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Hell’s Kitchen public school overwhelmed with 100 migrant kids

More than 100 migrant kids flooded into one Hell’s Kitchen elementary school — swelling class sizes up to 38 students, The Post has learned.

The children — between 100 and 120 — were among the wave of asylum seekers pouring into the Big Apple, including on buses from Texas, some staying at a nearby shelter.

PS 111 on West 53rd Street normally has class sizes of 25 to 30. As the classes filled with newcomers, the school wound up sending 15 of the kids to nearby PS 51, where they were enrolled in “transitional bilingual” classes, according to a PS 111 insider.

The transitional program offers instruction in Spanish half of the year, and then gradually adds English.

PS 111 further eased the crunch by starting its own transitional bilingual class, with 15 students. Another roughly 75 students stayed in regular classes, with an hour a day of English-language instruction. Their parents were offered a choice of which approach to take.

“Some parents just said, ‘I don’t want them speaking Spanish. I want them learning English now,'” the staffer said.

Students and parents ourtside P.S. 111 Adolph S. Ochs School and City Knoll Middle School, 440 West 53 Street,
J.C. Rice

The sudden influx has led to worry about ongoing overcrowding and how teachers will cope — and also about how the new students are faring.

“I’m just concerned that the classrooms are a lot larger so there’s not really that one-on-one time with the children,” one PS 111 mom said. “It’s just unfortunate that they’re all here and they didn’t get split up; there’s so many other public schools.”

Another mom said her son — a third grader — told her, “The teachers are having a hard time because a lot of the kids don’t speak English.”

PS 111 Adolph S. Ochs School principal Edward Gilligan
J.C. Rice

One migrant from Venezuela, Escarlet Simancas, said her two sons will transfer from PS 111 to a different school where classes will be taught in English and Spanish.

“It’s a little difficult for them right now because they only speak a little bit of English, mostly Spanish,” she said.

Another PS 111 mom noted “It’s been rough” for the newcomers.

Parents have demanded the Department of Education to spread out migrant children to different public schools.
Helayne Seidman

“The (migrant) kids were not dressed properly for the weather,” she said, adding that she and her husband started gathering clothing donations for the families staying at the Skyline Hotel on 10th Avenue.

At PS 51 on West 44th Street, mom Valda Daseviciute, 38, said her son Oliver’s fourth-grade class got two additional students.

“The classes are already big,” said Daseviciute, who also has a daughter in kindergarten at the school. “Two kids is not that much, but we don’t know the future of this.”

Mother Aga Sydor is concerned about teachers being able to teach students while accommodating migrant children who only speak Spanish.
Helayne Seidman

Aga Sydor, 44, whose son, Leo, is a fourth grader, said the two migrant students in his class “are very nice kids but they don’t speak a word of English, so we know the teachers will have to divide the attention and kind of help them out.”

Nearly 16,000 migrants have come to the Big Apple since May, according to a City Hall estimate.

The Department of Education said it could not provide numbers on how many have enrolled in city schools because it does not ask about country of origin or immigration status.

But Schools Chancellor David Banks has instructed principals to identify the migrants and provide them with an array of city services as needed.

The DOE recently announced a new partnership with the Dominican Republic to bring in 25 bilingual teachers this school year.