Come Take A Tour Of Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 And Learn About Their Elementary And Middle School Program - October 28 & 29

Image of PS/IS 217 Front Door From Tim Melideo Photography

If you are a parent of a school age child you may be interested in an opportunity this week to take a tour of Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 middle and elementary school. The school's PTA sent out the following invitation:

Please join us for a tour of PS/IS 217

Come see our facilities and learn more about our program

Elementary School Tour: Wednesday, October 28th at 8:30 am

Middle School Tour: Thursday, October 29th at 8:30 am

For more information, please contact Lauraine Rademaker, Parent Coordinator, at LRademaker@schools.nyc.gov or 212-980-0294 or
Nikki Leopold, PTA President at nikkipta@gmail.com

A post last week about PS/IS 217's Gifted & Talented Program resulted in this comment from PS/IS 217 PTA VP Phoebe Flynn:

Frankly I find it insulting & offensive that anonymous posters continue to disparage not only the Island school but also the parents who choose to send their children there. Of the many reasons that I chose PS/IS 217 for my son, none of them include a lack of caring about his education. Yes, there are challenges to be overcome with the school, but it is my opinion that the PRIMARY challenge is changing the perception of the school, a task made harder by the constant barrage of negative attacks by those who don’t even have the courage to post using their real identities. Perhaps instead of broad statements about how “bad” the school is, you could cite actual examples that would allow for a rebuttal, or at least a inquiry by the PTA, whose members are actively working at making improvements. NYC schools are dependent on active and involved parent bodies to raise excessive amounts of money to supplement shrinking budgets. The main difference between 217 and the City schools that some Island parents prefer are strong, well-funded PTA’s. We are striving hard to create such a PTA here at our school, but obviously it will remain difficult if not impossible without the support of both Island parents & other residents.
The constant negative comments do nothing but undermine the hard work of the Administration, the teachers, the students and the PTA, all of whom are working together to improve the quality of our school. Don’t send your child there if you don’t want – but kindly stop denigrating those of us who do.

Which elicited this response from the school's critic:

Phoebe, when my child was about to go to K I did tour PS 217 and thought that it would be a very good fallback option if G&T would not happen (that was from the time before PS 217 had a G&T). I was extremely disappointed with the school. The space was awesome. The tour not so. I was not impressed from what I saw. I spoke with many other parents that time about PS 217 (parents who had kids at that school and parents who did not) before I made up my mind.

Yes, PS 217 needs a lot or PR work to fix the reputation issues. The thing, though, is that I still get an good number of negative comments from parents who have children there. I know some who pulled theirs out for this school year. So far I still have to hear ONE comment from a PS 217 parent who is utterly in love with the school. This is my experience. I am not putting the school down because I don't know what I am talking about. I came to my conclusions after a lot of research and soul searching.

My intention was never to put down any PS 217 families. I am glad you like the school and your children are thriving.

Phoebe, let me ask you this. Why does the majority of families who really care about their children's education send them to off-island schools (public, private, G&Ts)? I know why from my side of things. How do you explain it from your point of view?

and clarified:

Let me clarify my first sentence. Before I toured PS 217 I hoped that the school would be a good fallback option.

If you are considering various schools for your child, why not take the Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 Tour on Wednesday and Thursday to decide for yourself?