PS8 meeting: strictly about the annex

By on April 20, 2009 11:59 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Events

The PS 8 PTA will host its monthly meeting on Wednesday night, where the city’s School Construction Authority will present its plans for the building’s future annex — but, PTA officials say, that’s where the discussion with SCA will stop.

The meeting will be open to the public, but only PS 8 PTA members will be able to ask questions — and only about the annex — to the SCA.

On Tuesday, word spread about an idea to seize the opportunity and question the SCA about the contentious Dock Street issue. But PTA Co-President Joanne Singleton and PS 8 principal Seth Phillips will be strict about keeping the meeting on-topic, and “won’t entertain” questions off-topic, Singleton told BHB.

The SCA has said it will schedule a meeting in the near future to publicly present its plans for the annex and to take questions from the public.

Worry not, BHB will be at the meeting and will report back about the city’s plans.

The PS 8 PTA meeting will be on Wednesday, April 22, at 6 pm in the school’s auditorium (Hicks Street between Poplar and Middagh streets).

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  • ABC

    sounds like a good idea to me.

  • nabeguy

    Sounds typical. Let’s not rile the SCA, lest they take our annex away. Sounds like Moses isn’t dead after all. I trust BHB will stay on top of this story and advise us of when the SCA will hold it’s public meetings. Groundbreaking is scheduled for July so the “near future” is close at hand.

  • ABC

    I think it sounds like the parents of PS8 would like to get their questions answered about the annex and not have the meeting they’ve organized get highjacked by people who are interested in talking about something completely different.

  • nabeguy

    You’re right ABC. What I’m frustrated by is the fait accompli nature of this presentation and the opacity that the SCA has demonstrated in dealing with the public. I attended one of the first meetings about the annex last fall, and it was clear that only the Executive Committee members of PS 8 were going to be allowed to review the plans and that the parents would have to trust their judgment of the proposal. Unless the plans have changed, that means we are ending up with an annex that has no gymnasium, but allows for not just one but two space-consuming elevators. I’m sure they will have reasonable explanations for their plans, but it would have been nice if they had kept one ear open to the public voice. BTW, a self-serving attendee of that meeting did try, in fact, to steer the discussion to the Dock Street Proposal, but the issue was swiftly put to rest.