PS 133

I went on a tour the other day (this blog is starting quietly enough). I saw a lovely school that is being temporarily housed for 3 years in a former parochial school on 8th St. and 4th Ave. in Park Slope. PS 133 has a relatively new principal (former teacher at 29, former VP at 11) who is full of energy and ideas, particularly to develop their science program with an urban ecology focus. The school is small and comfy (two classes on a grade one of which is CTT). It has wonderful expressive artwork, a full piano lab, a class full of new guitars. I watched a Studio in the Schools dance class and a school wide reading celebration. They will move in 2012 to a brand new 935 seat school that is being built on Butler and 4th Ave. at the edge of District 13.

I also went to a meeting this morning about the future of PS 133. It was sponsored by the 5th Ave. Committee. The Office of Portfolio Planning, SCA, Community Board 6, the Butler/Baltic Block Assoc., the 78th Precinct, the PS Civic Council, Councilman Steve Levin and other local government reps including D13 CEC members and representatives from PS 133 were in attendance. They discussed construction issues that will impact local residents and then the DOE rep announced that PS 133 would remain a single school community in the building. The school population would be made up of students from the current 133 zone and 2/3 of the population would be from a rezoned section of District 15. The school will be administered by District 15. This did not go over well with the representatives from District 13 and Mr. Levin who felt that this was new information that had not been previously discussed. Mr. Levin asked that the Office of Portfolio Planning revisit this decision. I just condensed a two hour discussion to a paragraph.

There will be another meeting to follow up on these issues on Mon. June 21 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Contact the 5th Ave. Committee for confirmation and location.

So, this is an issue in flux, but a very important one for local parents. Watch this space for more information. I am curious what the District 15 CEC thinks of this? I imagine this issue will shortly be at the forefront of many D13 and D15 parents' minds. However this turns out, I recommend that any interested parents tour 133. Call their Parent Coordinator, Ahmed Dickerson 347-563-5321 to find out the date of their next open house. You may really like what you see.