The vote for the rezoning of 7 elementary schools in District 15 will be taking place by early spring 2021 as announced during the CEC 15 calendar meeting on December 15th, 2020. The Kindergarten applications process which will close on 1/19/21 will be unaffected by this process and school zones for PS 261, PS 29, PS 15, PS 676, PS 58, PS 32 and PS 38 will stay the same for next school year. As the Office of District Planning will need more time to analyze turning PS 676 in Red Hook into a middle school and think deeply about the findings of the PAR team, the implementation of this rezoning will take place in school year 2022/23 for children born in 2017. There is no specific timeline for a new map yet but the Office of District Planning will present further details at the January meeting of the CEC 15. The school zones of the affected schools will change in 2022 but a shared zone for all seven schools seems to be off the table as the findings of the PAR team don’t go along with an unzoned subdistrict.
Background
The Department of Education has been partnering with CEC 15 and school communities since spring 2019 to develop a collaborative rezoning and admissions plan that aims to increase diversity and integration, reduce overcrowding, and advance equity in District 15. The process was initiated by the opening of the annex at PS 32 in Carroll Gardens that brought over 430 new seats to the Subdistrict and needs to be filled.
This planning has involved seven zoned schools: P.S. 38, P.S. 261, P.S. 32, P.S. 15, P.S. 29, P.S. 58 and P.S. 676 Red Hook Neighborhood School. In response to feedback from community discussions, the DOE committed to further empowering historically underserved communities in this area through a Participatory Action Research (PAR) process.
