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Brooklyn School Rezoning Battle Has Some Parents Fearing DUMBO Rich Kid Takeover
By
Emma Whitford
Published Nov 24, 2015
Modified Nov 24, 2015
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Emma Whitford/Gothamist
By
Emma Whitford
Published Nov 24, 2015
Modified Nov 24, 2015
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The Department of Education is standing by a rezoning proposal that would require predominantly white, upper-middle-class, bursting-at-the-seams PS 8 to move DUMBO students to PS 307—a school that is currently under capacity, and predominantly serves African-American residents of the NYCHA-run Farragut Houses in Vinegar Hill.
However, in an effort to appease concerns that redrawing the lines would leave the tight-knit Farragut Houses community outnumbered inside its own school—and turn low-income students into the minority in their own community—the DOE has proposed giving admission priority for half of the seats in each class to students receiving free or reduced lunch.
There's a further stipulation to the plan, though—students living within the newly redrawn PS 307 zone would have priority over those living outside of the zone, including outside students who qualify for free lunch. As a magnet school, PS 307 currently attracts some students from neighboring Fort Greene, Bed-Stuy and Downtown Brooklyn. According to the Brooklyn Paper, 85% of those students are low-income.
PS 307 PTA President Faraji Hannah-Jones fears that the DOE's proposal would not adequately protect the school's long-standing community, since high-rise development in DUMBO continues to spike the population of well-off families within the proposed PS 307 zone.
According to Office of District Planning data, 162 kindergarteners live in the PS 8 zone, compared to just 17 in PS 307's zone. Based on the department's projections, the new zoning would balance the numbers: 102 at PS8 and 77 at PS 307. If a bulk of those students come from DUMBO, the rezoning could change PS 307's demographics considerably.
"When we said 50 percent, we didn't say 50 percent with conditions," Hannah-Jones said at a Community Education Council Meeting on Monday. "We said 50 percent, period.... We don't want PS 307 to become PS 8."
The Council now has 45 days to vote on the DOE rezoning proposal, which PS 8's PTA has already endorsed. If they reject it, PS 307 and PS 8's zones will remain unchanged for now.
A spokeswoman for the DOE confirmed that even if the rezoning goes into effect for the 2016-17 school year, a quota system would not be instated until 2017.
"The DOE is committed to working with the CEC and District 13 community to ensure that the rezoning process is inclusive of all partners," the DOE said in a statement. "We’re encouraged by the progress and collaboration taking place, and we’ll continue to engage both school communities, families, community members and elected officials with meaningful conversations during the duration of this process."
Earlier this fall, we spoke with a current PS 307 teacher on condition of anonymity, since PS 307's principal has asked faculty to decline interview requests for the duration of the rezoning debate.
A teacher in the community for 18 years, she's been involved in the PTA since the 1970s, when her five children were young. She's lived in the Farragut Houses for decades, and said that watching DUMBO grow, she's felt a sense of unease and unwelcome in her own neighborhood.
"We're now the undesirables, but we were here before," she said, referencing the arrival of bike lanes and the expansion of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, even as her sons have experience an uptick in police harassment. "It's almost like we came into their space."
Last week, the DOE dropped an equally-controvoersial rezoning plan on the Upper West Side, tabling the issue of overcrowding at elite PS 199 until further notice.
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brooklyn heights
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dumbo
farragut houses
rezoning
Vinegar Hill
Emma Whitford
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