Score one for parents in Brooklyn Heights.
Thanks to parents’ lobbying, the city Department of Education (DOE) has agreed to build an annex for P.S. 8, located at 37 Hicks Street.
The building, which will be constructed in the school’s parking lot, will accommodate 150 students, thereby alleviating overcrowding at P.S. 8.
“It’s great news,” said Nancy Webster, who will have three children at the school in September. “P.S. 8 has experienced the fruit of its own success. More and more children are wanting to go there and so the school has experienced the pains of growth, namely overcrowding. A new annex is going to address that.”
In April, P.S. 8’s principal met with parents to discuss the ramifications of overcrowding. He said the school was so cramped that a popular pre-k program would be eliminated to free up space. But parents opposed the plan and called for an annex to be built. Ultimately, the DOE agreed to place two portable classroom units, commonly known as trailers, in the school’s parking lot beginning this September.
Now that there are plans to construct an annex, only one trailer will be placed in the parking lot. It will remain there until the annex opens in 2011.
P.S. 8 Principal Seth Phillips is grateful that not only will an annex be constructed but the pre-k program will remain in place.
“We look forward to a new addition to accommodate our growing enrollment,” he said.
“Success and growth usually go hand-in-hand and it’s no different in P.S. 8’s case,” said Tim Eldridge, co-president of the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). “More and more parents in our community want their children to go to P.S. 8 thanks to its well-deserved, excellent reputation. I’m sure most of them will be pleased to learn that the city is investing in expanded teaching space and enhancements to the facilities available for their children.”
