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Assistant Principals Get Nod, But Not TeachersA id a M o n te ro , th e n e w ly a p p o in te d a s s is ta n t p rin c ip a l a t P.S. 321 in Park S lo p e is fla n k %u00ade d by C o m m u n ity S c h o o l D is tric t 15 P res id e n t P h ilip S c a la , le ft, a n d b o a rd m e m b e r F e lixV a s q u e z, rig h t, a fte r th e m e e tin g a t w h ic h M o n te ro 's a p p o in tm e n t w a s fin a lize d .(P h o e n ix /T a y lo r P h o to )By ROB TAYIjOR *Parents of students at P.S. 321 in Park Slope and P.S. 1 in Sunset Park are breathing a sigh of relief following the appointments of assistant principals to the two schools at the Community School Board 15 meeting July 30.Although the board also discussed some difficulties the district was having with its 1986-87 school-year budget and passed three resolutions for a bilingual education program, it was the two unanimous votes on the assistant principal positions that most interested the some 30 people attending the meeting.The seven board members present at the 30-minute meeting assigned Matilde Torres, the director of the district%u2019s bilingual education program, to P.S. 1 and Aida Montero District 15 teacher trainer, to P.S. 321.%u201cI%u2019m extremely happy that the district is moving in the right direction at this time,%u201d said board member Felix Vasquez about the appointment of two Hispanic women. Vasquez had publically committed himself to promoting minority candidates to supervisory positions.Montero, who was at the board meeting, has worked in District 15 for 12 years. She says she is a product of the City%u2019s public schools and was born and raised in Brooklyn. While she has spent the last two years working at the district office, Montero says her training ground as a teacher began at P.S. 1.Vasquez called her a %u201ctruly competent professional,%u201d and board member Philip Kaplan said he %u201cdoubled the yea for Aida Montero.%u201d%u201cThis feels better than almost getting married,%u201d said Montero after the board%u2019s decision was made. She thanked her family and the staff at the district office and all those shesaid were responsible for her %u201cprofessional growth.%u201dTorres also began her career in the district at P.S. 1. She was vacationing in Puerto Rico and was not at the meeting. Philip Scala, president of the school board, said, %u201cThis is a somewhat bitter-sweet moment and I am very happy that Matilde Torres got the promotion.%u201dParents at P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens are still waiting for an assistant principal to be appointed to their school. Interviews are now underway and Scala says the board hopes tomake a decision by mid-October.Dr. Jerrold Glassman, the district%u2019s superintendent, also reported that the 1986-87 school year budget was not going to have the necessary funds to hire as many teachers as the schools need.%u201cWhat should have been a good year because of more aid from New York State is turning out to be a terrible year,%u201d he said. Glassman expects to have about the same amount of money as last year, $41 million, but he says the flexibility he had to juggle the different funds around has disappeared. Thisvear mnre tpanhers arp rpnnirpd tn teach thp %u00ab P mthird grade because of a City Board of Education decision to keep class size for that grade down.%u201cPlease don%u2019t be misled,%u201d said Glassman, whose own contract with the district ends June 30, 1987, %u201cbecause the monies are not coming to the district in the way we thought. We don%u2019t see being able to put on board as many people as the children need.%u201d The superintendent expects to present a final budget to the board in mid-August.Following Glassman%u2019s report, parents at the meeting expressed concern that the governor had not signed the safe school bus bill passed in the recent Albany legislative session. The bill would require seat belts to be installed in all school buses constructed in 1987. The governor had to sign the legislation by August 5 for it to take effect.Assemblymember Eileen Dugan (52nd A.D.), whose district includes part of School District 15, was present at the July 30 meeting and said, %u201cThere are many bills that the governor has not signed yet. A lot were passed at the end of the session and are still waiting.%u201d Dugan said she would call the governor%u2019s office to find out what was happening to the bill.Three resolutions creating new bilingual education programs at P.S. 58 and P.S. 107 and continuing existing programs at other district schools were also unanimously adopted by the board.Two board members, Norm Fruchter and Judy Hoffman, were not present for the monthly meeting. The board will meet next on August 27 at the District office at 360 Smith Street. Call 330-9283 for more information about the agenda.Heights School Still Waiting For Funds:City Okays Funding For Completion Of Bridge %u2014 AgainBY LIZ KOCHThe narrow width of the Gowanus Canal doesn%u2019t make it a large body of water, but for residents of the surrounding area, waiting years for the completion of the Third Street Bridge across the canal, it may as well be the East River.Engineering and financial challenges posed by the reconstruction of the bridge, which started in 1982, have prolonged its completion two and a half years past the scheduled date. In spring, contractors stopped work on the bridge when money for the project dried up.Progress on the bridge, however, is underway again and workers are back on the site, after a Board of Estimate vote on July 17 released $284,000 for immediate use on the bridge. The sum is a portion of the $500,000 alloted by the City%u2019s Department of Transportation for the project under contract to Ardsky Construction Co., Inc., in its Fiscal Year 1986-87 budget. Contractors on the site now cautiously estimate that the bridge will be finished near the end of the year.City Councilmember Stephen DiBrienza says he gained the support of DOT Commissioner Ross Sandler for the project earlier this year when it was obvious the funds for the bridge were insufficient. DiBrienza, who surveyed the work site on July 29 with Assemblywoman Eileen Dugan, another active lobbyist for the project, says he initially sought to acquire the extra funds through the Mayor%u2019s Officer of Budget and Management (OBM), but turned to the Commissioner when it became apparent that the normal process could drag on.Originally targeted as a two-year construction project with a price tag of $3 million, the bridge work is now in its fourth year and a total of $1.5 million has been added to cover increased costs. Problems with the project center on a misjudgment in the initial estimate or %u201cscoping%u201d of the project, according to DiBrienza.%u201cThe DOT engineer at that time did not scope out the contract the way he should have,%u201d DiBrienza says. %u201cWhen the contractor started work, he found problems that no one knew about,%u201d he says, namely the of the bridge once it was rebuilt.%u201cIt wasn%u2019t planned that we would have toi ___i ii%u2014 ___ a:%u2014 i%u2014 : j %u00bb%u00bb-------- t %u00bb____l c p i a c c n e a r i j m e d i m e u u u g c , o u j o i t u o oStillwagon from Car-mar Construction, the firm now at work completing the iron work on the bridge. The bridge, he points out, is now practically new with very few parts ol the original still in place.Work currently underway includes theS ta te A s s e m b ly w o m a n E ile e n D u g a n and C ity C o u n c ilm e m b e r S te v e D iB rie n z a joinw o rk e rs a t th e T h ird S tre e t B rid g e o v e r th e G o w a n u s C a n a l w h e re w o rk has re s u m e d o n c ea g a in . T h e b rid g e, th a t has s to o d o p e n and u n u s e d fo r y e a rs , is s la te d for c o m p le tio n la teth is year. (P h o e n ix /K o c h P h o to s )relocation of counterweights on the bridge that serve to compensate for the now topheavy construction. Stillwagon estimates that work on the counterweights will be completed in six to eight weeks. Afterwards, electricians will begin the motorwork necessary to open and close the now heavier bridge, a task estimated to last another six to eight weeks.On July 17, the Board of Estimate also voted to release money for other Brooklyn projects, including funds for a consultant to prepare a development plan for the reconstruction of the Shore Parkway Bicycle Path. The path travels through five boroughs and the targeted Brooklyn portion stretches 9.5 miles from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the Canarsie Pier.%u201cThere are many parts that need repaving and rebuilding and there are parts where the path does not exist,%u201d says Amy Friedlander from the the Parks Department. The sum alloted for the consultant, Vollmer Associates of Manhattan, should not exceed $59,856. The firm will prepare plans, specifications and a cost estimate for a Preliminary Design Investigation over a period of 270 days.In other Board of Estimate business in July, the body also approved the leasing of 2,500 square feet of air conditioned space in the ground floor of 1473 Fulton Street to the City for use by the Center for Law and Social Justice, now in temporary quarters on the Medgar Evers College Campus and will move into its new home in September.A vote for additional monies for work on the heating and ventilation system at P.S. 8 in Brooklyn Heights was held over until the Board%u2019s August 14 meeting.The Board of Education requested the amount of $59,043.56 for change orders in the contract.An additional $717.90 was approved by the Board for work already completed on the orchestra pit lift at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The project was completed last year and additional work required at the time added $75,717.90 in costs to the project, exceeding the City%u2019s 10 percent contract allowance by the amount that the board approved at this July hearing. Cost overruns on the projecta le iiiiiie u u u n i uie n ccu tu icluucttc a d iu iiiiline drain and to remove boulders encountered during the excavation.The next Board of Estimate session Aug. 14 has scheduled a public hearing on the disposition of the Sunset Park Court House on Fourth Avenue.August T, 1986, THE PHOENIX, Page 3