DOE Holding Public Hearings This Month on Controversial P.S. 8, P.S. 307 Rezoning

What began as a seemingly innocent proposal to rezone two Brooklyn elementary schools has attracted national attention as the community loudly protested the would-be change.

At heated town hall meetings, parents at Dumbo’s P.S. 8 and Vinegar Hill’s P.S. 307 named race and gentrification as what they believed to be the true motivations behind the plan, as well as complaining they were not given sufficient warning of the change.

Facing clear dislike and distrust from many affected families, the Department of Education has delayed Community Education Council 13’s formal vote on the plan by two months, allowing for a discussion period with concerned parents.

The discussion period will entail both parent input forums and public hearings on the proposed rezoning of high-scoring but overcrowded P.S. 8, and the 95 percent minority P.S. 307, which has comparatively low test scores and largely services students from the area’s Farragut Houses development.

In addition to respectively shrinking and expanding the two schools’ zones, the DOE proposal would also re-site and redesign P.S. 307’s small middle school program, M.S. 313, out of its current location in the P.S. 307 building and into a new facility at the Dock Street building on 60 Water Street.

The public forums are being held at 6 p.m. on November 2 at P.S. 307, at 209 York Street, and at 6 p.m. on November 19 at 100 Hester Street in Manhattan.

There will be four districtwide middle school Forums for parent input, all to begin at 6:30 p.m. They will occur on November 9 at P.S. 3, at 50 Jefferson Avenue; on November 12 at P.S. 133, at 610 Baltic Street; on November 16 at P.S. 307, at 209 York Street; and on November 30 at P.S. 11, at 419 Waverly Avenue, all in Brooklyn.

[Source: CEC | Photo: DOE]

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