Thousands of New York City students will be barred from their schools’ gyms and cafeterias for days due to early voting — and education bigs are telling angry parents to just get over it.
“It’s a gigantic disruption,” said parent Erica Rand Silverman, whose child attends PS 116 in Murray Hill. “The students will not have access to the gym, no PE, no cafeteria and no schoolyard for recess.”
The inconvenience will hit 33 public schools around the city and will last for a week. On top of having to deal with the disruption, parents are also upset at a tone-deaf letter from the Department of Education branding the inconvenience as a big learning experience.
In the letter from the office of Chief Operating Officer Ursulina Ramirez, the DOE said: “When schools serve as an election site, they model civic engagement for our students.”
Silverman called the letter’s dismissive tone “unbelievable.”
“It is a civics lesson,” she said. “It’s a lesson that sometimes you have to fight to have your voice heard when the government is not acting with your interests in mind. This is either an egregious oversight or it was intentional with the hopes that no one would notice or care.”
In addition to schools, early voting will take place at a variety of other facilities, including churches, YMCAs, and community centers.
PS 175 and PS 116 in Manhattan will have no gym and instead sit in class.
Statewide, only one non-city school will serve as an early voting location.
Silverman, who backs early voting but not using schools for a whole week, said flustered administrators were only notified of the plan earlier this month and that more than 80 parents have volunteered to help them out.
Along with other parents, Silverman successfully lobbied the DOE to limit entry to the school’s rear to facilitate the situation.
Some parents at P.S. 175 in Harlem — where the school gym will be out of use next week — said they hadn’t been notified of the incursion as of Thursday.
Jasmine Releford, 31, said she had no clue that her 6th grade son would be deprived of PE next week. “I think it’s going to be chaotic,” she said. “Kids do have a lot of energy, they need their gym. I don’t like it. It’s going to disrupt their learning environment.”
A teacher who spoke to The Post said she had only been apprised this past Tuesday — and said she was bracing for disruption.
Parent Angela Sime said she learned about the arrangement on Wednesday. “It’s like having all strangers and random people in your house,” she said.
Her daughter, Kimberly, 11, was incensed by the gym revocation. “They are going to leave us in the classroom,” she said. “I love gym, I hate giving it up for a whole week.”
The Board of Elections ultimately had final say over early voting election sites — and Silverman noted that no schools in Queens were selected.
The agency did not immediately comment.
A DOE spokesperson said Thursday that additional personnel — including NYPD officers — would be dispatched to selected schools.
“We’ve heard concerns loud and clear, and we’re taking action to keep our kids safe and minimize disruption to the school day,” Miranda Barbot said. “Parents should rest assured there will be at least two additional safety agents on site, and a hot meal served every day.”
Parents are demanding that the Board of Elections — which selected 61 early voting sites overall — exempt schools from serving as voting sites on school days next year.
More than 1,000 people have signed a change.org petition blasting the arrangement.
“Voting should be moved to other public and private buildings, where it will not affect the safety and welfare of our children,” the petition reads. “We are for early voting, but not in public schools! Our children have the right to a safe learning environment and access to physical education and recess.”