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Phoenix Back To School SectionSlope/South Brooklyn Schools Ready For A New Year:Amid Space And Money Problems, Students Learn PeaceBY ROB TAYLORWhen the schools in Community District 15 open their doors September 8, returning students will find newly-hired assistant principals in some schools and expanded peace education in others.But despite the additional staff and expanded curricula in the 25-school district that includes all or part of Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Sunset Park, and Kensington, school board officials say they are bracing for a %u201cless flexible\able to hire any new teachers at the beginning of the school year if more children than are expected show up for the first day of classes.%u201cOrdinarily, I put all the money I have into personnel at the beginning of the year and then the money that accrues later in the year can b? used for supplies,\District Superintendent Jerrold Glassman about city tax dollars. %u201cThis year I have to use all the money up front for supplies and won%u2019t have the funding available to hire any new personnel.\While the amount of money involved, about $140,000, is only enough to hire five or six new teachers in the 1,087-teacher district, Glassman says that in prior years he has been able to hire a few more staff in grades where there are more children than expected.%u201cYou never know how many children are going to be in the classrooms until school begins,\tain instances where you generally know in advance what to expect, you do not know how many children will be living in shelters and come to school at the last minute. I usually have to visit each school at the beginning of the year and make a decision afterwards.%u201dSome of the schools in District 15, especially those in Sunset Park, have been severely affected by classroom overcrow'ding. While this problem is mainly due to lack of space for the district%u2019s 19,725 students, the community school board passed a resolution at its July 9 meeting to keep the class size for kindergarten through the third grade at 25 students.%u201cIf you help children at younger grades they won%u2019t need remedial classes in the future,%u201d says Glassman about the class size quota.To deal with the overcrowding at P.S. 94Com m unity School Board 15 executive officers (above, left to right), President PhilipScala, Vice-President Beatrice DeSapio,Treasurer Felix Vasquez and SecretaryNorm Fruchter. Below, Superintendent Jerrold Glassman. The Board and Glassmanare now preparing the 1986-87 school yearbudget. (Phoenix/Taylor Photos)We're trying to teachyoungsters to resolveproblems in a peacefulfashion. We start whenthey 're young and havingconflicts with theirschool friends.in Sunset Park, the district is now building an annex adjacent to the school, but it will not be open until the 1987-88 school year begins.In addition to the curtailed use of City contributions to District 15%u2019s budget, Glassman says the Federal government is reducing its assistance to three schools by $600,000. The money, available to districts with low income neighborhoods and low student reading ability, is being cut at P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens, P.S. 154 in Windsor Terrace and P.S. 230 in Kensington. Glassman says the Federal assistance is being discontinued because the neighborhoods are %u201cbecoming more affluent%u201d as well as because %u201cthe children in these schools are reading better.%u201dWhile trying to cope with the district%u2019s budget problems, Glassman is also lookingforward to the expansion of some educational programs in the district as well as an additional fund that will allow him to quickly make some of the needed repairs in the schools.%u201cToilets are the most common repair,%u201d he says. %u201cThis year we will have about $100,000 for small repairs from the Handyman Program.%u201d The money was made available this summer by Borough President Howard Golden from his City budget discretionary fund. In addition to the toilets, Glassman says he will also be able to repair window panes and drinking fountains. Previously, the Board of Education required a series of repair requests before work was actually conducted on the problems.Beyond the repairs, the district is seeking $25,000 to expand an experimental peace education program to three other schools, P.S. 15 in Red Hook, P.S. 230 in Kensington and 321 in Park Slope. The curriculum, which is being developed specifically for District 15, is funded by the Central Board of Education and has been created with the assistance of Educators for Social Responsibility. Glassman says that if it is successful, it will be added in other local school districts.During the last school year, the program was honored at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where some of the District 15 children appeared at a ceremony with actors Peter Boyle and Emmanuel Lewis.%u201cWe%u2019re trying to teach youngsters to resolve problems in a peaceful fashion,%u201d he says. %u201cWe start when they%u2019re young and having conflicts with their school friends.%u201dFor the returning District 15 teachers, the district is %u201cintensifying%u201d its writing and instructional management program for teacher training in math and communications and also is preparing a school-based management program %u201cto involve teachers in the policy and decision-making process.%u201dAdministratively, the new District 15 School Board is continuing its plan to hire assistant principals to help run the schools more efficiently. At the board%u2019s July 30 meeting, Aida Montero was assigned to P.S. 321 in Park Slope and Matilde Torres to P.S. 1 in Sunset Park. P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens is still waiting for an assistant principal to be chosen and P.S. 27 in Red Hook is looking for a new principal. Both assignments are expected to be made in the fall.Richer Schools Do Better In New Math And Reading TestsBY ROB TAYLORWith the release of the city-wide math and reading achievement test results for the 1985-86 school year, it appears that affluence and ethnic origin are the key factors for educational success in Community School District 15 according to district officials.Unofficial results of the tests that were given in April and May of this year indicate that students in Park Slope%u2019s P.S. 154 scored very high levels on their reading exams, with 89 percent either at grade level or above, while only half that number, 46 percent, in Sunset Park%u2019s P.S. 1 were at the same level. Some 65.6 percent of the students in District 15 scored at grade level or above.On the math exams, Park Slope students at P.S. 39 again scored high levels, with 81.2 percent at or above grade-level, and those students just down the road at Boerurn Hill%u2019s P.S. 38 scored the lowest level, 31.2 percent. 57.4 percent of the students district-wide were at least at grade level.%u201cP.S. 1 has a lot of children with language barriers,%u201d says Emil Giordano, deputy superintendent of District 15. %u201cThe kids who go to school in Park Slope don%u2019t have any of these problems by and large.\that the language problem accounts for both low math scores and reading scores.o . r\%u~~C.U J A %u00bb 1 U V / W t * < r v fn n n in o l f\\t D Q O V l----------in Flatbush/Kensington where a large percentage of the students, 77.6 percent, scored at or above grade level on the math exam, and 87.4 percent on the reading exam, credits the large number of Asians at her school for the good performance.Community School District 15P re lim in a ry (U n o ffic ia l) C o m p a riso n o f P u p il A c h ie v e m e n tCity-Wide City-WideMathematics Test Reading TestApril 1986 April 1985 May 1986 April 1985% At or Above % At or Above % At or Above % At or Above50NP Grade G rade 50N P G rade G rade SCHOOL Equivalent Equivalent Equivalent Equivalent P.S. 1, 309 47th St. 41.6 49.5 46.0 34.8P.S. 10, 511 Seventh Ave. 69,1 73.6 72.6 63.2P.S. 15, 71 Sullivan St. 38.4 54.3 57.8 47.8P.S. 27, N elson & Hicks St. 34.0 58.4 50.5 43.3P.S. 29, 425 H enry St. 65.4 77.9 84.3 76.3P.S. 32, 317 H oyt St. 50.8 74.8 65.4 55.6P.S. 38, 450 P acific St 31.2 54.1 55.9 39.0P.S. 39, 417 Sixth Ave. 81.2 86.7 88.5 88.7P.S. 58, 330 S m ith St. 67.3 85.1 77.3 70.4P.S. 94, 5010 Sixth Ave 59.8 75.2 71.9 54.6P.S. 107, 1301 Eighth Ave. 70.7 81.7 79.4 73.2P.S. 124, 515 Fourth Ave 69.9 75.1 68.0 63.9P.S. 130, 70 O cean Pkwy 68.3 71.5 79.9 68.8P.S. 131, 4305 Ft Ham Pkwy 40.3 64.2 80.3 52.0P.S. 154, 11th A ve/W in d so r PI 74.8 80.7 89.0 82.1P.S. 169, 4305 Seventh Ave 52.4 64.1 67.7 54 1P.S. 172, 825 Fourth Ave 56.3 63.8 71.9 54.3P.S. 230. 1 Allberm arle Rd 77.6 84.9 87.4 75.0P.S. 261, 314 Pacific 53.8 64 4 67.8 56.0P.S. 321, 180 Seventh Ave 72.1 82.0 84.7 78.5t)l, 350 Fifth Ave 4 b . b J b . 4 bd.,