Sunset Park Parents Can Comment On Proposed 8th Avenue School

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Community members will have a chance to weigh in on a city proposal to build a new 300-seat elementary school at 4525 8th Ave. The school would serve students of the chronically overcrowded School District 15, which includes Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Gowanus, Park Slope, Sunset Park, and Windsor Terrace.

The School Construction Authority (SCA), which is in charge of new school construction, will take public comment on the project at a Jan. 25 hearing. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the office of Community Board 12, located at 5910 13th Ave.

The SCA is currently engaged in a mandatory review process concerning the 8th Ave. site, which is home to a shuttered C-Town supermarket. That review includes 45 days of public comment, along with hearings before Community Board 7 and the Community Education Council for District 15 (CEC15). An environmental review of the site must also be conducted.

At a Wednesday meeting, SCA External Affairs Manager Tamar Smith urged parents and community members who support the proposed school to come to the Jan. 25 hearing and make their opinions known to the city. Doing so, she said, will make the project more likely to move forward.

The city has not provided a timeline for when the school would open, assuming the C-Town site is approved.

For more information on the hearing, you can reach CEC15 by emailing CEC15@schools.nyc.gov, or by calling (718) 935-4267. Tamar Smith can be emailed at tsmith5@nycsca.org, or reached by phone at 718-472-8025.

And if you can't make the Jan. 25 event but would like to comment on the project anyway, you can email comments to sites@nycsca.org, or mail them to: New York School Construction Authority, 30-30 Thomson Ave., Long Island City, NY 11101, Attention: Ross J. Holden.

Pictured at top: 4525 8th Ave. Image via Google Maps.