Millennium High School will be holding classes in hallways for the third year in a row, and the school’s principal, Robert Rhodes, is not happy about it.

“[Hallways] are hard to teach in, because they’re not enclosed,” said Rhodes, who teaches a few classes a year on top of his full-time job as head of the school.

enroll- ment has risen from 576 in 2008-09 to a projected 630 in 2010-11. It now has nearly 100 students over the Department of Education’s suggested enrollment for the 80,000-square-foot school, located at 75 Broad Street.

school’s lounge areas, large hallways temporarily set up as classrooms. Classes con- ducted in the hallways are truncated; as a result stu- dents lose several minutes of valuable instructional time.

“They lose a minute or two in the beginning or end [of class] when the [other] classes are passing by,” Rhodes said. “A minute or two doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up” to around three full classes in an aca- demic year.

“No teacher says, ‘I’m really looking forward to working in my hallway,’” said Assistant Principal Colin McEvoy.

On top of the anticipat- ed disruptions to a normal classroom setting, “you have

Millennium will hold classes in hallways, three years in a row

Last week both President Obama and Governor Paterson chose to break their silence on the proposed Park51 cultural center in Lower Manhattan. Their remarks have since dominated the 24-hour news cycle, from newspapers nation-wide to CNN to Comedy Central’s the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The President chose to weigh in on the subject at the White House’s Ramadan dinner last Friday.

“The First Amendment of our Constitution established the freedom of religion as the law of the land. And that right has been upheld ever since,” began the President.

He went on to point out that throughout this country’s history “reli- gion has flourished… precisely because Americans have had the right to wor- ship as they choose.” He then spoke directly to the controversy surrounding Park51.

“Now, that’s not to say that religion is without controversy. Recently, atten- tion has been focused on the construc- tion of mosques in certain communities — particularly New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sen- sitivities surrounding the development of Lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country… I understand the emotions

Yetta Kurland filed a freedom of infor- mation lawsuit on Monday demanding that the New York State Department of Health and its commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, make public “any and all doc- uments” relating to the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Kurland and her law partner, Tom Shanahan, challenged the legality of the April 6th vote by the St. Vincent’s Board of Directors to close the only remaining Catholic hospital in Manhattan, founded 160 years ago.

The suit also challenges the validity of a hospital closing plan submitted to the state Department of Health in February.

“I was told that the February 17th plan submitted to the Department of Health was a transition plan for Mt. Sinai Hospital, not a closing plan,” Kurland told members of the Coalition for a New Village Hospital, gathered at Foley Square outside of the State Supreme Court. The negotiations for Mt. Sinai to take over administration of the hospital fell apart shortly before St. Vincent’s closed.

“We question the number of admin- istration employees and hospital consul- tants and the expenses involved in two

bankruptcies. We know that $63 million was spent on the first bankruptcy and St. Vincent’s still hasn’t paid for the second bankruptcy. There are still people working on it,” Kurland said.

The suit also seeks documents related to the coalition’s complaint that St. Vincent’s has paid more than $10 million to its top executives over the two years preceding the second bankruptcy, which was filed on April 14th.

“They spent nearly $300,000 on a golf outing as the hospital was going under,” said Kurland. “They have not accounted for $100 million in taxpayers money,” she added.

The suit contends the state Department of Health has not furnished documents the coalition requested.

“It’s a shame that we have to go to court to get documents that belong to the peo- ple,” said Mark Taylor, a lawyer involved in the lawsuit.

“We’re going to hold all our elected officials accountable for the fate of St. Vincent’s,” said Kurland, an unsuccessful primary candidate last year for the City Council seat of Council Speaker Christine

The City Department of Design and Construction began work on Chambers Street last week. The three- year project will affect the traffic between West Street and Broadway.

Construction workers are digging into the ground, replacing the water main and updating electric, gas, steam, sewer, telecommunications and other outdated utilities, according to the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center’s website.

The area’s roadways, curbs and sidewalks will also be repaired. The project will cost the city $24.5 million and is slated for completion in 2013.

Workers are still in phase one of the Chambers Street project, from West Street to West Broadway. Westbound and eastbound traffic between Greenwich and West Streets will be backed up due to construction and conges- tion is expected.

“Details about temporary traffic revisions to accom- modate the reconstruction will be posted as they are announced,” according to the L.M.C.C.C. website.

This project is a follow-up to the revamping of West Street (Route 9A), in which sidewalks, roadways and crossings south of West Thames Street were rebuilt, in addition to the Battery Park Underpass entrance. The project was an extension of the Promenade South project, a $70 million project that turned the car-centric West Street and Battery Place into a pedestrian-friendly area, with wider sidewalks, pedestrian plazas, a bikeway and greenery.

Wally Dimson, president of the S.B.T. board of direc- torsm, and garage contractor, ICON, have mutually agreed to increase the garage rate for residents by $30 per month- causing uproar among some S.B.T. residents. ICON will collect 80 percent of the revenues, while S.B.T. will get 20 percent.

“While we were able to reach an agreement that will permit everyone who is currently parked in the garage to continue to receive a discounted rate, it will be necessary to raise the rate that is currently paid by resident parkers,” said Dimson in an August 5th letter to S.B.T. residents. “A resident rate of $98.12 per month is far below prices that are paid in most Manhattan cooperatives, including those that are part of the Mitchell-Lama program.”

There are currently 776 resident vehicles in housing complex’s two garages, 115 more than the legally allotted number of 661. Dimson argues that a fare increase is neces- sary in order to steer clear of additional payments to ICON, a dispute that would have likely ended up in the courts.

“The choice became whether…to provide additional rent credits [to ICON], or those who are over parked in the garage to pay a proportionate share,” Dimson said. “We felt it was fairest that the people who park shoulder the increase to allow everybody to continue to park and not risk the liti- gation on it at this point.”

88 Fulton Street
(Corner of 33 Gold St.)
New York, NY 10038
212.587.8930
212.587.8935

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The upcoming week’s schedule of Community Board 1 committee meetings is below. Unless other- wise noted, all committee meetings are held at the board office, located at 49-51 Chambers St., room 709 at 6 p.m.

There will be no meetings for the remainder of August. A regular meeting schedule will resume in September.

The Park51 “mosque” once again took center stage in the media this week. “This might become the most famous com- munity center in the world,” SoHo Properties owner Sharif El-Gamal told the New York Times last week.

Julie Menin admits having proposed a public forum back in May for supporters and opponents of Park51 to come together and talk.

The New York Times reported last week that Menin is still calling for a town hall meeting to further discuss matters. But she denied it in an interview last week with the Downtown Express.

“If all these people are going to choose one element of that building…I’m going to call it ‘the swimming pool,’” said Sheffe. “It’ll bring at least some recognition to the absurdity of what some of the opponents are bringing to this supposed debate.”