Editor’s Note: At the invitation of BHB, Senator Daniel Squadron of New York’s 26th Senate District agreed to the following opinion piece about Brooklyn Height’s overcrowded school system.
School started last week.
Brooklyn Heights’ local public school is not just wildly popular, with a great administration and engaged students and parents. PS 8 on Hicks Street, which serves Brooklyn Heights and part of DUMBO, is also among the most overcrowded schools in all of New York City: according to the School Construction Authority, in the 2013-14 school year, the school had capacity for 524 students, but was actually attended by 742 students.
There is no single solution for overcrowding at P.S. 8. But having a school system that did a better job of identifying where its needs will be, not just along school district lines, but in neighborhoods, and making sure that the community has a role in the planning, would make a difference.
And, despite a recent addition to the school, this year P.S. 8 is not part of the exciting expansion of Pre-K in our city—its program was discontinued to alleviate the overcrowding.
As a parent with young children myself, I’m well aware that knowing whether or not a local school has space for its neighborhood’s children is fundamental to a family’s ability to make a life and invest in a community.
And it is likely to get worse. There are hundreds of new units planned within the P.S. 8 zone, and absolutely no plan to deal with the increase in school kids that is certain to result.
There is no single solution for overcrowding at P.S. 8. But having a school system that did a better job of identifying where its needs will be, not just along school district lines, but in neighborhoods, and making sure that the community has a role in the planning, would make a difference.
That’s why for five years I pushed a bill in the Senate to require the school system to change the way it projects the number of seats needed in our city’s neighborhoods. Earlier this month, Governor Cuomo signed it into law.
The Student Population Projection and Transparency Act (also sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver) requires better and more local data when projecting the number of seats needed in a given neighborhood. The law we passed requires the school system to coordinate with agencies that track population trends, like Health, Buildings, Housing, and City Planning. It also requires that student population projections are produced at the community board level, instead of relying on often misleading district-wide numbers. Finally, it increases the requirements for transparency and responsiveness to parent input.
Together, the bill will provide a more accurate indication of growth trends and school needs in neighborhoods even before new buildings are built, give parents additional tools to fight for what their community needs, and push the School Construction Authority to plan ahead more effectively.
For years, Brooklyn Heights residents have known what the Department of Education didn’t sufficiently plan for: that we desperately need more classroom space.
Daniel Squadron is serving his third term representing New York’s 26th Senate District, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Vinegar Hill, DUMBO, Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and the Manhattan neighborhoods of Tribeca, Battery Park City, the Lower East Side, Chinatown, the Financial District, Little Italy, SoHo, and the East Village.
In the Senate, Senator Squadron has worked to: strengthen affordable housing; promote comprehensive, community-empowering economic development; enhance regional transportation infrastructure; protect the most vulnerable in our society; and secure parks and open space for all communities.
