Park Slope High Schools Get $500K From BP For School Safety

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Two campuses in Brooklyn became the first in the country this week to come up with and vote on ways to spend participatory budgeting money specifically to make their schools safer, the borough president announced.

John Jay School Educational Campus in Park Slope and two high schools on Grand Street in Crown Heights were awarded more than $1 million as part of Borough President Eric Adams' Participatory Budgeting program, which lets residents brainstorm and vote on how to spend a portion of city budgets. Adams is the only elected official outside of the City Council that offers Participatory Budgeting money.

This is the first time Adams, or any participatory budgeting program in the country, made money available specifically for projects focused on school safety, he said.

"Our students are directly investing in the future of their schools; this is what democracy looks like," Adams said. "My administration has continued to push the envelope in engaging Brooklynites, especially on young people, in having an active hand and voice on the decisions of their government."

The initiative was organized with. help from Legal Aid NYC, The Center for Court Innovation and PB Project, Adams added.

It was also the largest allocation given to schools in any participatory budgeting initiative, organizers said.

"This program raises the bar for student voice," said Josh Lerner, co-founder and co-executive director of PBP. "Students decided how to spend ten times more money than in any other school PB, and they also voted on policies to make a safer and more supportive school environment."

At John Jay, which includes five schools, students chose to use $400,000 of the $500,000 capital projects budget to fund bathroom renovations. The additional $100,000 will go toward new filtered drinking fountains.

The school also got to decide on $10,000 worth of expense projects, which included career day, a carnival block party, movie nights and sports clubs.

At the two Crown Heights schools — Gotham Professional Arts Academy and Acorn Community High School, students voted to spend $350,000 on a new basketball court and $150,000 on the renovation of a new all-gender bathroom. The new bathroom can be used by both schools, which share a campus, Adams said.

Expense projects at Gotham and Acorn included academic support services, bathroom supplies, games to de-stress and a shared school event they will plan in the future.

All the schools also used the initiative to authorize new policies for campus-wide clubs and to create a campus safety council, Adams said.

The Participatory Budgeting process started in January for both campuses. After brainstorming and collecting ideas, the schools narrowed them down with help from principals and the city's School Construction Authority. Votes for the winning projects were held on March 11 and March 22.

"Principals did not make these decisions, nor did the administration at DOE," Adams said. "Students decided. It's a very empowering feeling when you no longer feel as though someone is dictating to you, and it has a real impact on the future of a young person's democratic participation as well as how they interact with their peers."

A representative from the school did not immediately reply to a request for comment.