Schools
October 6, 2009
Brooklyn Friends Relocation Gains Support
As we first reported in September, Brooklyn Friends School, a pre-K through 12 private school based on Quaker principles, has been looking to relocate and one site on their list is the corner of State and Hoyt, currently owned by the IBEC Building Corporation. IBEC had originally bought the site promising to build townhouses, back in 2004, and some residents, calling themselves Keep State Street Residential, have opposed Brooklyn Friends' possible schoolhouse (which would be five stories and 55,000 square feet), arguing that it could lower property values and increase traffic to their carefully planned neighborhood. Now, the Brooklyn Eagle reports, hundreds of residents and businesses have signed a petition to support the school, arguing that a well-regarded private school would only attract families, increase property values, and benefit overall quality of life. Brooklyn Friends has said that they are considering multiple sites, and for the school to take the State/Hoyt site, IBEC would have to nullify the contract it signed with the city in 2004 to build 29 residential townhouses.
Friends' Expansion Making Enemies on State? [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Friends on State Street? [Brooklyn Eagle]
September 21, 2009
Friends' Expansion Making Enemies on State?
As you may recall, IBEC, the developer behind the State Renaissance Court, recently floated the idea of building six multi-million-dollar new townhomes on an empty lot they still own on State Street between Hoyt and Bond; while some people question the viability of the high-end project in this market, the neighbors are generally happy with the use for the space. But the developer also owns a second empty lot on that block, on the corner of Hoyt, and its plans for it aren't sitting as well with some homeowners in the community. According to a letter we received, the developer is apparently close to doing a deal with Brooklyn Friends School, which wants to build a five-story, 55,000-square-foot academic building on the site. In order to do this, however, IBEC needs New York State to void the restrictions it placed on the property when it sold the land to IBEC in 2004. As part of that deal, lots along State Street were to be low-rise residential. Here's how the opposition put it:
A school won’t have the positive impact that housing will on a neighborhood likes ours, rebuilding after years of blight and hemmed in by downtown Brooklyn and Atlantic Avenue to the north and south, and the jail and courts to the west. Unlike a nonprofit private school, residents pay property taxes that support our public schools. Residents patronize local businesses morning and evening, weekdays and weekends, summer and winter. They help keep the street safe at night. Homes make a neighborhood more cohesive and more desirable.
The group thinks that one of the nearby lots on Schermerhorn Street would be more appropriate. Do you agree? The group is reachable at keepstatestreetresidential@gmail.com.
Six More New Brownstones for State Street? [Brownstoner]
September 9, 2009
Slope's Armory Rec Center Delayed, Again
The Park Slope Armory, the 114-year-old former arsenal that underwent a $16 million make-over starting in 2007 to serve as a recreation center for the adjacent PS 107 and the community, has missed another scheduled opening, reports The Brooklyn Paper. The center, on Eighth Avenue between 14th and 15th streets, was slated to open last spring, and then this summer, and then today, the first day of classes. Even though the city and the Prospect Park YMCA, which will run the center, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony 17 months ago, construction and permit delays seem to be keeping the center closed. Thomas Sylvester, the director of the YMCA’s armory project, said “We’re ready to go…as soon as the [construction work is fully] completed." The remaining construction work includes some classrooms and bathrooms, he said. Cynthia Holton, the principal of PS 107, pointed out her school's cement play area, which has been cut in half by construction, and said, “We need the armory more than ever.” The school doesn't have a gym or auditorium, so the armory, when it finally does open, will provide a needed service to PS 107, other schools, and the community at large. GMAP
More Delays—Yes, More—for Slope's Armory Rec Center [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo by gmpicket
September 1, 2009
P.S. 971 Rising
The city is in the process of building a new public school at the corner of 63rd Street and 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge. The new building, which is already topped out at four stories, will house P.S. 971, a new 379-seat early childhood center. The school, which serves children in pre-K through second grade, is expected to open for the 2010 school year. GMAP P*Shark DOB
August 27, 2009
Sunset Park Finally Getting Its Own High School
When the school year begins on September 9th, Sunset Parkers will be cheering. Why? Because after more than three decades, they'll finally have a high school to call their own. As the Daily News pointed out in an article last February, discussions about the school began four decades ago but were derailed by fiscal problems of the 1970s. Construction on the 1,500-seat school, which will be focused on three tracks--performing and visual arts; health and human services, and business and entrepreneurship--finally began in 2006. GMAP
July 31, 2009
Berkeley Carroll Expansion Stirs Up The Neighborhood
A meeting on Wednesday night over a planned expansion by the Berkeley Carroll School brought out a wave of opposition from neighbors on St. Johns Place and Lincoln place concerned about the impact on their quality of life that a larger building (which would also fill in the rear open space) and rooftop play area would have. (Check out a photo of the rendering here.) The concerns of those opposing the project were summarized in an email we received: "We believe that the proposed expansion of the School is in contravention of the law, will threaten the integrity of the neighboring properties, will further reduce light and air to residents while substantially increasing noise attributable to the proposed new elevated roof-top playground and will significantly compromise the quality of life for neighboring residents and threaten the residential, landmark character of our neighborhood." There also appears to be a lot of ill-will in the community from expansion projects that the school did in the '70s and '80s that negatively impacted neighbors. The school, through its headmaster, had this to say about the rationale for the expansion: “The way our kids work [in school] has changed. They do a lot more group work, collaborative work and we need space for that. The library is all filled up. We’re looking to create more study space to do the work.” The meeting ended up with "shouting and name-calling," according to one reader who was there, but there were promises of a follow-up meeting to continue the dialogue.
Town-Gown Showdown Over Berkeley Carroll Expansion [Brooklyn Paper]
July 17, 2009
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School Expanding
The Brooklyn Heights Montessori School is expanding its campus to include the old fire patrol station at 12 Dean Street. The school paid $1.9 million for 12 Dean in a deal that was recorded in public records this week. According to a press release sent out on the expansion, "the fire patrol station sits directly behind BMHS’s existing Bergen Street property. It is expected that the new property will be open and ready to admit as many as 40 to 50 new students in the next two years." The fire patrol building has an interesting history that the Eagle wrote about recently: "The Brooklyn firehouse was, in fact, one of three remaining fire fighting operations of what was once a large network belonging to the New York Board of Fire Underwriters. Fire Patrol members acted as an auxiliary force in the city for over 200 years...Despite its union’s claim that it saved $80 million worth of assets annually, the consortium of insurance companies that paid for its operation, decided it was too costly to maintain and voted to disband the last three units of the Fire Patrol in 2006." GMAP P*Shark
Photo from Property Shark.
July 16, 2009
New Middle School Coming to Fort Greene
According to The Local, Fort Greene will get a new 300-seat middle school starting in the Fall of 2010. The Fort Greene Preparatory Academy, as it will be called, will be located at 100 Clermont Avenue where PS 46 currently is. The academics will be structured around Socratic seminars and the arts. “The goal of the school is to be driven by student inquiry,” said Paula Lettiere, the intended principal. “We’re seeking to move away from traditional curriculum.” This sounds like a pretty conscious effort to provide an alternative to the PS 20 approach that has turned off so many of the families that have moved to the neighborhood in recent years.
New Middle School Coming in 2010 [Local/NYT]
Photo by silk cut
June 29, 2009
Race, Class and P.S. 20's Controversial Principal
This weekend the Local's Andy Newman followed up the extensive blog reporting on P.S. 20 he's been doing with an article about Sean Keaton, the elementary school's love-him-or-loathe-him principal. The story describes Keaton, who missed the Fort Greene school's graduation last week—he was barred from attending by Dept. of Ed officials owing to assault charges he's facing for allegedly beating up a teacher's union rep—as being at the center of a race-class divide: "In the resurgent brownstone bastions of Fort Greene, Boerum Hill and the fringes of Park Slope, affluent parents with one set of expectations for their children’s education — progressive, hands-on, emphasizing freedom — are clashing with longtime, working-class residents who prefer stricter, more structured educational models like the one Mr. Keaton favored, leaving principals caught in the crossfire...At P.S. 20, some of the conflict has been tinged with race: Mr. Keaton is black, as are three-quarters of the students, while many of the families who said they found him hard to work with are white. Much of it has to do with class. Some comes down to personal style: Even many of Mr. Keaton’s supporters say he can be abrasive and inclined to escalate rather than defuse tensions." In a poll of Brownstoner readers a couple months ago that ran before the assault charges, 47 percent of you said Keaton should be removed from the school; 17 percent said he should stay; and 36 percent said you didn't know enough about the issue to have an opinion one way or the other.
As Cultures Clash, Brooklyn Principal Faces Assault Charges [NY Times]
PS 20: It’s a Long Story [The Local]
Time for PS 20 Principal to Get The Boot? [Brownstoner]
Photo from the Bridge & Tunnel Club.
June 24, 2009
Council Subcommittee Hears Case of PS 133
More meeting coverage from a Brownstoner reader, this one about a hearing on the threatened future of PS 133. We wrote a post last month that summarizes the issue and there's a petition here. You can also check out the State's opinion that PS 133 is a building of historical significance in this PDF.
Yesterday morning the City Council's Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses heard testimony on the SCA’s proposed plan to demolish PS 133 and the community garden and replace it with a large building that will take up the top of the block between Butler and Baltic Streets. The SCA made a brief presentation that stressed the deterioration of the existing building (admitting that it had received little funding for upkeep) and stating that it would take approximately $15 million dollars to “simply address the deterioration of critical building components”. (This was the first time this figure, or any mention of existing building conditions had been raised by the SCA). The SCA called the Snyder school (the first one he built in Brooklyn) “quaint” and “lovely” but deteriorated.
SCA representatives continued their practice of misinformation – saying that they didn’t know if local residents had received requested source documents that describe contamination in the soil and ground water on the school site (the truth is that two weeks ago the SCA told residents that they will have to file for the documents under the Freedom of Information Law – despite the fact that they were cited in a public document); saying that the program for the school will be decided in the future (the truth is that the SCA has maintained in public presentations that the school serve two distinct school districts – 13 and 15 – and have even designed separate entrances for children from each district); saying that they had been in consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office on options for preserving the school (the truth is that SHPO has told plan opponents that they have been waiting, since December, for the SCA to provide a cost benefit analysis of new construction versus renovation); and maintaining that they have been consulting with local community representatives about the school design (the truth is that they have conducted two hearings at which residents were limited to 3 minute comments.)
Continue reading "Council Subcommittee Hears Case of PS 133"
June 16, 2009
City Council OK's School for 'Green Church' Site
After the pastor of the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church shockingly sold out last year, developer Abe Betesh tore down the treasured building to make way for a 70-unit condo development. Then the market collapsed and all of a sudden the philistine became open to doing a deal with the School Construction Authority initially proposed by one of the demolition's biggest opponents, Council Member Vincent Gentile. Last week, reports the Brooklyn Paper, the City Council signed off on a plan to build a 680-seat elementary school where the church used to stand. "[Bay Ridge] is home to dedicated teachers and inspiring students," Gentile said in a statement. "And now we’re a step closer to getting them the space and resources they deserve!" Happy ending? A school's certainly better than condos, but the tear-down is still unforgiveable.
‘Green Church’ School Approved [Brooklyn Paper]
Green Church Goes Educational [Brownstoner]
Green Church Can't Go Co-op...Yet [Brownstoner]
The Green Church Bites the Dust [Brownstoner]
On to the Afterlife for Green Church [Brownstoner]
Photo by Ben Muessig for Brooklyn Paper
May 22, 2009
PS 133's Most Desperate Hour
The public comment period doesn't expire until Tuesday, but the city's already acting like the demolition of historic gothic-style public school building at 375 Butler Street in Park Slope that currently houses PS 133 is a foregone conclusion: Several contractors were on site last weekend doing test borings related to developing a safety plan for the demolition. (The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation found in 2007 that the building meets the criteria for being listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean diddly to the city.) A group of concerned area residents has tried to present an alternative vision for the site that would enable the SCA to achieve its goal of increasing the number of seats on the site while avoiding the destruction of the existing building. A drawing of the alternative plan is above at right. They've also detailed their opposition and alternative proposal in a lengthy letter to the SCA which we've included on the jump. It's much too extensive for us to summarize here (plus, we're trying to pack!), so we suggest taking a look—and signing the petition they just started yesterday to demonstrate community and borough-wide opposition to the demolition. Check it out here.
New PS 133 Plans Revealed [Brownstoner]
SCA To Build New P.S. 133, Tear Down Old Building [Brownstoner] GMAP
Proposed School Replacement Facility for P.S. 133 [DOE]
May 4, 2009
St. Joseph's Going Back to Drawing Board on Gym
Kudos for listening. After a loud public outcry over a proposed new gymnasium on the site of an existing green space on Clinton Avenue that one community member called a "stark box," St. Joseph's College told the Times' Local blog that it was going to reconsider its approach. “We’re looking at different sites, different materials,” said Nancy Connors, the college’s vice-president for advancement. “We want to work with the neighbors.” Many people in the area have suggested the school's parking lot on Vanderbilt Avenue between Dekalb and Willoughby would be a more logical location for the 330-seat facility. Stay tuned.
St. Joseph’s: We’ll Change Gym Plan [NYT/Local] GMAP
St. Joseph's Gym Plan Meets Local Resistance [Brownstoner]
St. Joseph's Planning Gymnasium for Clinton Avenue [Brownstoner]
April 30, 2009
New PS 133 Plans Revealed
A reader just tipped us off to these renderings for the new building the SCA has proposed building on the site of the current PS 133 in lower Park Slope. Located at 4th Avenue and Butler Street, the existing building (the phantom shaded structure in the rendering) seats 300 children; the proposed structure would hold two schools for a total of 960 seats. Because the new building would be built on the balance of the site not taken up by the existing building, there would theoretically be no interruptions to the school schedule. Part of the impetus for the project, says the SCA, is the "anticipated student growth resulting from new residential development in the area, which is already evident in the multiple construction projects underway along the Fourth Avenue corridor." The design of the new building certainly seems to pay its respects to the existing building, which is eligible for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, but keep in mind this is only a preliminary "schematic" drawing. Although the public comment period was set to end earlier this month, we hear that the SCA will hold a public hearing to accept comments on May 14 at PS 133 at 4 pm and will continue to accept written comments until May 26.
SCA To Build New P.S. 133, Tear Down Old Building [Brownstoner] GMAP
Proposed School Replacement Facility for P.S. 133 [DOE]
April 24, 2009
PS 8 Parents Pitched Plans for New Addition
The proposed expansion of P.S. 8 certainly gets point for contextuality! Judging from the rendering shown to the PTA of the Brooklyn Heights lower school, the architecture firm of Bostwick Purcell did its best to make the addition on Poplar Street look as if it had always been a part of the original building, which fronts on Hicks Street. The 18,000-square-foot addition is much needed giving the growing popularity of the school. “There will be a net gain of seven classrooms after all is said and done,” P.S. 8 Principal Seth Phillips told the Brooklyn Eagle yesterday. “Plus two resource room spaces and one office, and the bathrooms. There will also be an elevator installed which will allow for handicap access.” The construction is expected to take three years. You likey?
New Annex for Overcrowded Heights School Unveiled [Brooklyn Eagle]
The New PS 8 Annex [BH Blog]
St. Joseph's Gym Plan Meets Local Resistance
Not surprisingly, a major backlash to St. Joseph's College's proposal to plunk down a gymnasium on Clinton Avenue is building, reports The Brooklyn Paper. After all, the location—smack dab amidst several free-standing mansion built by the Pratt family in the late 19th century—is about as historic as they come anywhere in New York City. “That is the premier block of the entire community,” said Society for Clinton Hill member Sharon Barnes. “A stark box does not seem to be the best choice.” While the Catholic college says it needs the basketball facility to attract students, it so far has not been receptive to alternative ideas like moving the location to the large parking lot the school owns a block away on Vanderbilt Avenue. Mind-bogglingly, Community Board 2's land use committee gave its unanimous consent for the project back in January. It seems unlikely that the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be such an easy sell. At the very least, the school should release the plans for the public to see so that public discussion can occur in a transparent manner.
Neighbors say St. Joe’s B-Ball Arena Is Ugly [Brooklyn Paper]
St. Joseph's Planning Gymnasium for Clinton Avenue [Brownstoner]
April 23, 2009
Applications Steady, Aid Up at Private Schools
Contrary to what you might expect, demand for private schools did not decline this year in response to the tanking economy. One possible explanation offered by a Daily News article today? Parents are worried that the confluence of government budget problems and lower disposable incomes will lead to overpopulation and underperformance of public schools. As a result, more parents in private schools are doing whatever it takes to come up with the tuition. Not surprisingly, applications for financial aid have increased. “We have gotten more financial aid inquiries,” said Ruth Scharf, president of the Manhattan-based Parents League. “Yet overall we find that families are committed to educating their children and they are going to find a way to do this.” Any tales of parents bailing from private schools in Brooklyn?
April 9, 2009
Time for PS 20 Principal to Get The Boot?
In an article about how the Community Roots Charter School in Fort Greene is now harder to get into than Harvard today (play-by-play of the lottery is here), The Brooklyn Paper points to the unpopular principal at PS 20 (where a new gifted school is scheduled to open next year) as one of the reasons why so many parents signed up for the charter school lottery. The sentiment echoes numerous comments on the schools thread we had on Brownstoner earlier this week, where even the school's critics and defenders seemed to agree that the principal was a big problem. A commenter on Inside Schools says something similar: "The principal is a disaster. He is authoritarian, defensive, and almost incapable of taking input seriously." And speaking of PS 20 in a recent thread on the Times' Local blog, one commenter said, "The DOE needs to clean house." So the anecdotal evidence against this principal is sounding pretty compelling. Let's see if a poll backs that up—and then maybe someone who has a connection to Joel Klein can forward the feedback. At the very least, perhaps he can be persuaded to change his ways. If you live in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill, please vote below.
April 7, 2009
The Shifting School Equation
There wasn't room to discuss it yesterday, but we suspect the public/private school issue is on a number of people's minds. Over the weekend, The Times ran an article about the number of people who bought their apartments in recent years with the assumption that they would send their kids to private school. Now that the economic downturn has made that a more difficult proposition, they are left to confront the limitations of their own school district. In some cases, parents are even considering renting a cheap apartment within a good school district just to get access—after all, it would be cheaper than the $30,000+ tuition in Manhattan. (It's more like $25,000 here in Brooklyn.) Question for the renters and those in the market to buy in Brooklyn: Has the school issue shifted your real estate plans since the downturn began?
The Sudden Charm of Public School [NY Times]
Photo by Steve and Sara
March 26, 2009
Olive Park Condos to Host New Montessori Preschool
Olive Park, the newish (circa 2007) condo development at 100 Maspeth Avenue in Williamsburg, has gotten creative succeeded in its efforts to lease its commercial space: Starting next fall the Carrig Montessori School will open two classrooms on the ground floor of the 87-unit building; build-out starts next month. The new preschool will also have use of a private patio for play space. Applications for the 40 spots are now being accepted. GMAP
Photo by berzerkgirl
March 20, 2009
New Gifted School for Fort Greene
Next September, the city will launch a new gifted and talented program at PS 20 in Fort Greene. Called the Technology, Inquiry, Enrichment and Research (TIER) Program, the new effort will launch with one kindergarten and one first-grade class in the fall and will ultimately expand through the fifth grade, reports the Inside Schools blog. The PS 20 building at 225 Adelphi Street between Dekalb and Willoughby already houses a 450-student K-5 school and a middle school, the Urban Assembly School for Arts and Letters. The city is also adding one gifted program in Bay Ridge and one in Astoria. To qualify, students need to score in the 97th percentile or better on the OLSAT and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment.
Three New Citywide Gifted & Talented Schools [Inside Schools]
3 New Gifted Programs to Open in September [NYT/Cityroom]
New Brooklyn Citywide G and T Schools [MySidewalkChalk]
Photo from Bridge and Tunnel Club
March 16, 2009
SCA To Build New P.S. 133, Tear Down Old Building
Construction of a new public school in Park Slope could start as soon as this summer and end with the destruction of the century-old structure currently housing P.S. 133. Currently P.S. 133, which is located at 375 Butler Street at 4th Avenue, seats about 300 students; the new building would accommodate approximately 900. The School Construction Authority plans to build the new structure on the footprint of the existing schoolyard and a community garden then tear down the turn-of-the-century Gothic-style building (currently being considered for the state's list of historic places) upon completion. In a Courier Life article last January, SCA President Sharon Greenberger said that the new building would be marginally taller than the existing one. According to PropertyShark, the existing building is 46,000 square feet; according to the Courier, the new one would be 115,000 square feet. In a districting quirk, the old building technically lies in District 15, which covers Red Hook, Park Slope and Sunset Park, but the new building would be in District 13, which includes Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights; District 15 funds would pay for the construction. We're dying to see the renderings, but our initial reaction is that it's disappointing and shows a total lack of creativity to have to tear down the beautiful existing structure. There's a meeting at the Fifth Avenue Committee at 6:30 p.m. on March 18 and a CB6 Land Use hearing scheduled for March 26th at 6 p.m. at the 78th Precinct (6th Avenue between Dean and Bergen) at which the project will be discussed. Technically, since the SCA published a public notice in the back pages of a newspaper in January, the 90-day comment period expires on April 3rd, so don't tarry.
February 23, 2009
The Co-Op School Finds a Home in Clinton Hill
After five years of using temporary space (mot recently at 241 Taaffe Place), the Co-op School, a pre-school serving the Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy communities, has found a permanent home: The 60-family group will take over the Irving Place Child Development Center at 87 Irving Place between Putnam Avenue and Fulton Street in Clinton Hill. From what we hear, everyone is thrilled with how the long search ended up. Hopefully, it will also apply some extra pressure to law enforcement's efforts to address the long-time, ahem, quality of life issues that have plagued Putnam Avenue. GMAP
December 18, 2008
Bed Stuy Band Bound for Inauguration
The Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band, pride of the Boys and Girls High School in Bed Stuy, has been chosen from over 1,400 high school bands around the country to play at Obama's inauguration next month. The only problem? They have to pay their own way. As a result, the school needs help raising money and finding lodging in the D.C. area. Checks can be made out to the Brooklyn Music and Arts Program c/o Boys and Girls High School, 1700 Fulton Street, 11213. For more info, call 718-467-1700 x 765.
Reprieve for The Little Room
Good news-ish: The Little Room, a Brooklyn Heights special needs pre-school in danger of closing earlier this week, will stay open...until August 2010. That means current students can finish out the two-year program, says the NY Times. As for the future of the beloved institution, "School officials said they would use the additional time to try to find another home for the Little Room."
Latest Restaurant Additions
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Le Barricou
added November 20, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Der Schwarze Kölner
added November 19, 2009 12:00 PM in Fort Greene -
Oak Wine Bar & Café
added November 18, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Mr. Wonton
added November 17, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Casa Rosa
added November 16, 2009 12:00 PM in Carroll Gardens -
Cousin John's Café & Bakery
added November 13, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Elote
added November 12, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Miracle Grill
added November 11, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope -
Phoebe's Cafe
added November 10, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Ruthie's
added November 9, 2009 12:00 PM in Clinton Hill, Downtown Brooklyn