Brooklyn Community Leaders Demand 3,500 New Seats in School District 15 by 2021

SUNSET PARK and WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN — Community Board 7 has demanded the city create 3,500 new school seats in School District 15 by 2021.

District 15 is one of Brooklyn's largest school districts, covering Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, South Slope, Windsor Terrace and most of Park Slope, Sunset Park and Borough Park.

At its Oct. 19 meeting, the full Community Board 7 board, which represents Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, made its position official in a resolution that passed with overwhelming support.

Board members estimated District 15 will need thousands of new seats to accommodate a growing population of families with kids in the area.

Their resolution also called for the city to use eminent domain "where and when appropriate" to seize private land for schools.

Several residents who attended the meeting objected to the eminent domain clause, worried the city might seize the homes of local families. But the board's chair, Daniel Murphy, defended the idea.

"This resolution is putting eminent domain back in the vocabulary," Murphy said. "We need to put pressure on city agencies, and this is an attempt to do that."

The board's district manager, Jeremy Laufer, agreed. He said that by threatening to use eminent domain, the city can bring building owners who aren't interested in selling back to the negotiating table.

As a compromise, Cesar Zuniga, who chairs the board's education committee, added the phrase "when and where appropriate" to the eminent domain clause. Zuniga said he was sure city officials wouldn't use the pretext of building schools to improperly seize privately owned land.

Here's the text of the board's final resolution, as provided to Patch by Zuniga:

Community Board 7 demands that NYC Department of Education and School Construction Authority:

1) Create at least 3500 new seats built by 2021, with shovels in the ground by Feb. 2017.
2) Use eminent domain for school construction (where and when appropriate).
3) School construction will occur on the safest and most accessible avenues in Sunset Park, east of 3rd Avenue where the need exists.
4) Create meaningful community engagement and involvement mechanism in order to have ongoing communication with NYC DOE and SCA.

In June, officials with the School Construction Authority made a presentation before Community Board 7 on converting the historic former police station at the corner 43rd Street and 4th Avenue into a new 300-seat school.

At that gathering, community opinion on the plan was split: Some locals calling for the castle-like structure to be preserved, while others argued that creating more space to teach local schoolchildren was more important than preserving an old building.

Meanwhile, a report issued this year by community group Make Space for Quality Schools in Sunset Park identified nine sites where new schools could be constructed in the neighborhood (including the old police station).

Lead photo by alamosbasement/Flickr