By Joyce Szuflita
The PAR Team recommended that the vote for rezoning be moved to late winter or spring. With the deadline for fall 2021 kindergarten coming up on Jan. 19, 2021, the recommendation is that any re-zoning plan go into effect for the 2022-23 school year.
The map for the re-zoning will be publicized in the new year, in line with vote.
One aspect of the possible proposal is to transition PS 676 to a middle school.
That’s all she wrote for now.
Updated 12/22
By Joyce Szuflita
You are not necessarily zoned to the elementary school that is closest to you. Almost everyone only has one zoned school. There are many zoned schools within a district, but you don’t have the same priority access to all of them. You are not guaranteed a seat in your zoned school at kindergarten. That is too strong a word, although the DoE will make every effort to place you in your zoned school and in most cases it is wildly likely that there will be a seat for you.
The DoE’s website is here. I recommend that you use Google Chrome (seems to be the least glitchy search engine for this).
Most parents will start and end with the “Enrollment” tab, although there is a wealth of information buried in here in many different tabs. I particularly like “About Us”: “Insights and Reporting” and “School Planning”.
By Joyce Szuflita
First, as many of you know, the rezoning plan for Bococa including PS 15, 29, 32, 38, 58, 261 and 676 has been postponed to distribute information more deeply and engage the community in the planning. As far as we know the current zoned lines will be in place for 20/21 admission season. So all of you with 2015 bday kids applying for kindergarten - it will be business as usual.
Any changes will be made in the fall/winter of 2020 and take effect for kids entering the schools in fall of 2021. Any students currently attending the school at that time in K-5th grade will be unaffected by the rezoning and can remain in the school even if their home zoning status changes.
The District has announced that there will be a new rezoning effort made in Sunset Park
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By Joyce Szuflita
First, this map, which you can see in detail in the presentation materials is NOT final. It is very much a work in progress and may have little to no bearing on the final proposal. There are two proposals being floated; rezoning with set asides for accommodating economic diversity, and a non-zoned ‘sub-district’ plan. There is also still room for other options. The timeline is also in question.
To make this work for kindergarteners who have to apply to programs by mid Jan. the DoE has to really get moving. After they present a final plan there needs to be a little over a month of public discussion before the D15 CEC will vote to approve or not. There has been talk of a possible temporary plan (PS 32 will have capacity for an additional 436 seats in their new addition beginning in the 2020-21 school year). There has also been talk of continuing the community outreach and debate about the best way to accomplish the goals and put off the rezoning until next year.
I stayed for the break out discussions and my group was solidly advocating for the unzoned subdistrict plan because of their passionate support of the need for diversity. I think the discussions in the room were very wide ranging. You can read Chalkbeat’s very good article on the meeting here.
By Joyce Szuflita
Those of you who live in the part of Brooklyn Heights located in D15, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook, you need to be aware of this now (zones 261, 29, 38, 58, 32 15 and 676). I don’t want to hear -and I will- about how you were surprised by the rezoning plan in the fall and how fast this went down. It is way more transparent than I have seen with previous rezoning, with much more attempt at public engagement. Engage now! When you drag your feet, it is not their fault. There have been three public meetings so far (since April) and there will be several more, gathering parent feedback as well as informing the neighborhood. If you aren’t participating or staying aware, I don’t want to hear complaining.
Whether you are there or not, one of these things is going to go down. It would be better if you had a say. You may not get what you want, but you may get what you need - Mick Jagger
Read MoreBy Joyce Szuflita
From time to time, the Chancellor's Regulations are adjusted, and they make for pretty interesting reading (at least to me). I am interested mainly in Volume A which addresses student-related issues, from admissions to promotion. Issues covered range from safety, behavior and discipline, flea markets, transportation and naming public schools.
By Joyce Szuflita
We have been waiting for word on several changes that are expected to land on the neighborhoods (particularly Park Slope) before the new year. It appears that the DoE is flying some trial balloons. Let me stress that nothing is set in stone yet! This should be decided by Jan. of 2013.
Here are the players: District 15 schools that are full to bursting (321, 39, 107)
District 13 school, PS 133, that is getting a brand new and lovely, large building on 4th Ave. and Butler on the border of Gowanus and Park Slope - is moving back to that new building in the fall of 2013
St. Thomas Aquinas School building on 4th Ave. and 8th St. where the students from PS 133 are being housed until their new building is done, will be vacant for a new program in fall of 2013.
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