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The article reports on the call of the administrators of Public School 166 and the Parent Teacher Association urging New York City officials to renovate the 0.5-acre playground on the West 89th Street which has been proposed in 2012 at $950,000. The group claims that children have sustained concussions, chipped their teeth and suffered broken bones. The proposal was blocked by a group another group of parents claiming the renovation would destroy the playground's architectural gems.

Students at Public School 9 Teunis G. Bergen in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, started the summer with the grim news that they would lose four teachers next academic year unless parents raised $160,000 -- and soon. The principal of the school, Sandra D'Avilar, told the parent-teacher organization last month that she would have to cut the teaching staff because the school now had fewer children officially designated ''poor,'' and so had lost $360,000 in federal Title 1 funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ''Way Beyond Bake Sales: $1 Million PTAs,'' on the cover of last Sunday's Metropolitan section, Kyle Spencer wrote about New York City public schools where parents' groups raise amounts in the $1 million range annually. On NYTimes.com, readers debated the role of private wealth in a public education system. A selection of comments is below. Readers also responded to Ginia Bellafante's Big City column, which examined the word ''gay'' and its changing currency as an insult in light of a court ruling that a false accusation of homosexuality could no longer be considered slander. In a large public-school system where the city gives the same dollar amount for each child, this is how the class system stays maintained. The haves have more. The have-nots don't. How different is it from the suburbs where local taxes support local districts, where wealthy towns have well-provided successful schools and poor towns have poor, failing, underfunded schools? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the Editor: Re ''Way Beyond Bake Sales: $1 Million PTAs'' (news article, June 3), about the large sums raised by parents at some public schools: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EACH fall, parents at the Anderson School, a highly regarded K-8 on the Upper West Side for gifted and talented students, receive letters from the PTA emblazoned with the school's elegant ''A'' logo. Though Anderson indulges in the usual trappings of public-school fund-raising -- bake sales, book fairs, auctions -- this letter is blunter: It urges parents to simply write a check. And it suggests an amount: This school year, it was $1,300. Ayda Gibson, 44, the mother of a first grader at the school, said she did not mind being asked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If buildings could sing, the Choir Academy of Harlem would echo with gospel and jazz. But the sound of music at the beleaguered school, once the home of the famed Boys Choir of Harlem, may soon become much fainter. On Monday, Department of Education officials announced plans to phase out the Choir Academy's high school, starting by not admitting a ninth grade in September, while leaving intact its middle school, which has performed better academically. The school is one of 20 the city has over the last two weeks proposed closing, from large ones like Jamaica High School in Queens to small schools created under the Bloomberg administration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the Harlem School Pride Parade and Fair by the parents, educators and students of Harlem, New York City. It mentions that the event will showcase more than 50 community schools and provide help to students and their families in choosing a school. Moreover, it notes that the event is a great opportunity to showcase the things schools are doing in the village of Harlem while stressing the significance of the community.

When Jeanne Shapiro received two letters on Saturday from Public School 290 on the Upper East Side, where she always assumed she would send her twin daughters, her husband cracked a joke about the way thin envelopes from college admissions offices tended to bear bad news. Mrs. Shapiro just laughed; P.S. 290 was a block and a half from the family's apartment, she figured, and every New Yorker knows that an address in a good school zone is tantamount to a guaranteed kindergarten seat. But the letters said the 5-year-olds had been placed on a waiting list for the school, on East 82nd Street. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]