This is what Brooklyn is about! Grassroots community activism. Brand new neighbor, Melissa Morgenlander, wants to know if you want a Public PreK Early Childhood Center in the northern part of District 15 (Sunset Park already has the terrific Magnet School for Early Childhood)I did some very fast numbers based on the Accountability reports from last year. The schools I listed were ones that are not within range of the Magnet School for Early Childhood and they didn't seem to be breaking even on their preK/ K populations. Check out 107, 146, 261 and 321 in particular. As the buildings on 4th Ave. fill up 321 will need it's preK classrooms for K and the population at 124 and 295 will most certainly increase.
PS 10, prek 54 seats, K 87 seats
PS 15, prek 29 seats, K 50 seats
PS 29, prek 54 seats, K 79 seats
PS 39, prek 36 seats, K 61 seats
PS 58, prek 70 seats, K84 seats
PS 107, prek 18 seats, K 84 seats
PS 124, prek 35 seats, K 39 seats
PS 130, prek 52 seats (but none of them is full day) K 83 seats
PS 146, prek 36 seats, K 81 seats
PS 261, prek 36 seats, K 108 seats
PS 295, prek 36 seats, K 52 seats
PS 321, prek 52 seats(but only 18 are full day) K 191 seats
Even if your children are too old for preK, I urge you to take a look at Melissa's petition. Help your neighbors!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ECCforBROOKLYN/
1 comment:
I admit that I'm not well-schooled (pun intended) on the specific data, but I do know that the poorer end of Sunset Park - the southern end has always been ripped off by the park slope end. This seems to be racial in nature. The northern end tended to be white (third & fourth generation Italian, Polish & Irish), while the southern end saw more ethnic change. Before I would consider signing this petition, I would want to give serious consideration as to where the pre-k population is growing. The southern end is experiencing the highest birthrate in the city - in part due to Asians "beating" the one child per family China rule by being here in the U.S. Walk any side street - 40's, 50's and see the number of pre-K and about to be pre-K kids. The new residential construction in the south end and the number of undocumented residents in basement apartments and 7 families to a 3 family building is huge. South S.P. will be busing pre-k and k kids out of the neighborhood in big numbers.
Two of my kids faced this a decade or so ago - spending over 2 hours on the bus coming home - and missing one hour of instruction in the morning and one in the afternoon (they commonly load the buses up to an hour before the end of the school day.)
This is not just an education issue, this is a housing/zoning issue. We are being "over-built" there should be zoning rules that include a formula for infrastructure support - and among the utility needs, most importantly schools.
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