As a result of new school construction at PS 32 in Carroll Gardens, a rezoning for the school and neighboring schools for school year 2020 – 2021 is under way. During the community meeting on May, 20th at PS 32 the Department of Education did not yet present any proposals or maps but continued to gather feedback from the community.
The goals of this rezoning for the sub-district:
- Address overcrowding at PS 29 and PS 58
- Equalize building utilization across schools in the surrounding areas and fill the new school building at PS 32
- Promote integration and address demographic disparities in schools across this area of District 15
Potential strategies:
- Significant increase of zone size PS 32 to account for additional capacity
- Decrease zone sizes at PS 58 and PS 29 to reduce overcrowding
- Increase the PS 15 and PS 38 zones to leverage existing capacity and promote diversity
- Implement admissions priorities for out-of-zone students to promote integration at several schools
- Consider new programming to help support rezoning planning and meet student needs
- Consider un-zoning, controlled choice and busing policies for the sub-district
Timeline for this rezoning:
- Official proposals from the Department of Education in June (we expect more than one option to be presented)
- Vote by the CEC 15 on the proposal in September/October
- Implementation in November before Kindergarten applications open
- First Kindergarten students affected by this rezoning entering Kindergarten in September 2020 (students with older siblings at the schools will NOT be affected by the rezoning and will be grandfathered in)
Community comments at the meeting:
- Timeframe too tight for proper community engagement and analysis of rezoning options between June and November
- Concerns about community engagement with low income families affected by this rezoning
- Concerns about the 8,000 apartments coming to Gowanus after the neighborhood’s rezoning taken into consideration
- Why not addressing school segregation in the whole District 15 within this rezoning opportunity versus just the sub-district
- Concerns about further segregation within school buildings with the launch of new special programs like Dual Language Programs
- Concerns about the lack of funding and support by the Department of Education for this rezoning
- To decrease residential segregation and “buying into a good neighborhood school”, a bigger change than changing zone lines will be needed
- The most needed change at PS 29 and PS 58 is the reduction of class size
- While rezonings were done only for capacity reasons in the past, there is a powerful opportunity to desegregate local schools with this rezoning
- Why not postponing the rezoning to better engage and define a successful plan
The next meeting is planned for Thursday, June 20 at 6:30 p.m. CEC15 Special Session Meeting. CEC15 and the Office of District Planning invites you to attend a community meeting on the Rezoning of P.S. 32 and SubDistrict 3. More details to follow. Location: P.S. 32
Affected families with their oldest kids entering Kindergarten in school year 20/21 or later are asked to provide feedback at upcoming meetings in person or per email:
- [email protected]
- D15 Superintendent: [email protected]
- Office of District Planning [email protected]
