Plans to close a Crown Heights school were postponed Wednesday night during a Panel for Education Policy meeting after school community members told the panel they were not part of the decision made by the Department of Education.
During a tense night at Wednesday's PEP meeting at Sunset Park High School, parents, teachers and the principal spoke out against the DOE's plan to close P.S./M.S. 394 and replace it with a new school for students with literacy difficulties.
The DOE announced their plan in October during a School Leadership Team meeting, which caught the tight-knit Crown Heights community off guard, according to P.S./M.S. 394 Parent Teacher Association President Aliza Ellison.
"We were upset because our kids was being put out, we didn't have [a] say, the [DOE] didn't come out to the community to see if we even wanted the school over here," she said.
Ellison said the new proposed school, Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy, was going to start with second- and third-grade classes. This meant current P.S./M.S. 394's students, from Pre-K to 8th grade, would be unable to attend the academy and would have to go elsewhere.
Leon Gidron, a parent who attended the PEP meeting, said the new school seemed like "a good and fair" program but didn't understand why it had to replace the existing school.
"Why remove kids when you can combine the program with the kids who's already there. They can benefit from the program as well," he said.
The DOE said low enrollment was the primary reason for the closure. The school had 200 students across 11 grades, and the overall population declined by 40% over the past five years, according to DOE Deputy Press Secretary Chyann Tull.
"Moving forward with a closure allows students to move to schools that will provide them with a well-rounded education," Tull said. "A co-location is not an option because there isn't sufficient space to adequately serve every school."
Erika Kendall, the president of Community Education Council (CEC) 17, which serves Crown Heights, said she visited the Literacy Academy Collective, currently open in the Bronx, a few times and was impressed by it.
"I have also spoken with families about their experiences with the school and am hopeful about what this can represent for Brooklyn," she said.
For many Crown Heights residents, closing the school is not only about disrupting their children's education, it is about closing a community that some have close ties to. Ellison is a former student and her four eldest children attended the school; her youngest is a current seventh grader.
"We have people who aren't from the community," telling us what to do, said Gidron. "They don't even come visit the community, [and they're] trying to tell us what's best for us and our kids. To me, that makes no sense. For you to know what's best for us, you have to be a part of us. You have to be involved."
Impassioned pleas to keep the school open went on for about an hour during the PEP meeting. Even Principal Sojourner Welch-David, who said she was not included in the closure plans despite being a DOE veteran of 28 years, pleaded for principals to have "the seat at the table so they're not standing here like me."
Both Kendall and Superintendent Shenean Lindsay spoke in support of the bringing in the new school, though were heckled by some members from M.S. 394. In the end, PEP members noted the need for more literacy-focused schools, but expressed concern that the school was not included in the discussion to bring one to Brooklyn.
Kendall said the CEC will hold the DOE accountable for further community engagement, but said she will continue to push for the creation of the Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy.
By the end of the night, Ellison, Gidron and Goodwin said they were satisfied with the outcome.
"[Wednesday] night felt like a heavyweight fight," Gidron said. "That's not how education should be. Education should be everybody coming together."
