Parents Form Group to Make New K-5 School as Hot as P.S. 321

There’s a new school in town, and parents are gearing up for it to be P.S. 321, part deaux. After the Department of Education's recent school rezoning proposal passed, some Park Slope homeowners and renters who purposely bought or found places in P.S. 321’s district were pretty pissed. No longer would their beloved offspring be eligible for the coveted K-5 school. They'll now be sent to a yet-to-be-named school in the St. Thomas Aquinas building on 8th Ave and 4th Street.

But alas, Park Slope parents do not fuck around.

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P.S. 10 May Have to Cut Pre-K Because of School Rezoning

Pic by Anthony Delmundo, from the New York Daily News

It's been just another normal, controversial weekend in Park Slope!

In case you been living under the Gowanus Canal, allow me to fill you in. On November 28, the Department of Ed passed all that rezoning biznatch in our hood, which basically means that parents who paid a shit ton of money in certain areas of Park Slope JUST so their kids could go to a particular school are screwed because now their kids have to go elsewhere. Some people are thrilled about the decision and yes, some people are livid.

It all started when the Department of Ed proposed to shrink down P.S. 321 and P.S. 107s' zones because there was some serious overcrowding issues in those two buildings. How serious, you ask? According to the Daily News, P.S. 321, with 1,402 students, was operating at a building utilization rate of 128%, and P.S. 107 with 555 students was operating with 158% utilization rate. So you do the math. 

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District 15's Rezoning Proposal Has Been Approved, Angry Park Slope Parent Group LIkely to form in retaliation (right?)

Since most of the FiPS staff is childless, it's not often that we attend school-related meetings in the neighborhood. So when it came time to see how District 15's Community Education Council voted and approved on a rezoning plan designed to make crowded Park Slope schools less of a clusterfuck, we turned to Twitter for the results.

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"You Are Insulting My Integrity," and other declarations made at the most recent school rezoning meeting

THINGS GETTING HEATED / Photo via Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Oh, good gravy.

If you haven't yet read the New York Times article about the Park Slope School Rezoning Meeting held a couple of weeks ago, you should toss a bag of popcorn into the microwave right now and click on over there. We've written about the controversial rezoning plan time and time again, but in short: P.S. 321 and P.S 107 might be subject to rezoning, and some Brooklyn residents are pissed because of things like diversity, real estate values and some dude named Jim Devore, who sounds like he just might be one Snackable shy of a full lunch-box.

The NYT article reads like a great You-Can't-Handle-the-Truth!-esque drama, replete with loud outbursts and the appearance of officers to calm the sitch. Here are a few highlights that I found particularly noteworthy:

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The Deparment of Education Has unleashed yet another rezoning proposal for park slope schools

Remember when the Rezoning Proposal for P.S. 39, 10, 321 and 107 was announced, and lots of parents who had bought real estate in SPECIFIC neighborhoods JUST so their kids could go to SPECIFIC schools got REALLY MAD?

In light of all the bitching, the Department of Education announced a new rezoning plan yesterday that should appease some of those who are P-O'd. Via DNA Info, "The newly proposed P.S. 321 zone eliminates 13 blocks between Fifth Avenue and Third Avenue running from President Street to Sixth Street between Third and Fourth avenues, and President Street to Fifth Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. Families in that area would send their kids to a newly created elementary school set to open next year in the former St. Thomas Aquinas school building at 211 Eighth St. and Fourth Avenue."

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