Arts and Letters is a Kindergarten to 8th Grade public school currently co-located with PS 20 in Fort Greene. The school does not have a school zone and draws students by lottery from District 13, prioritizing students that qualify for free lunch. They give siblings priority to students K to 8th Grade.
The school which has 520 students enrolled runs two classes per grade, with 25 students per class in Kindergarten going up to 32 students per class in middle school. Kindergarten to 2nd Grade have each 2 teachers in each classroom which is mainly funded by the school’s PTA. They run one General Education and one IEP classroom in all higher grades.
The school has a strong commitment to the arts, with art classes twice a week for Kindergarten to 2nd Grade and art electives in Grades 3 to 8 including visual arts, filmmaking, theater and music. Due to budget restrictions there are no foreign languages taught at the school.
Students learn in long-term projects that require multiple drafts, collaborative work and maximized thinking time. Narrative reports are provided in elementary school while grades get introduced in middle school. Kindergarten to 2nd Grade have weekly “outdoor classroom” for 3 hours in the park studying nature and animals. Homework starts in 1st Grade (10 minutes per Grade).
The school is planning to expand and occupy its own school building running 3 classes per Grade versus the current 2 from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. The Department of Education plans to assign a school building in Bed Stuy in District 13 to the school. There is no information on the exact address yet but the school leadership expects the move to take place for school year 2019/2020. School buses from various neighborhoods in District 13 are available.
You can apply for Kindergarten at Arts & Letters in your online application here starting end of November. To find out more about zoned, unzoned, Charter and private schools, attend our upcoming Pre-K and Kindergarten info session on 12/3.
