Private preschool in New York City expands into elementary grades

Parents who sent their toddlers to the well-regarded Mandell preschool on the Upper West Side of Manhattan used to count on getting into the private school of their choice. But the competition for kindergarten places has begun to rival that of Ivy League admission. This spring, for the first time, several of the 43 Mandell preschool graduates found themselves without anywhere to go. So Mandell decided to do its part to ease the kindergarten crunch by opening its own $2 million elementary school, in a 17,000-square-foot storefront.