BK School Rezone Could Let Parents Choose An Elementary School

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A rezoning of some of District 15's elementary schools could mean getting rid of the zoning lines altogether, city officials said last week.

Representatives from the city's Office of District Planning proposed two ways to change up the zones set up to determine which elementary students go to which school last Thursday to the education council for District 15, which extends from Carroll Gardens down to Sunset Park.

The rezoning, first brought up in November, aims to help with overcrowding in the district and was in part prompted by 436 new elementary seats that are being added to P.S 32 in Carroll Gardens. It will specifically deal with seven school zones around P.S. 32 in Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens.

One of the options includes redrawing the zones around the seven schools so that the populations in each are more even while the other proposes letting parents apply to any school they'd like, regardless of the zone.

The presentation came after months of gathering community feedback about the rezoning, which in either case won't be put in place until the 2020-21 school year. District 15 Community Education Council will need to vote on which of the two options it would like to implement within 45 days.

Here's a look a closer look at the two proposals:

Keep Individual Zones

The first option the education officials came up with would be to redraw the zones so that five of the seven schools would see a change to their population size.

For three of the schools this would mean an increase to their kindergarten student population and for two it would mean a drop in the kindergarteners. The other two schools, P.S. 261 and P.S. 15, would go unchanged.

The two schools marked for a decrease are the two schools in District 15 that have the most overcrowding.

Officials said back in November that P.S. 29 has about 200 students more than its 761-seat capacity and P.S. 58, which has nearly 300 more students than its 765-seat limit. Under this plan, the current 193-student kindergarten class at P.S. 58 and the 153-student kindergarten class at P.S. 29 would both be brought down to about 100.

The proposal accounts for the district's goal of creating more diversity in the elementary schools by redrawing some of the zones so they can accommodate out-of-zone students who live in temporary housing, are learning English as their second language or qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, officials said.

The ultimate goal is to have these students account for 25 to 35 percent of the students at each school.

"Shared Zone"

Perhaps the most drastic of the two options is the second approach, which would eliminate these zoning lines and instead create a "shared zone" where families from any of the neighborhoods apply to the school of their choice.

Students would still be entitled to a seat at one of the schools, but can pick which of the seven they want to attend, officials said.

This option would mean the different schools would be responsible for ensuring diversity within their schools. The admissions process would give priority for 25 to 35 percent of the seats to students who live in temporary housing, are learning English as their second language or qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.