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Improvements at Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill Schools
Gotham Gazette has a story today looking at how public schools in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are believed to have improved dramatically in recent years, and parents who once sent their kids to schools outside of the district are now forging documents to get their kids into it. The story’s focus is mostly on P.S. 11, and the article attributes the school’s improvements and increasing desirability to gentrification that has resulted in creative-class parents who have more time to be involved with their kids’ education. The new wave of parents helped force out the school’s unpopular principal, according to the article, and then raised money and put in volunteer hours. One parent who had a kid at the school had this to say: “It’s totally a class issue, because the parents who stay at home can be more engaged. For schools in neighborhoods where there’s not a lot of resources, it’s not gonna be one in two parents who can come in and help out.” According to Dr. Jennifer Stillman, a researcher who looks at schools in gentrifying neighborhoods, improvements are predicated on a snowball effect of early adopters to a school system then attracting other parents: “Stillman’s research found that the successful integration – racial, economic, and cultural – of this new parent group into the existing schools and is key to a school managing the kind of ‘turnaround’ many parents seek. ‘There is a key moment in a school that successfully integrates, where the early majority decides to stay,’ Stillman said.”
Parental Involvement is Formula for Success in Brooklyn Schools [Gotham Gazette]
Photo by PropertyShark
12/14/2011 9:30 AM
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Closing Bell: Students Celebrate Brooklyn History
We were sent some photos of seventh grade students at the Fahari Academy Charter School, in Flatbush, presenting a museum of Brooklyn History of their own devising. The students studied Brooklyn history during the past month and put together museum exhibits for an end-of-the-semester project. Topics included Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Coney Island, and famous Brooklynites such as Jay-Z, Jackie Robinson, and Tupac Shakur. Students also recreated a model of the Brooklyn Bridge, constructed according to the bridge’s original plans. Click through for a couple more shots! (more…)
12/13/2011 4:00 PM
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Hundreds Protest Cobble Hill Charter at Hearing
By all accounts, the DOE hearing last night over the proposal to co-locate a Success Academy Charter in the school building at Baltic and Court was a rowdy affair. According to the Eagle, there was a much bigger group assembled to protest the plan than to support it: “While hundreds of parents and officials were firmly and vocally against the co-location of Success Academy at the site, roughly a half-dozen supporters held a press conference before the hearing.” The paper also notes that the people in the crowd at the hearing booed and cried “Shame!” as testimony was given, and that one man was escorted out by police. McBrooklyn reports that one of the main concerns voiced by opponents has to do with the amount of space in the building, which is already home to the School for Global Studies and the School for International Studies: “Parents and teachers said the facilities are maxed out already…Teachers said that there was barely enough time in the gym for the middle and high schoolers to get their mandated PE in before they graduated.” Patch, meanwhile, notes that many politicians have come out against the charter taking space in the building, including Assemblyman Jim Brennan, City Councilmembers Brad Lander and Steve Levin, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Joan Millman. Meanwhile, the Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled to vote on the matter later this month at Newtown High School in Queens—the vote was originally supposed to take place in Midtown—and some parents have started an online petition demanding that the vote take place at Brooklyn Tech instead.
Hundreds Attend Heated Hearing on Success Charter [Patch]
Explosive Cobble Hill Success Academy Hearing [McBrooklyn]
Emotions Explode at Raucous Cobble Hill Charter School Hearing [Eagle]
Protesters Disrupt DOE Hearing On Proposed Brooklyn Charter [NY1]
12/01/2011 9:30 AM
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Hearing Tonight on Cobble Hill Charter School
The controversial proposed opening of the Success Academy Cobble Hill charter is going to be the subject of a DOE hearing tonight, and Patch suggests the proceedings might get heated based on an earlier meeting about the school that devolved into a shouting match. The proposal is to locate the school at Baltic and Court streets, in the building that houses the Brooklyn School for Global Studies. Among the folks who have come out against the plan is Assemblywoman Joan Millman, who rallied against Success Academy yesterday and said she supported introducing a pre-K and kindergarten program to the district instead. As Pardon Me for Asking puts it: “Emotions are running high in regards to the latest school controversy in the neighborhood.” The hearing will take place at 5:30 tonight, at 284 Baltic Street.
Hearing Tuesday for Success Charter School [Patch]
Worries About Success Academy Opening in Cobble Hill [Brownstoner]
New Charter School in the Works for Cobble/Boerum Area [Brownstoner]
11/29/2011 9:00 AM
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Closing Bell: Movie Tracks the Opening of Bed-Stuy School
Filmmaker Jyllian Gunther shot four years of footage at Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High, starting when the high school opened in 2006, and is now looking to get funding to complete the movie. Here’s what Gunther has to say about the film, which is currently titled “Growing Small”: “I followed the school from opening day thru it’s first graduation at the Brooklyn Museum four years later and the community participated in the making of the film. It is not an advocacy film or a policy film, but really an intimate story about what happens when a community of young, idealists try to bridge the urban education gap.” There’s a Kickstarter campaign here, and the film’s website has more clips and information about the movie. Growing Small [Official Site]
Growing Small Fundraising Campaign [Kickstarter]
11/22/2011 4:00 PM
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Worries About Success Academy Opening in Cobble Hill
The planned opening of the charter school Success Academy Cobble Hill isn’t sitting well with a number of parents, according to the Eagle, and the school is holding a meeting this weekend to address their concerns. Some parents don’t want an existing public school to have to share space with the charter. There are also allegations that the charter network and its founder, Eva Moskowitz, gamed the system in getting the school approved for District 15 because an application was originally submitted to open it in District 13 (which includes Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights). Jim Devor, parent and president of the governing body for District 15, offers this opinion: “They deliberately misled SUNY [State University of New York] trustees and regulators into believing they were helping children in need when their true agenda is to create a beachhead in Brownstone Brooklyn.” Devor also said that District 15, which includes Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Park Slope, is in need of middle and high schools rather than another elementary school. Meanwhile, a parent who sends her kid to PS 32 in District 15 recently had an item on Patch about how a Success Academy colocation in PS 32′s building would lead to overcrowding “in the parks and other public areas after school.” The informational meeting this weekend is taking place on Saturday at noon at the Carroll Gardens Public Library, 396 Clinton Street.
Controversial Cobble Hill Charter School Raising Eyebrows [Eagle]
New Charter School in the Works for Cobble/Boerum Area [Brownstoner]
10/27/2011 9:00 AM
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Details About NYU’s Designs on 370 Jay
The Daily News has a story with more information about how NYU wants to take over the former MTA headquarters at 370 Jay and turn it into a grad school: The university wants to make it a facility called the Center for Urban Science and Progress “where scientists and engineers would work on problems vexing cities around the world, from traffic congestion to energy efficiency.” NYU has submitted the proposal in the hopes that it will win the competition to construct a new science graduate school with city funds; although Stanford and Cornell’s proposals to build schools on Roosevelt Island are said to be the frontrunners in the competition, an NYU official says “It would not be very costly for the city to figure out what it’s going to do on Roosevelt Island between Stanford and Cornell, and then at 370 Jay, we’ll be fixing up a site they wanted to fix up anyway.”
NYU Eyes Former MTA Headquarters for Urban Grad School [NY Daily News]
N.Y.U. Looks to Overhaul 370 Jay [Brownstoner]
10/26/2011 10:00 AM
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Revisiting the Arts and Letters Expansion
There was plenty of conflict last year when Arts and Letters, a progressive public school which shares space with P.S. 20 on Adelphi Street in Fort Greene, announced its intentions to expand from middle school down to lower grades. With a finite amount of space in the building, families of P.S. 20 students—many of whom had attended the school for generations—feared being squeezed out by the growth of a school that clearly also represented a wealthier and whiter contingent. In an article that looks back on the conflict, City Limits includes some interesting statistics about Fort Greene demographics:
That the neighborhood has undergone a dramatic change is as plain as the sparkles on Amira’s party shoes: While in 2000, the district’s poverty rate was 25 percent, a decade later—even after the 2008 economic nosedive—it was 17 percent, according to statistics from NYU’s Furman Center. Housing prices, $225,000 on average in 2000, had nearly doubled, to $413,000 a decade later. The racial scales had tilted as well: In 2000, about 30 percent of the area’s residents were white, and about 45 percent African-American. By 2010, nearly half of the neighborhood’s residents were white, and no more than one in three black. (The Hispanic population dropped slightly in the same interval, from about 30 to about 25 percent.)
The article says that the increase in students has strained the infrastructure somewha, and quotes suggest that there are still resentments and philosophical divides between parents of the two schools, but at least the two heads of school are presenting a united front. “We had an open and honest conversation, just the two of us,” says the founder of Arts and Letters. “We’re on the same side, of what’s good for the kids. Even with mistakes, we’re always focused on what’s good for the children.”
We’re curious to hear how parents think the expansion is working out–for both Arts and Letters kids as well as P.S. 20 kids.
2 Schools, 1 Space: Scars Linger from Controversy on Adelphi Street [City Limits]
Photo by Marc Fader for City Limits
10/26/2011 9:30 AM
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Construction Begins at PS 17 in Williamsburg
Late last week we caught workers nailing a construction sign up at PS 17, the Henry Woodworth school at North 4th Street between Driggs and Roebling. Looks like the building will be getting exterior masonry repair and parapet, roof, and window replacements. All the work is supposed to be finished by December of next year. GMAP
10/11/2011 2:40 PM
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New Charter School in the Works for Cobble/Boerum Area
Former Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz’s Success Charter Network plans to open a new school called Success Academy Cobble Hill next year, according to Schoolbook. The location of the school has yet to be determined, but it will share space with other public schools. Two possibilities mentioned in the article are the buildings that house the Math and Science Exploratory School, at 345 Dean Street (pictured above), and the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, at 284 Baltic Street; both buildings have room for more than 600 additional students. The school will eventually run from kindergarten through 8th grade. Moskowitz says she expects the school to be controversial with some: “There’s a deep anticharter sentiment out there, and I’m sure there will be opposition coming from that corner.” Update: Success Charter Network sent out a press release today saying another charter would also be opened in Williamsburg. The websites for the schools will launch on October 17th and have applications on them: Success Academy Cobble Hill and Success Academy Williamsburg.
Success Charter Is Planning a School for Cobble Hill [Schoolbook]
Photo via PropertyShark
10/07/2011 11:31 AM
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Hidden Treasure in a Flatbush School’s Closet
NY1 discovered that a Tiffany window has been gathering dust and hidden from view in the closet of the former Erasmus High School. That the window exists in a public high school is, of course, “very unusual.” The city doesn’t know how much it’s worth and says it will be restored when the school system’s budget allows. According to the story, it was installed in 1919.
Tiffany Stained Glass Window Uncovered At Flatbush Public School [NY1]
08/01/2011 11:00 AM
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Gowanus Artists Getting Booted for Charter Build
Tenants in the warehouses on 3rd Avenue and Nevins that will be demolished to make way for a new building that will house the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School aren’t thrilled about uprooting, and one has filed a lawsuit over the vacate order landlord Jack Elo issued, according to an article in Patch. The story says artists lived in the commercial lofts for decades with their old owner’s blessing despite the fact that the lofts weren’t zoned for residential use. Elo, who purchased the buildings 18 months ago, claims that no one lives in the buildings and that he hasn’t broken the law. John Romano, who says he’s lived in his loft for years, has filed a lawsuit against Elo fighting the eviction and has also applied to the New York City Loft Board to see if the building’s certificate of occupancy can be changed so that it’s legal for residential use. Romano says: “We are going to fight and hopefully we can get the community involved. This has been my home for 16 years, the neighborhood is finally turning around and I want to benefit from that.” All of this comes as Brooklyn Prospect Charter scrambles to find a new space for the upcoming school year; even though construction on its 3rd Avenue building hasn’t started, the facility is supposed to be ready by the middle of next year.
Goodbye Artist Lofts, Hello Brooklyn Prospect Charter School [Patch]
More Info on Charter School Coming to Gowanus [Brownstoner] GMAP
07/12/2011 11:00 AM
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The Co-op School Expands to Include Elementary
The Co-op School, the Clinton Hill-based preschool, is expanding and opening an elementary school at 40 Breeevort Place, between Franklin and Bedford in Bedford Stuyvesant. There will be additional preschool classrooms in the new location, which will open this September. There will also be a new art room, library, rec room and science room. An information and recruitment meeting is scheduled for July 25th at the new building; more information about the expansion is expected to materialize in the coming weeks. The original location of the Co-op School is 87 Irving Place, where it’s been since 2009; the school will continue to operate out of it after the new space opens. GMAP
07/12/2011 9:30 AM
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Development Watch: PAVE Academy
As of last month, demolition was still under way on the building sitting on the site on Mill and Henry streets in Red Hook where PAVE Academy is building a new facility. Now, though, the site has been cleared for construction. The charter school’s new building, rendered here, is supposed to be done at some point in 2013.
Prepping for a Red Hook Charter’s New Building [Brownstoner] GMAP
06/22/2011 2:40 PM
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Closing Bell: New Mural for Bay Ridge School
On Saturday there was an official unveiling of a new mural at PS 102 in Bay Ridge. The work has been produced by hundreds of volunteers over the past six weeks. The mural is called “Welcome,” and it’s meant “to promote a message of acceptance of and respect for diversity.” This Flickr set has close-up shots of it as well as photos from the ribbon-cutting.
PS 102 Mural
Photo by Genxcel.
06/09/2011 4:00 PM
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Barclays Ad Now on Public School Fence…
A Barclays Center sign has appeared on the PS-58 fence in Carroll Gardens. Pardon Me For Asking was told Barclays paid for the new schoolyard, but says, “Whatever monies Barclays coughed up shouldn’t give the bank the right to turn a schoolyard into a place for advertisement. What’s next? McDonald signs? Its kind of a slippery slope.”
06/02/2011 10:45 AM
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More Info on Charter School Coming to Gowanus
Late last year there was word that Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, which is currently located in Sunset Park High School, would be building a new facility on Douglass Street between 3rd Avenue and Nevins, and that’s been confirmed by a lease agreement that was recently recorded in public records for the properties at 182 and 188 3rd Avenue and 267 Douglass Street. The school’s website, meanwhile, says that it’s in search of an interim location for next year. (Controversial plans to temporarily occupy space at P.S. 32 were recently withdrawn.) It seems to be the case that the warehouse on the corner of 3rd Avenue and Douglass is going to be torn down to make make way for the school, since its owner just got a permit to demolish the building. As of Monday, though, there was no visible construction or demolition under way on the block.
Charter School Expanding to Gowanus [Brownstoner] GMAP
05/25/2011 10:30 AM
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Development Watch: P.S. 133 Taking Shape
The completion of P.S. 133 was pushed back to September 2013, but the construction is proceeding at what seems like a steady clip. Lately, the steel skeleton gives a decent sense of the school’s final form.
PS 133 Not Opening Until September 2013 [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: PS 133 Goes Vertical [Brownstoner]
Development Watch: The Snowy PS 133 Site [Brownstoner] GMAP
Onward and Upward at PS 133 [Brownstoner]
Last Wall Comes Down at PS 133 [Brownstoner]
Chipping Away at PS 133 [Brownstoner]
PS 133: Memo on the Demo [Brownstoner]
05/10/2011 2:40 PM
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Friends School Expanding @ Downtown Condo…
“Brooklyn Friends School has signed a 15-year lease in the ground floor retail space of be@schermerhorn at 189 Schermerhorn Street. The school, which has programs from preschool to 12th grade, will move its youngest students into the 4,742 s/f space. The school has around 685 students and has its main facilities at 375 Pearl Street, previously occupied by Brooklyn Law School, and another 17,000 s/f at 66 Willoughby Street.”-Real Estate Weekly
05/10/2011 11:15 AM
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Prepping for a Red Hook Charter’s New Building
Demolition is under way on the building that used to stand at the corner of Mill and Henry in Red Hook, readying the lot for the construction of the future home of PAVE Academy, the charter school currently located a few blocks away in the neighborhood. The rendering above shows how it’s supposed to look when complete (click on it to enlarge). According to a representative for Civic Builders, the nonprofit developer on the project, the goal is to have the 350-seat facility ready to go sometime in 2013. The new construction will allow PAVE to accommodate more students than its current building does. Click through for a photo of the site as it’s looking these days. GMAP
Rendering courtesy of Mitchell | Giurgola Architects, LLP (more…)
05/10/2011 11:00 AM
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ruth2989
May 29, 2012 | 11:02 AM