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Golden Slams Board Of Ed For Neglecting Local SchoolsBY ROB TAYLOR (rfllHpn said %u201cTho Rnar/f BY ROB TAYLOR Af f/liin n f in n 'i. __: 1 I i : i * a! %u00bb ,, . ..............................................Citing a poor maintenance record and overcrowding in 81 Brooklyn schools, Butuugh President Howard Goiden attempted to focus City budget meetings on the poor condition of New York%u2019s public-schools during a press conference, June 24, at his office.Golden challenged a Board of Education claim that many of Brooklyn%u2019s schools are underutilized and released data compiled by his office indicating overutilization in schools clustered in Sunset Park, Crown Heights, Bushwick, East New York and northeast Flatbush. Community School District 17, he said, is severely overcrowded with approximately 2,800 more students than over capacity.Golden said the Board of Education is using outdated criteria and is estimating usage on a district by district basis, displacing 8,358 children in the Brooklyn school system. According to the present formula, if ten schools in a district are overutilized and ten are underutilized, the district is not considered overcrowded. The Board bases this determination on the assumption that it can bus students to schools with lower enrollments.%u201cTo further compound the problem,%u201dGolden said, %u201cThe Board of Education%u2019s proposal to alleviate overcrowding by building mini-schools next to existing schools has been delayed by a dispute between the Board and the New York City Arts Commission. As a result, many schools are overcrowded, and in some cases, students have been placed in leased spaces which are often in poor condition,%u201d he said.Golden presented a utilization profile of all the Brooklyn schools reported to be overcrowded. In Community School District 13, P.S. 44 in Bedford-Stuyvesant is operating at 103 percent of capacity with an overload of 30 students.In Community School District 15, the overcrowding is mainly in Sunset Park and Park Slope schools. Golden reported that seven schools were operating over capacity including : in Sunset Park, P.S. 1 at 106 percent, P.S. 94 at 115 percent, and P.S. 169 at 125 percent; and in Park Slope, P.S. 39 at 114 percent, P.S. 124 at 122 percent, P.S. 172 at 123 percent, and the minischool at P.S. 321 at 134 percent.Golden also criticized the Board for huge backlogs of repair requests from school principals and district superintendents and calledfor an independent investigation of the Board%u2019s management of repairs.In a survey of the borough%u2019s 274 schools administered by Golden%u2019s office, 86 percent of the principals who responded said the Board of Education does not promptly reply to their repair requests. The survey also found that 48 percent of the school principals had 20 or more repair requests pending. Sixty-one percent of the principals responded that it takes 1 to 3 years to get anything repaired.To end the delays, Golden proposed that a pilot %u201chandyman%u201d program be funded this year that would permit school districts to contract locally for minor repairs. He also suggested that the Buildings Department conduct annual inspections of all school buildings, the City fund an independent study to determine the long-term space needs of the school system, and the Mayor appoint an independent panel to recommend ways to speed the construction of mini-schools and to investigate the Board of Education%u2019s space planning and repair services.While the Board of Education has been aware of the overcrowding, Central Board Brooklyn member Irene Impellizzeri said, %u201cHopefully we can dramatize these Droblemsand they will get into the budget.%u201dGolden said that the problem has become worse because public officials have not been able to reach a consensus solution. %u201cEach person thinks their program is important,%u201d he said. %u201cEvery problem is only important to those who espouse it.%u201dGolden explained that the %u201chandyman%u201d program was one of the proposals being considered in the City budget negotiations. At press time, the budget was still being discussed, and the borough president%u2019s office was not sure whether it would be included.On hand at Golden%u2019s press conference were several children enrolled in some of the dilapidated schools. %u201cI think my school is in bad shape,%u201d said Luis Amador, from P.S. 149 in East New York. %u201cThe walls look disgusting, with plaster coming off and grafitti on the wall. The bathrooms are really bad.%u201dFestus Shannon from P.S. 139 in Flatbush said, %u201cEvery time you flush the toilets, the water overflows and we don%u2019t have much fun in the gym at all.%u201d-C te O ilM N E Y Q U IC K %u2122ch arco al s v a r x c r ...FREEDOMFROM PETROCHEMICALL-IC%u2019HTINC? 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'!a00 436-8296 9 5 won. h i.We will travel.EMERSON FANSWITH OR WITHOUT LIGHTINGCITY LIGHTING622-8740307 Flatbush Ave%u201e, Bklyn, N.Y. 11217Mon-Wed 9am-6pm, Thurs-Fri 9am-7pmSat 9am-6pmMasterCard & VisaSAVE*SAVESnNTRAOk LIGHTINGrJ fr e e^DecoratorAssistanceHaioPower-TracLargest Setection'Of Track Lighting'ln N.Y.-in Stock!Enter the1986 Mobil Big Apple GamesBasketball Volleyball Swimming Track Wrestling Soccer Gymnastics SoftballTennis Double Dutch Fencing Athletic Conditioning/Weight TrainingCompetition(C) Recreation(R) and Special Education(S) ProgramsSIGN UP AND PRACTICEBrooklyn O ld B o ys and G irls Field C C S D -1 8 JH S 211 C .RA b ra h a m L in c o ln R P ro s p e c t H e ights R C S D -1 9 PS 13 SB o ys and G irls C S o u th S h ore C C S D -1 9 PS 182 A x C .RB u s h w ic k R T h o m a s J e ffe rs o n R C S D -2 0 PS 20 5 C.RE d w a rd R. M u rro w C C S D -1 3 J H S 2 9 4 C, R C S D -21 J H S 2 2 8 C ,RE ra sm u s Hall R C S D -1 3 PS 11 S C S D -21 PS 22 6 SF o rt H a m ilto n C C S D -1 3 PS 36 S C S D -21 PS 271 SF ranklin K. La n e R C S D -1 4 IS 3 1 8 C, R C S D -2 2 PS 811 SJa m e s M a d is o n R C S D -1 5 J H S 1 4 2 C, R C S D -2 2 J H S 2 4 0 C, RJo h n Jay C, R C S D -1 5 PS 371 S C S D -2 3 IS 55 C, RL a fa ye tte C C S D -1 6 IS 32 4 C, R C S D -2 3 PS 3 96 SN ew U tre c h t R C S D -1 7 IS 391 C, R C S D -3 2 IS 291 C, RWHO CAN ENTER;H igh S c h o o ls %u20149 th, 10th, 11th, 12th G ra d e s as o f S epte m be r, 1986 J u n io r H ig h /ln te rm e d ia te S c h o o ls %u20145 th, 6th, 7th, 8 th G ra d e s a s o f S eptem ber, 1986 S p e cia l E d u c a tio n S tu d e n ts %u20145 th G rad e th ro u g h H igh S c h o o lWHEN TO SIGN UP:Ju ly 1 th ro u g h A u g u s t 10Free b re a k fa s t/lu n c h availa ble a t o r n e a r M o b il B ig A p p le C enters.DAYS/HOURS OF OPERATION:H.S. C o m p e titio n M o n .-T h u rs . 5P M -9P M H.S. A fte rn o o n R e c re a tio n M on.-Fri. 1P M -5PM H.S. Evening R e cre a tio n T u e s./W e d ./T h u rs . 7PM -10P MH.S. W ee kd a y A th le tic F ie ld 5P M -9P M H.S. W e eken d A th le tic F ie ld S at.-S un. 12P M -9P M J.H.S. C o m p e titio n a n d R e cre a tio n M o n .-T h u rs . 9 A M -3P MS p e cia l E d u c a tio n M o n .-F ri. 9AM -1PMF o r fu rth e r in fo rm a tio n a b o u t the M o b il B ig A p p le G a m e s p le a s e c a ll (718) 5 9 6 -5 8 0 7 o r c o n ta c t yo u r lo ca l s c h o o l.1986 M o b il C o rp o ra tio nJuly 3,1986, THE PHOENIX, Pag* 5