A parent who was present at the March 2009 meeting recalls the incident where Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak lied and dissembled when asked about the number of children from the major downtown developments enrolled in New Rochelle schools:
Parents asked a series of questions about over-crowding at Trinity. One parent asked what would happen when all the developments are full. He asked whether the district was prepared for all the additional children.
Mr. Organisciak and (then-principal) Mr. McMahon said that the enrollment at Trinity was flat for several years. Some parents questioned that claim. McMahon said there were 855 children in 2008-09 and 857 in 2008-08. They did not go back further back than that.
One parent at the meeting noted that there were many strollers in downtown New Rochelle and the mom’s pushing their babies in strollers often had children holding them on either side. Mr. Organisciak dismissed her comment. Another parent asked about the empty townhouses on Pelham Road, too. Multi-family townhouses — 10 units on Drake, 8 units along Pelham Road, all within the Trinity district. What about when families with children occupied these townhouses? Organisciak said that they were already taken into account. The issue of the large number of children at Avalon Two was raised.
It was at this point that Organisciak began talking about how few families with children were in the Avalons. He talked about the Iona students doubling up at Avalon II, etc. He said he didn’t think that any children were at the Trump. One parent said they knew of at least two children in Trump but Organisciak didn’t acknowledge the comment.
The discussion then moved away from the cause of over-crowding at Trinity to the effect. There was an extended discussion about problems with the cafeteria. The cafeterias were so crowded that at the time (and for years prior) that 4th and 5th graders were only given 15 minutes to buy and eat their lunch. Mr. Organisciak said that the budget could not be expanded for every parents request.
The parent persisted, noting that the short length of lunch led to another problem, when the children could not go outside due to inclement weather they were being crowded into the auditorium to watch cartoons, hundreds of kids at a time, day after day, for 45 minutes. By the time of this meeting 126 families had signed a petition complaining about the 15 minute lunch, and it had been mailed to school medical director Dr. Adrienne-Weiss.
Another parent asked how the school district could go to full day kindergarten which would effectively double the amount of kindergarten students in an already over-crowded school. How much time would children have to eat lunch then? Where would the classrooms be?
Now 20 minutes for lunch
Thankfully, this year the 4th and 5th graders are given 20 minutes to buy and eat their lunch. It was a mountain to climb to get here, but when I communicated with the BOE, in March of 2009, things improved for me in my quest to increase the amount of time.
I started to advocate for more time in October, started a petition, got 126 families to sign on, etc. Mr. McMahon formed a lunch committee. In Dec. 2009 the committee of approx. 12-14 people, observed a lunch room session. We had meetings after. I researched all the public elementaries in New Rochelle. None had only 15 minutes. Suggestions were made and submitted. At the time they seemed to be ignored. The district was convinced that 15 minutes was ample time. It was getting frustrating. I think it was during this time that the above mentioned PTA meeting occurred.
I approached a BOE member after a BOE meeting in March with this issue. They were interested and promised to look into it, after that communication improved and it seemed that a resolution would be happen the next school year, which it did. For this I am thankful.
Also, an improvement is now that the children are not all herded into the auditorium every day for the recess portion of lunch in inclement weather. There is a rotation of some sort to the classrooms, which I feel is more humane. Some days are spent in the auditorium, but not every day.
As a side note regarding outdoor recess, the children still do not get to go outside for the full recess. For 20 minutes of lunch, there remains 40 minutes of recess. Now even with this beautiful spring weather, the children are only allocated 20 minutes of outdoor time, and even that, not every day.
When you drive by Trinity you will see three huge athletic fields that are often off limits to the children due to poor field conditions, including bird droppings and mud. One field, the furthest from Church, seems to have other ownership besides the school district and I don’t think the school is allowed to use it. It is in much better shape than the other two fields.
Recently I went to Davis school with my family. We marveled at the HUGE playground there. It went on and on, wrapping around the building with dozens of playground structures, one more exciting than the next. A gorgeous, newly refurbished baseball field caused my family members to gasp, actually gasp.
I really don’t know what to make of it. Maybe the PTA at Davis paid for all the equipment, I don’t know. There are much fewer children at Davis but much more playground space.
At any rate, at this point, I am pleased that the children have more time for lunch. Last year the children were goaded to eat quicker with “three minutes left”, “two minutes left”. They ate with their coats on. I am so glad that is all over.
I know this is a long post and many may have dropped off by now, but one thing that really sticks in my mind after my ordeal of advocating for the increased lunch time was the suggestion by a district executive in city hall that “Eating standing up is faster than sitting down”. This district employee gave this suggestion to me over the phone and then again during a lunch committee meeting. At the time I considered timing children eating lunch standing up and sitting down to show that it doesn’t make any difference at all. But I thought better of that, and took the comment for what it was — ridiculous.