Kensington's P.S. 388 Will Open in 2017 — But Who Will Go There?

KENSINGTON, BROOKLYN — P.S./I.S. 388, Kensington's newest public school, is now more than 40 percent complete, and will open by September 2017, according to a School Construction Authority (SCA) staffer — but the Department of Education has yet to decide which students the school will serve.

On Tuesday, Fred Maley, the director of external affairs for the SCA, updated the board of Community Board 12 on the project.

The school, being built at 510 Coney Island Ave., will have a capacity of 757 students and will serve pre-K through 8th grade students. According to a fact-sheet Maley distributed, the school will include a music suite, an art workroom, an art classroom, and a science lab, as well as four special education classrooms and rooms reserved for reading and speech pathology.

The gymnasium, under construction

Maley showed pictures of the school's current progress, including its "gymnatorium," a combined auditorium and gymnasium.

The future gymnatorium

Board CB12 member Yeruchim Silber, however, noted that CB12 had voted against the project before it began — not because the board is against more schools, he said, but because P.S./I.S. 388 is being constructed in school district 15, even though it is slated to serve students from district 22.

District 15 also includes Sunset Park, which is suffering from extreme school overcrowding. Coney Island Avenue is the dividing line between district 15 and district 22.

Maley said the Department of Education (DOE) will determine which districts the school will be open to after conducting a census of area students in October.

He also encouraged those at the meeting who think the school should serve district 15 to contact the Community Education Council for the district.

Maley said that it "kind of defies logic" that students in district 15 wouldn't be allowed to go to P.S./I.S. 338, considering "the local people who have put up with the construction" of the structure. However, he added that "the overriding need is from across the street."

After Maley spoke, Silber called for CB12 to send a letter to the DOE asking for the school to be opened to district 15 students. The request was approved by the board.

Pictured at top: a rendering of the future P.S./I.S. 338. Rendering and photos courtesy of the SCA.