PS 133 located at 610 Baltic Street in Downtown Brooklyn is an un-zoned elementary school that draws 1/3 of its students from District 13 and 2/3 from District 15. The school that moved to a brand new building in 2013 launched highly sought-after French and Spanish Dual Language Programs in 2011 and 2012.
There are two classes per grade within the Spanish Dual Language Program which run on a daily 50/50 language split with a bilingual teacher. There are also two classes for the French Dual Language Program which have rotating teachers – one week the students are taught by the French speaking teacher, the other week by the English speaking teacher. All those classes stay together from Kindergarten all the way through 5th grade. The student maximum for Kindergarten is 24 and 32 for 1st Grade and up. For Pre-K and Kindergarten the Department of Education assigns seats via lottery. For 1st grade and up, new students are only accepted into the Dual Language Programs if they speak the target language fluently.
All students not in the Dual Language Programs (two classes per grade) learn Spanish starting in Kindergarten. All classes in all grades have weekly cluster classes including science in the science lab, music in the music room, drama & theater, arts, physical education and more. The school currently has over 760 students enrolled and growing. School hours are from 8.20 am to 2.40 pm. Three different after school programs are available. There is a school bus service from both districts. It is a non-mandatory school uniform school. The schools sets aside around 30% of seats to students that qualify for free lunch and English Language Learners. Siblings have priority into the school. Families living in District 13 and 15 can add this school to their Pre-K and Kindergarten applications within the Department of Education application process. More information about the school here!
Photos: Kindergarten classroom, Kindergarten schedule, library and auditorium at PS 133
