Babak Ghahremanpour

Parents at PS 282 in Park Slope are hoping to block a city plan to put an Arabic-language middle school within their elementary school.

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Park Slope parents exploded at Department of Education officials who hope to squeeze a new Arabic-language middle school into the elementary-level PS 282 building on Sixth Avenue.

The up-and-coming elementary school already houses 600 students, from pre-K through fifth grade, and parents say it can’t hold many more.

“We’ll lose space, we’ll lose services, and we’ll lose safety,” said Parent Teacher Association President Xiomara Fraser, whose son is a fourth-grader at PS 282.

“We would rather they give us the option of putting our own sixth graders back here…if they think there’s enough space,” added Fraser. “That creates continuity.”

Fraser’s concerns were echoed by dozens of parents at the March 12 PTA meeting, where the city unveiled its plan amid widespread indignation that the Khalil Gibran International Academy hadn’t been drafted with any consultation from the community.

The day after that raucous meeting, parents Jennifer Bacon Fossati and Filippo Fossati sent Schools Chancellor Joel Klein a letter complaining that the Arab-language and culture school would “invade” PS 282 with a program that “is an abdication of the basic principle behind public education [by setting] up separate schools to teach uncritically one history and one culture.”

The letter cited a report published on www.MilitantIslamMonitor.org that referred to the Gribran Academy as a “Jihad school.”

The academy, which would be the city’s first dedicated to Arabic language and culture studies, is being run by Debbie Almontaser, a native of Yemen who is a 15-year veteran of the school system.

The Gibran school would have only a sixth-grade class next year, but eventually house 81 students in grades sixth through eight.

The PS 282 PTA has sprung into action to combat the plan, and was set to rally on Friday.

“[The Department of Education] couldn’t answer any questions at all, [like] who decided on this school, and where the security will come from,” said Fraser.

Her outrage was echoed by Dolores Louison.

“This is totally unacceptable,” said Louison. “We fought hard for our science lab, our computer lab, our music room, our art room. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this will change things for the worse.”

The PTA has found a champion in Councilman David Yassky (D–Park Slope), who told The Brooklyn Paper that the plan was “a mistake and would be very harmful to efforts to help that school grow.”

The Department of Education Web site claims that the school is only at 63 percent capacity.

“We wish every new school in the city could have its own building, but we rarely have the luxury of sufficient space and money,” said Melody Meyer, an Education Department spokeswoman.

The school is named for Gibran, a beloved Lebanese Christian poet.

©2007 Community Newspaper Group