Chelsea Prep PS 33 PTA Sends Welcome Message to Parents and Students
It’s that time of year again: the first day of school! The students and parents at PS 33 Chelsea Prep (One of the most popular district 2 NYC Gifted and Talented Programs) are ready to get back to G&T basics as we head into the fall season. Here’s a welcome message sent out by the PTA at Chelsea Prep:
Welcome back!
Dear PS 33 Chelsea Prep families,
We are thrilled to welcome all new and returning families to PS 33. We hope your summer was filled with wonderful memories!
Please join us for our first PTA general meeting on September 18th in the auditorium at 8:45. You’ll be able to meet the Executive Board and learn all about PTA-supported programs that are available to PS 33 students. Please join us for a welcome breakfast following the meeting in the school’s garden.
Please consider volunteering at our school! Your ideas, time, and talents are truly needed. There are many areas where you can contribute and we will gladly match your time constraints and interests with needed tasks.
The PS33 PTA is looking forward to another exciting and productive school year!
The school that once coined the term “NEST of the West” has fallen from grace with parents
Well, I’ve heard from 3 different parents over the past couple of months of their concerns on the direction at PS 33. The new principal, Cindy Wang, has now been there for 2 full years and things seem to be slowly crumbling piece by piece, at least that’s what I’m being told by these parents. These are the same parents who were so excited a few years ago when their talented tot started PS 33 kindergarten under the leadership of Principal Lindy. It seems now the tight ship that Mrs. Lindy ran is now entirely off course. I was told countless parents have pulled their child of these G&T program at PS 33 because they don’t feel it’s as academically rigorous as it once was. The gifted and talented teachers are being told to teach the same exact curriculum at the same pace as the gen ed program. Parents are left scratching their heads as to why they should schlep their kids across town to attend PS 33 when they could get an equal experience at their local gen ed school. Is the program at PS 33 really worth it? Some parents are now re-thinking their decision.
One mom that I saw outside of Barnes and Nobel in Tribeca shared with me:
“The only reason I keep my daughter at PS 33 is because of the chess program. She loves it! If it wasn’t for that I’d pull her out immediately and go into our local school across the street.”
Another mom I spoke to at Shake Shack in Battery Park City (while slurping up a coffee milkshake) voiced:
“It’s really gone down hill since your daughter left and especially since Mrs. Lindy left two years ago. Not the same school it once was, that’s for sure!”
All the complaints I’m hearing are sad and I hope they aren’t true! But the parents I spoke to aren’t ones to complain unless there’s an issue and by no means would make up stories like this. It looks like with regime change comes with dumbing down the curriculum for all the gifted and talented students at PS 33. I suppose the bigger question is why have the G&T program at this school if there’s basically nothing different from the gen ed program? Seems like the principal is really out of touch with what the NYC Gifted and Talented Program is all about and why parents decided on PS 33 for their child.
Oh how Chelsea Prep parents wish the days of tough-as-nails Principal Lindy would return to the helm of PS 33 Chelsea Prep! Don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
NYC Gifted and Talented Program and Testing 