The PS11PAC

The PS11PAC (Parent/Political Advocacy Committee), is comprised of parents and community members who are closely following issues that effect other schools and our own: co-locations, overcrowding, changes in programming, rezoning, teacher layoffs, budget cuts, etc. PS11 parents need to consistently and firmly communicate the needs of our children, our school, and our community. We accomplish this by monitoring DOE actions, conferring with other school leaders and attending monthly District 2 CEC meetings.

Examples of PS11PAC in action

At the end of the 2010/11 school year, PS11 was shocked to learn of a proposal to insert additional 150 students from another school into our building. This proposal would have instantly overcrowded our school, shuttled our special needs students into cramped classrooms, increase class sizes, and forced us to close either our Music, Art or Science rooms next fall. The year after that would have been unworkable. PS11PAC banded together with the PS11 SLT, fact finding, reaching out to community leaders, writing letters and spearheading a parent email campaign to the DOE, expressing our firm position against the proposal. Parents sent over 200 emails within 48 hours to the DOE, resulting in their taking the proposal off the table.

During 2009/10, the PS11PAC (formerly the CEAC) fought tirelessly for the relocation of the middle school that shared our building. Both schools were overcrowded and supported a move, but the timeline was continually pushed forward until the move became critical for our school. Without the extra room that their move would produce, an overcrowded PS11 stood to lose key programs and have 30 in a class. Our goal was clear. In addition to keeping class sizes as small as possible, we stood firm behind our belief is that our broad spectrum of programming (Gen Ed, CTT, Special Ed, G&T) is what allows us to serve every child in our neighborhood school, no matter their needs. Removal of any one of these elements would be hugely detrimental to our school.

If you would like to join our committee, please send us an email using this form.