Parents of some of the borough’s brightest elementary grade students are pressuring the city to make good on a promise to extend a popular gifted program in Astoria.
Public School 85 parents are circulating a petition to convince the Department of Education to create a citywide gifted and talented intermediate school in western Queens. The primary school program was created in 2009.
“I’m worried there is no appropriate middle school placement for these children,” said Rebecca Bratspies, 46, of Astoria, whose daughter is a kindergartner in the gifted program at PS 85.
“These children learn differently and they need classes geared toward their learning styles,” she said.
Ideally, the city would create the new school inside PS 85, she said, but it “isn’t big enough.”
An Education Department official said the agency plans to take a careful look at what sorts of options are available to these students once they graduate from PS 85.
But the city’s selective and screened middle schools are good options, the official said.
“That said, we always take feedback into account and want to ensure that every student has access to a great program,” said agency spokesman Frank Thomas.
The district already has a gifted and talented middle school at Intermediate School 122 in Long Island City.
But the school is open only to students who live in the district. And parents said there aren’t enough slots for PS 85 children.
“My fear is that … the middle school won’t get built and that’s not what I signed up for,” said Laura Boutwell, 44, of Woodside, whose daughter is a kindergartner in the gifted program at PS 85.
The city created only five citywide gifted and talented programs, including the one at PS 85 that is K-through-5. The other four programs are K-through-8.
Students must score in the 97th percentile or higher to be eligible for a citywide program. They must place in the 90th percentile to be accepted into the other gifted and talented programs.
The push to extend the gifted program within PS 85 has created some tension in the crowded school, said former Parents Association President Janet Gordillo.
She is concerned some parents are pushing the city to convert PS 85 from a mixed general education and gifted primary school to a K-through-8 gifted program, she said.
“If they’re going to do a K-through-8, it should be for everybody,” she said.
