Parents, local activists and elected officials are upset with the Department of Education’s decision to transfer an entire class of kindergarteners from PS 340 in the middle of the semester to another school  — a move parents say would severely inconvenience them and their children.

Opponents of the plan lobbied together two weeks ago during a Thursday Community Education Council District 10 meeting, expressing their frustrations after being notified by PS 340 administrators that 20 students, all of them kindergarteners, would be transferred immediately to PS 310 due to overcrowding issues.

“To bus them to another school is going to disrupt my 4-year-old’s education at this point,” said Leroy Gardner, a father of two students who attend PS 340. “He’s comfortable where he’s at, he doesn’t want to be separated from his sister and this makes no sense to me.”

PS 340 is located across from the Kingsbridge Armory on West 195th Street, while PS 310 is more than a half-mile away on Kingsbridge Road near Bailey Avenue. Like several other local schools dealing with overcrowding issues, PS 340 requested a “cap” for the number of kindergarten students they could accommodate.

“Capping comes into effect when a school exceeds its capacity for students and they don’t have either the space or staff to take on another classroom,” said Marvin Shelton, president of the Community Education Council for District 10 (CEC 10). “This year it seems to be more problematic in that they’re sending out the cap letters late. If you’re informed in September this may happen and then you’re told in the middle of October — six weeks into the year —  that, no, you can’t stay in that school, go to another school. It’s very disruptive.”

Marge Feinberg, a spokesperson for the DOE, said in an email that the school’s capping request was approved on Oct. 31 and that it’s the school’s responsibility to notify parents that their student might be a cap casualty. The students who are being transferred are only those who are not zoned for PS 340, she said. Feinberg added that PS 310 is a high-performing school that received an “A” grade on its most recent progress report.

According to Terry Moss, the president of the District 10 Presidents Council and the Parents Association president for PS 340, 20 students were immediately reassigned to PS 310 and parents were just informed of the decision a week before Thanksgiving.

“Why did it take so long to notify us of this change?” Moss asked council members, including Shelton, at the meeting. “I’m speaking for parents. I have a child there too; we don’t want to send our kids over to 310.”

“The education system is going to the dogs,” said Elizabeth Thompson, a representative of the Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association, at the meeting.

Yael Kalban, an associate portfolio manager for the DOE, explained the capping protocol in an email to Shelton.

“The Planning and Enrollment team works together to develop and execute capping plans,” wrote Kalban. “In this case, students were capped on a last-in, first-out basis, with zoned students retaining priority over any students zoned to schools other than PS 340.”

According to parent Jennifer Velez, the last-in, first-out basis didn’t apply to her kindergarten son.

“My son attended pre-K at 340,” said Velez. “He was accepted back in June when half of his class wasn’t. So, as far as I’m concerned, my son’s seat was secured at that point.”

At a Community Board 7 meeting last week, Councilman Oliver Koppell, said he was lobbying the DOE to send the excess students from PS 340 to PS 86, which is, literally, right next door. Koppell said PS 86’s principal assured him that it had enough room to take on another kindergarten class of students from PS 340.

This simple solution was rebuffed by DOE officials.

“P.S. 86 has six general education kindergarten classes of 30, 31, 31, 31, 30, and 32 students, and does not have space to open additional sections,” Feinberg said in an email. “P.S. 310X currently has the space to accommodate an additional kindergarten section and already has a teacher in place for this additional section.”

But Koppell said he would continue to push for the PS 86 plan. On Wednesday, Nov. 28, the DOE was scheduled to hold an open house to introduce the PS 340 transfers to their new environment. Parents, however, remained skeptical.

“My son has a right to attend PS 340,” said Velez. “And like the other parents stated, if a bus comes to pick up my son on Monday, I will be withdrawing him from school.”

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published in the Nov. 29-Dec. 12, 2012 print edition of the Norwood News. Some content also appeared previously on this website.