russian dual-language program? … There’s no Russians in the community.”

More than 1,900 people have signed onto a petition since January to “Stop the Displacement of West Prep children.” If the proposal is approved, it will be the second time in just over a decade that the middle school is relocated.

“[The] plan calls to move West Prep Academy into an abandoned and archaic catholic [sic] school building to satisfy the space needs of an encroaching Russian program,” it read. “We do NOT need to move for ANY reason — especially to accommodate a growing Russian language program that does NOT serve our immediate community surrounding the school.”

At a joint public hearing on Monday night, families and teachers from P.S. 145 rebuffed that characterization.

“Families that show up at our doorstep at their most vulnerable state during horrific circumstances should not be described as ‘encroaching,’” said Tetyana Sirman, who coordinates P.S. 145’s Russian dual-language program.

With the addition of the programs, P.S. 145’s elementary school enrollment has grown by 25% over the last half decade. At the district’s request, it also added a 3-K program in 2021 that has contributed to the space it takes up.

School staffers that work with the newcomer population, including a teacher and social worker, said they have had to help immigrant students learn English and unpack their traumatic journeys to New York in the school’s cafeteria, hallway and staircase, and prepare for lessons in musty storage rooms and closets.

“I asked my staff in a direct message from me to not engage with West Prep when their anonymous race-baiting petition began to circulate around the district and social media,” said P.S. 145 Principal Natalia Garcia.

“If our school was small enough, I would pick up my students and staff and move,” said Garcia. “Make no mistake, the Russian children are not pushing out the middle school.”

West Prep, which at last count was 90% Black and Hispanic, houses what parents described as a thriving program for autistic students, and more than 4 in 10 kids there have at least one disability. They benefit from an inclusive playground at the current site that caters to their needs, and question whether there is a space issue at all that rearranging the building could not fix.

The new building has no outside space. To education officials’ own admission, it’s not yet accessible to students with physical disabilities. Some hallways are tight, photos reviewed by the Daily News show. Multiple windows open up to fire escapes that parents fear children can run away through. The auditorium and gym share a room, and the gloomy cafeteria shows the building’s age.

“The cafeteria looks like a prison cafeteria,” an autistic student in sixth grade at West Prep, who graduated from P.S. 145, said at the hearing. “And at the other building, there’s gonna be barely any sunlight.”

The city has earmarked $59,000 to re-site West Prep and is upgrading the space with a new science lab, fire escape alarms and cameras, and renovations that include raising the ceiling of the cafeteria and upgrading the floor and lights, according to public plans and letters sent to the schools. It’s also been suggested displaced students return to their playground a few blocks away.

“The NYCDOE is committed to making improvements to [the building] to ensure it meets and exceeds the needs and expectations of students and families,” read the documents. “This proposed re-siting will allow both schools to meet demand, continue to grow, and have access to the space they need to serve all of their students.”

But families at both schools agreed that the city should have done more to mitigate the tensions that have unfolded amid the debate.

“Kids have issues, they have circle time,” said Ellis, the West Prep PTA president. “I don’t know what it would equate to for adults, but whatever the equivalent is for that, they could’ve done some sort of community building.”

A final vote on the proposal, scheduled to go before the Panel for Educational Policy this month, was pushed back until May. Two members, one a teaching fellow, the other a parent at the school, have recused themselves.

“We greatly value parent voice as they partner with us to educate their children,” said Chyann Tull, a spokeswoman for the public schools. “This re-siting is still in the proposal phase, and we are continuing to engage the community and gather feedback before there is a final decision.”

“The district superintendent is working with leaders from both schools to promote a building culture that allows all students to thrive and to ensure a smooth transition for all students, staff, and families if the proposal is approved,” she said.

While the proposal is welcomed by some families, others wish it was pulled from the table.

“It feels more like this is being done to us, rather than this is being done with us,” said Cidalia Costa, a teacher at West Prep for over a decade, said at the hearing. “That’s very upsetting. And yes it does cause people to feel a certain way, and maybe even wonder if our population were different, that maybe we would not be treated in such a way.”