The Department of Education has issued notices regarding the proposed split of PS 8’s middle school MS 8 and lower school PS 8 which has been discussed within the school community for a few years.
P.S. 8 Robert Fulton is a district school currently serving students in grades K to 8. The lower school serves students in grades K to 5 at PS 8 located at 37 Hicks Street and students in grades 6 to 8 at MS 8 located at 105 Tech Place in Downtown Brooklyn.
The DOE is proposing to truncate grades 6 to 8 to address the operational and programmatic challenges of being split-sited including some staff and administrators traveling between the two site and for budgetary reasons.
If both proposals are approved, the new district middle school will open in the space previously occupied by MS 8 next school year 2019/2020. The new district middle school is projected to serve 315 to 345 students.
Current P.S. 8 students in grades 4 and 5 will receive priority to the new middle school through the middle school admissions process. Students in grade 5 at P.S. 8 in the 2020/2021 school year and beyond will no longer have this priority.
Upcoming community meetings for parents:
- October 30, at 6 PM at The George Westinghouse Campus, 105 Tech Place
- November 19 at 6 PM at The George Westinghouse Campus, 105 Tech Place
- November 20 at 6 PM at PS 8, 37 Hicks Street
This proposal is not expected to have an impact on enrollment, administrative staff, programming or extra-curricular activities at the PS 8 elementary school. The DOE expects the PS 8 elementary school to continue to operate at over capacity in the next years.
Both proposals must be voted on and approved by the Panel on Education Policy (PEP) prior to implementation. The school anticipates that the PEP will vote on several proposals, including these two, on November 28 at 6 PM at Long Island City High School, located at 14-30 Broadway, Astoria.
Find out more here.
