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History of Tribeca Buildings
Washington Market School’s Hudson Street campus is temporarily closed
By now you may have heard rumors of an incident at The Washington Market School; fortunately the head of school, Carrie Kries, who took the helm of the 50-year-old Tribeca institution four years ago, has been about as forthright as possible. So here’s what happened. I will also confirm with the Department of Health.
Last Friday, May 22, during an off-site trip to Washington Market Park, one of the school’s students was briefly separated from his class. He left the park unaccompanied. UPDATE: A nearby building staff member noticed the child, who was wearing the required Washington Market School identification tag, outside the park on the west side of Greenwich Street and brought him to KinderCare on the corner of Greenwich and Reade.
Immediately after teachers realized he was missing, they began looking for him, and one teacher was directed by a bystander to KinderCare. Within minutes of being separated from the class, a teacher arrived at KinderCare and was reunited with the child, who was unharmed.
The school immediately reported the incident to the NYC Department of Health, which oversees private pre-schools and daycares. The school is now required as part of standard practice to create a Corrective Action Plan and train its staff in the plan. The DOH will review and approve the plan, then reinspect the school to verify that the new plan is in place and training is complete.
During that time — as required by the DOH — the Hudson Street campus will be temporarily closed. Parents were informed of that on Wednesday afternoon.
Carrie expects it will take several days for her and her staff to complete and receive approval for each of the required steps. Once training is complete, the school will then tell the DOH they are ready for reinspection. It is then up to the department to schedule an inspection and permit the school to reopen.
“At the end of the day, our most important focus is that we keep our children safe,” Carrie said. “Because we are exceptional at what we do, this was really upsetting for our entire community. We are really eager to move forward, but we follow all the rules here and we are doing everything the Department of Health requires of us. That’s one of the many reasons why we are a highly reputable school.”
Carrie said the school has always followed and operated under DOH-approved, thorough and careful protocols for offsite visits of any kind, but now they will be developing one specifically for Washington Market Park. They will be scrutinizing their current protocols and determining a different usage of the park that will include stationing staff — more of a zoned supervision model.
The school is actually older than the Washington Market Park. Founded in 1976 by Ronnie Moskowitz — she held the first class of six students in her Tribeca loft — it has grown to include two campuses and more than 200 students. It received its first charter from the New York State Department of Education in 1981 and opened the Hudson Street building in 1988. Duane Street opened in 1991.
But that origin story alone explains how running a school in this neighborhood has to be a constantly evolving process.
“As the school leader here, I see this as an important learning moment,” Carrie said. “Because all our children are safe, I see this as a valuable gift for us to become even stronger and even safer moving forward.”
17 Comments
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“Because we are exceptional at what we do, this was really upsetting for our entire community.”
because they are great is why losing a kid was upsetting?
We did the school’s tour a couple of years ago when looking at pre-schools.and thought they were arrogant.
Confirmed.
The quotes from the director are weird and self-aggrandizing. As the person below noted, this incident shows a troubling gap in oversight — not an occasion to brag about how exceptional the school is.
I think there is a serious issue that the child wandered out of the park and no one noticed? The child was found by a stranger not the teacher.
The article makes it seem so light but there is some more negligence here than just an oops, won’t happen again.
Happy for the family that the child was reunited and unharmed.
Let’s examine the idea that the park does not promote safety by NOT having an enclosed entrance to the park itself. Any child can wander off. Install a gate with a lock mechanism for the kids.
Exactly. It’s ridiculous that this park does not have a gate. This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time this happens.
Most public parks do not have gates, and for those that do, children are able to easily open and close them themselves (as my 3 year old does daily).
In situations like these, people look for all types of ways to place blame.
The fact of the matter is a child was under the care of a teacher, and that teacher fell short. Everyone makes mistakes and it may be hard to accept that this mistake was made, but there’s no other blame to be placed here.
I’m happy for the family that the child is okay.
Whether or not Washington Market Park is secured by a gate is beside the point. If there is a school that should know every inch of this park, it is the Washington Market School. Plus, at the end of the school year, the teachers should know which kids are roamers, etc., and supervise accordingly.
I have made an update to the story with more detail on how the child was found.
This is not the story we are hearing. It was some stranger who found the child and not anyone connected to the school. They brought the child to another school and somehow it was sorted that the child goes to Washington Market.
Making it sound like a minor incident and not owning up to your mistake feels very disingenuous and not in line with what a good school would do.
All of the kids that are marched back and forth to the park (and there are a lot of them!) wear signs or pinnies with the name of the school on them. Perhaps the person who found the child did not know where Washington Market School is if they took the child somewhere else. There are often security personnel involved in the migration as well.
My kids went to the school many years ago. It is a great school, and this does seem very uncharacteristic of them. I also can relate to the perceived arrogance of school officials.
What a bizarre statement: “We are really eager to move forward, but we follow all the rules here and we are doing everything the Department of Health requires of us.”
So, in the absence of the city requiring them to make changes, they would just “move forward” and stay open? Very odd to indicate that the incident alone doesn’t make them want to reevaluate their safety protocol. They’re just doing so because they’re following the city’s requirements.
I don’t know who advised the school director on the quotes provided, but that person cannot read the room.
Agree. It’s concerning how the school head is portraying the incident.
The school has been given a corrective action plan that’s all about revising safety protocols during off campus trips to the park (though their prior protocols had been approved by the Department of Health each year). That seems totally appropriate, of course, but it seems unnecessary to many of the families that the school is entirely closed (as opposed to just having any off-campus activities suspended) while that plan is put in place. The school and parents are naturally eager to get the kids back before the end of the year, so they don’t miss out on end of the year festivities. I will also say, WMS is extremely beloved among its families and, while the comments here from people not tied to the school (and someone bearing a grudge over a years-ago admissions event!?) are harshly critical, there is an incredibly strong sense of support for the school among families actually sending their kids to WMS.
The article reads like a PR campaign to make light of the incident and gloss over a serious situation. The head of school calling it a ‘gift’ seems strange.
Such a pretentious school to be so careless. I remember back in 2014/2015 I was looking for a daycare in the neighborhood. We attended the open house and my husband was gravelly ill with some super flu that he could not attend. I was given the cold shoulder and reminded that both parent participation was preferred. I already felt out of place. When we did our ice breakers and asked where we live (that’s sort of a passive aggressive question to ask to size you up or your wallet) I said Tribeca, and Ronnie’s response… I don’t know how one lives in Tribeca… I barely can afford to live in Tribeca. It wasn’t banter, it was a micro aggressive comment. One thing I did leave from that open house, when she said this and looked dead in my face. “we don’t reject kids from the school because of the kids… we reject them because of the parents”.
Respectfully, “the teacher made a mistake” and “the park should have a gate” are not mutually exclusive. I don’t expect perfection from teachers, parents, nannies, or anyone else caring for children. Kids are fast and adults are human. That’s exactly why we put safeguards (seatbelts, pool fences, etc.) in place. If we’re talking about a park used by small children that sits next to a busy street, I don’t think asking for a gate is some wild attempt to shift blame. It seems like basic common sense.