How many kids have left our local schools?

I’ve been trying for weeks to get the DOE to tell me just how many kids are enrolled at local schools — and it’s not just me, they won’t tell the Journal either — but sure enough, it’s sitting right there on their website. Remote (as they all are today) or not, I was looking for total enrollment as a measure of who is still tethered to the neighborhood.

PS 234 is down by 27 percent — which, when walking around the neighborhood or looking up at residential windows at night, feels about right. Enrollment was 638; it is down to 469.

Everyone has tried to gauge who has left and for how long — The Times has followed real estate sales in the suburbs, talked to movers and tracked cell phone usage; The Post gathered the data on change of address requests since March 1 to measure just who has left (Tribeca comes in at #18 with 889 requests from 10013, but that’s nothing compared to the thousands on the UWS who ditched). But it is my very unscientific analysis that taking your kid out of local schools is a much bigger commitment than forwarding your mail for a few months.

Enrollment numbers are down at other neighborhood schools too, with PS 89 down 26 percent to 339 from 456; Spruce Street down 11 percent to 499 from 560; Peck Slip down 10 percent to 426 from 468; and PS 276 down 7 percent to 794 from 849.

I’ve asked around, and kids are in class with as few as seven kids — 12 at the most. Each class, with its two cohorts, seems to add up to about 20, with three classes in each grade and one fully remote. Across six grades, that gets you to 480, give or take.

If the state virus tracker records are to be trusted, only one student across all neighborhood schools has been diagnosed with the virus (at Peck Slip) and one teacher (at 276). Yet here we are, shut down again. And maybe another reason to take off for good.

 

6 Comments

  1. re:
    If the state virus tracker records are to be trusted, only one student across all neighborhood schools has been diagnosed with the virus (at Peck Slip) and one teacher (at 276).

    there was a positive case notice sent out tuesday at 234.

  2. Thank you for compiling all of this info for us. Very helpful!

  3. It is not one teacher at 276….it was a repair person who had no contact with teachers or students.

  4. There was a positive case at PS 234 too. I have no details as to whether it was staff or student.

Comment: