P.S. 8 Middle School Approved

By on February 10, 2012 12:32 am in Education, Government, News

Yesterday evening, the City Department of Education’s Panel on Education Policy approved the creation of a middle school extension of P.S. 8, to be located at Tillary Street and Tech Place in downtown Brooklyn. State Senator Daniel Squadron, who supported the proposal, said this:

Tonight’s vote to approve the new P.S. 8 middle school is great news for Brooklyn! By heeding our calls and formalizing the new middle school, DOE is helping to ensure the continued success of P.S. 8 and creating better options for all District 13 students. Now we must work to get the new P.S. 8 middle school ready to go for next school year and continue to work for more options for District 13 students.

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  • davoyager

    Now our heights and the new community down under the bridges have the best opportunity to create public middle school education within walking distance for our kids we’re ever likely to get. A great old school building already with 4 or 5 tenant schools or users and with room for 200 to 300 more seats with associated offices; and the DOE is willing to make an investment in this building in order to facilitate the middle school and for the betterment of all the schools calling this building home.
    New residential projects are opening everyday,. more and more people live here. This old school building can give us the space we will need in the years to come so people don’t have to move away to find good schools for their kids.They can help to build one right here.

  • lori

    It will be interesting to see how this works out. PS 8 went thru the 8th grade thru the 1990s and it was not successful, mainly because kids who didn’t make a special Junior High were enrolled there. It is also interesting to see that it will be attached to PS 8 even tho it is so far away. Also, will the parents be happy with this location and situation? I hope so. Brooklyn Heights deserves a good public junior high, which it has NEVER had.

  • Nabeguy

    Congratulations Dave. It’s been a long bitter struggle with what I hope will be very successfull results.

  • MARTINLBROOKLYN

    Ummm, pardon my asking but didn’t the BOE go out of its way to fund a middle school in a giant condo on Dock Street in DUMBO? Wasn’t that the grease Walentas used to ease the way for approval of his over-sized condo building nearly up against the The Great Bridge?
    Didn’t that juicy promise of a school drive a wedge between those looking to protect the views of the Bridge and PS8 parents? Whatever happened to that alluring proimise?
    Hey, I’m just askin’.

  • ujh

    Maybe the Dock Street “middle school” space will become the new St. Anne’s Warehouse after its short lease elsewhere in Dumbo ends.

  • Heights Mom

    Lori, it was a K-8 in the 90s with a different principal and a very different student/parent body. I’m a PS8 parent and I think the feeling seems to be most of us intend to continue on through the 8th grade now that we can. It’s a wonderful school. It will take work to integrate and be good neighbors with the two other schools currently in the new building, but we’ll do it and we’ll do it as well as it could be done by any school.

  • Carlotta

    Re @lori. My child went thru P.S. 8 to 8th grade because it was the neighborhood school, not because he didn’t get into a special junior high. Having a school on Tillary may not be ideal, but many children travel longer distances to attend junior high and private schools. Let’s support the efforts to make this school one of the best.

  • Heights Mom

    We’ve learned that committed parents and staff can totally turn a school around.

  • Gerry

    @ Heights Mom – PS 8 is NOT a great school.

    PS 8 is the NYC DOE. Most of the kids in Brooklyn Heights attend Brooklyn Freinds, Packer, and other private schools because PS 8 is not a great school.

    My sons was enrolled at PS 8 for 3 weeks and I took him out and he is enrolled in private school his first grade teacher screaming “SHUT UP” at her students all day long was enough for me.

    PS 8 is not a great school.

    Very few Brooklyn Heights residents will send children to the new middle school bet on that.

  • Strunk and White

    @Gerry – based on your grammar, maybe you should have gone to PS-8 (or any other school) for a couple of more years.

    Private school does not always mean better. But, it is always more money – a lot more money. Having good public schools in the local area is a great thing, and the addition of a middle school is something I’m looking forward to sending my young daughter to.

  • MonroeOrange

    Location, location, location…The parents and students love the secluded quaint corners PS 8 now occupies, and rightly so. Can’t wait to see the reaction from those same parents and students after they walk and experience the traffic and craziness of Tillary street on a daily basis! Great idea to expand, horrible location, good luck!

  • Heights Mom

    Gerry, most PS8 parents would differ with you, but you go ahead and enjoy shelling out $25K each and every year, okey-dokey?

  • gc

    For the 1% $25,000 is a meaningless, insignificant number. That’s the problem.

  • ABC

    Sadly, I think this location and situation will be a problem and I think the students with options to move on, will. Removing the top performing kids will be an issue. I hope it works out, but I think it will be a problem and maybe a distraction from the lower school.

    I think Gerry’s info is out of date, but there are teachers at 8 all parents hope to avoid. That’s true. (the 25k number leads me to believe Heights Mom may be out of date too)

    Does anyone know the particulars here re: money. How much is going to be spend at that location for PS8.

  • EHinBH

    A middle school here in this small hood would be a horrible nightmare. I am so glad it is downtown, where it belongs… Not on our narrow, quiet streets, where there is no room!

  • PS 8 parent

    ABC: New schools typically get start-up funding, and I assume MS 8 will get the same.

    I think this is wonderful news. Yes, some of the top performers have typically left for citywide middle schools (ICE, Twain, Nest), but even those families agonize over the long commute and might prefer to avoid it. There simply have been no other academically rigorous choices in District 13. None! Moreover, there are top performing students in some of the other district elementary schools (PS 11, 20, 9), who also would welcome the option to fill any open spots at MS 8.

  • Previous Leon

    @Gerry
    I be interested to know what year your kid was at
    Ps8 and how you were able to get him in private
    so quickly.

  • heights dad

    My greatest concern is how will this school be incorporated into George Westinghouse HIgh School. This is a very tough urban high school. There are numerous gangs of kids, and there is a significant crime problem in the high school. How do we isolate or insulate our young chidren who are going to be going there. the nice thing about PS8 is that it is a quiet, well disciplined school. I am hoping that there will be seperate facilities such as restrooms, and even seperate entrance/exits. Just the thought of over one thousand predominantly urban kids going in and out at the same time as the youngsters will pose a risk for their safety. Any thoughts?