DOE Proposes P.S. 8 Middle School Expansion

By on December 23, 2011 11:29 am in Downtown Brooklyn, Education, News, schools

We previously reported that the City’s Department of Education was seriously considering expanding P.S. 8 to include a middle school that would be sited at Tillary Street and Tech Place in downtown Brooklyn. This morning, State Senator Daniel Squadron announced that the DOE has decided to go ahead with this plan:

Last night, DOE answered the calls of the community and formally proposed the expansion of P.S. 8 to include a middle school.

For months, I’ve worked with parents, P.S. 8 faculty, DOE, Assemblymember Millman and Councilmember Levin to make this proposal a reality.

Providing our community with a high quality middle school is critical to continuing the success of P.S. 8. I urge quick approval of this proposal to get the middle school up and running by next school year and ensure that our kids get the the quality education they deserve.

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  • nabeguy

    Glad to finally hear this. Too late for me, but a huge plus for the community.

  • Lefty

    We’ve been here before. Heights parents ask for a K-8 school. They get it. Then children from other parts of the district attend. Some parents begin to leave PS 8 as their children get into higher grades. More seats are filled from outside the Heights. Then a tipping point is reached and Heights parents say their little ones are not safe with so many big kids in the building. They demand that the upper grades be moved out. They get their way.
    See 1985 through 1995 more or less.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Lefty: the new 6-8 classrooms won’t be located at the site of the present P.S. 8. They’ll be sharing a building with two high schools at Tillary Street and Tech Place. Whether some Heights parents may be uncomfortable sending their middle school age kids to a place where there will be even bigger kids remains to be seen, though from what I gather so far, reaction among P.S. 8 parents has been positive.

  • MARTINLBROOKLYN

    What ever happened to Walentas promoted middle school in the Dock Street condo?? Big W. maneuvered that deal with the BOE as an assist in getting the zoning change he wanted. This was about four years ago.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Martin: so far as I know, the Dock Street middle school is still on. It’s to be open to all students from the district, while P.S. 8 grads will have first choice of spaces at the one at Tillary and Tech Place.

  • Nativenyer

    Bravo, Lefty….
    Sad to see that apartheid is alive and well in Bklyn. Hghts. Squadron should be ashamed….

  • truenative

    What non-nativenyer doesn’t realize is that there are some middle class and even lower middle class families in and around Bklyn Heights who deserve a school every bit as much as the upper class people who can send their kids to private school. There are many of us who can’t even afford health insurance these days but Non-native would have us bused halfway across Brooklyn to other neighborhoods rather than have a school convenient to us where our kids can have a bit of an after school time not spent on buses. Talk about apartheid. Non-native probably wants us all to move to so called poor neighborhoods so the world is cut up nice and neat for his/her misguided political beliefs.

  • PromGirl

    The problem always is that it is not neighborhood families who are served. Children from other areas are bussed in, mostly for reasons of PC.
    This defeats the entire concept of a local neighborhood school.
    The families who send their children to the independent schools in the neighborhood do so by choice, or necessity. They pay for it, as well as having their taxes go to support the Public education system. It has nothing to do with “deserving”.
    The place to look for the total failure of the NYC Public school system does not lie with parents or children, nor with independent schools.