To the Editor:
We are parents writing in response to the article by Anusha Shrivastava in
the September 9 issue of The WIRE about the Roosevelt
Island Day Nursery, P.S. 217 and Island Kids. Roosevelt Island
parents are fortunate to have a full range of options for their
children. They can make different choices based on their own
philosophies, finances and child-care needs. But it is important
that parents receive accurate information about the various
programs so that they can make an informed decision for their
children.
There were two problems with the most recent WIRE
story. First, many of the facts about the Day Nursery were wrong
and, in a separate letter in this issue of The WIRE, Sara
Seiden has corrected these mistakes. The second is that the
unique contribution of the Day Nursery to the development of
children on Roosevelt Island was lost. The authors of this
letter, who represent the four most recent chairpersons of the
Day Nursery's Board, as well as other concerned Board officers
and parents, are writing to highlight the Day Nursery's
distinctive qualities.
First and foremost, we want to emphasize that the Roosevelt
Island Day Nursery and P.S. 217 are educational institutions.
Sara Seiden, Director of the Day Nursery, and Sherry Gregory,
Principal of P.S. 217, are experienced, trained professionals in
their field. The teachers at the Day Nursery and P.S. 217 have
graduate degrees and are State-certified. Island Kids' Learning
Group is a children's program run by parents and is not
interchangeable with a professionally-run, licensed
early-childhood program.
The article reduces a parent's choice to one of finances
without explaining what a private nursery school tuition buys for
a child. First, it buys a teacher with a graduate-school
education, fully trained to use teaching strategies in order to
accommodate each and every child's individual language, social,
cognitive and physical needs. A trained early childhood
professional can nurture a child's independence while
simultaneously supporting and encouraging growth and skill
development. Each child learns how to interact with his or her
peers, with adults, and to negotiate his or her own world. Each
learns how to communicate his or her needs within a safe,
structured, age-appropriate environment. Secondly, the Day
Nursery provides a small student-teacher ratio, one head teacher
and at least one assistant teacher for every class of 10-18
children, depending on their age. Thirdly, the school offers
full-day programs, which are vital for many families. Further,
the Board of Health makes sure that safety standards are
maintained and, in fact, the school's exemplary facilities,
strictly supervised by Sara, have met those standards for two
decades.
What does the Day Nursery give to our community? The Day
Nursery gives more than $20,000 of financial aid each year,
working to continue to meet the needs of parents in each and
every building on this Island, and works with City agencies to
access funding for families as well. Furthermore, its reputation
among New York City private nursery schools is top-rate and its
graduates go on to succeed in New York's best public and private
schools. Finally, Sara is well known by both public and private
schools in Manhattan. She is an amazing resource for those
looking for schools in the City and special-needs programs.
Sara Seiden has positively affected children's lives on this
Island for 21 years and the community should not fail to
recognize the impact of that. She has also maintained the
quality of her program through many changes in this community.
Now, with more parents struggling to afford the program, she has
worked hard to find ways to provide more scholarship funding.
With the full support of the school's Parent Board of Directors,
she has obtained a grant from RIOC and won the Board of
Education's Universal Preschool Funding which will reduce the
cost of the program for all four-year-olds. How could we not
give her our full support and respect? The Roosevelt Island Day
Nursery is an Island treasure which any parents with a child
between the ages of two and four would do themselves a disservice
not to investigate.
We hope that further articles about programs for children on
Roosevelt Island would be fact-checked and be supportive of all
existing programs, because the Island needs all of them.
Mimi Eingorn
Kristen Goldmansour
Anne Kubisch
Lauralee Schreiber
Donna Silbert
Joseph Lynch, Commissioner
Dept. of Housing and Community Renewal
27 Beaver Street, 7th floor
New York, NY 10004
Dear Commissioner Lynch:
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation is preparing to
enter into a contract to lease out property over which it does
not have control.
Based on the Restated Ground Lease of November 3, 1977 between
Urban Development Corporation and Rivercross Tenants Corporation,
RIOC does not control the rights to portions of the space that it
plans to lease to developer Diane Wilson; those rights remain
with Rivercross Tenants Corporation.
In 1977, this Restated Ground Lease transferred a portion of
the Rivercross building from Rivercross Tenants Corporation to
UDC. That portion became the Rivercross Minischool.
Now RIOC is offering to lease a portion of Rivercross to Ms.
Diane Wilson for conversion to condominium housing. Ms. Wilson
has proposed additions to the building on the ground floor
adjacent to the former school building and at the second floor
atop the roof of the former school building. Some of these
additions go beyond the portion of the building that was
transferred to UDC, and thus are not within RIOC's control.
In the Restated Ground Lease, the portion of Rivercross that
was transferred from Rivercross Tenants Corporation to UDC is
called School Unit "A." School Unit "A" is defined in that Lease
as the one-story school building plus the air rights above,
excluding a portion of those air rights that is also below a
Rivercross tower.
One portion of the proposed development that would violate the
Lease is the second-story addition to the northernmost proposed
Rivercross condominium unit. Within the air rights allotted to
School Unit "A" there is perhaps enough height in which to
construct the minimum allowable seven-and-a-half-foot high master
bedroom for that unit. Constructing a higher master bedroom up to
the underside of the Rivercross apartment above, as proposed,
would go above the eight-foot-high air rights.
A second portion of the proposed development that would
violate the Lease is the one-story addition at grade to the
southernmost Rivercross unit. The land on which this addition is
proposed is not included in the definition of School Unit "A" and
is not available to RIOC to be leased to Ms. Wilson.
Separately, please be aware, as I advised President Robert H.
Ryan in a letter June 8, that according to Steve Rocklin of the
Division of Code Enforcement and Administration of the New York
Department of State, portions of the project at Rivercross (first
and second northernmost units) and at Island House (first, second
and third northernmost units) cause a fire-spread hazard and
violate paragraph 738.4(3) of Subchapter B of Chapter 1 of
Subtitle S of the Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of
New York, entitled Prevention of Exterior Fire Spread.
Marc Diamond
Resident member
Capital Planning and Development Committee of
the RIOC Board of Directors
Hon. George E. Pataki, Governor
Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Dear Governor Pataki:
The other night there was one of the few evening RIOC meetings
on Roosevelt Island. After the public portion of the session, in
which many questions were asked, the meeting continued and then
adjourned without any of the questions answered.
When asked about this, Stephen Hicks announced that the RIOC
Board is not required to answer any of our questions and then
walked out. I have never witnessed such insulting and offensive
behavior. I do not believe that any constituent anywhere in the
State of New York would ever be treated in this manner except for
Roosevelt Island, which has clearly come under the rule of a
dictatorship.
As I sat there, I felt how Jews must have felt in Nazi Germany
when all their rights were taken away from them: frustrated,
mistreated, ignored and angry. Shame on Mr. Hicks. Shame on you
for allowing such disgusting behavior to continue.
Vicki Feinmel
