From Inside Schools:
Parents raise concerns about Arabic school’s new home
A week after giving up on their attempt to place a new dual-language Arabic school in a Park Slope elementary school, Department of Education (DOE) officials came under fire last night at an emergency meeting at the building now slated to take in the school.The PTA at MS 447, the Math and Science Exploratory School, in Boerum Hill called the meeting after learning that the new school, Khalil Gibran International Academy, will occupy space in the Sarah J. Hale building, which MS 447 already shares with the Brooklyn High School of the Arts (BHSA), beginning in September.
More than 100 parents were joined by a host of school and community leaders, including Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, City Council member David Yassky, and Garth Harries, the CEO of the Office of New Schools, as well as by a few outside agitators aiming to stir alarm about Khalil Gibran’s focus on Arabic culture.
The meeting underscored parents’ anger at the DOE’s pattern of announcing plans without first soliciting parent opinion and by the way that schools are routinely asked to share space with new schools, sometimes compromising their own programs.
“[The] DOE doesn’t have the greatest record lately of really listening to parents,” said Jill Harris, a representative from City Council member Bill de Blasio’s office.
According to a letter to parents from MS 447 Principal Lisa Gioe-Cordi, currently on maternity leave, the school first learned it was being considered as an option for Khalil Gibran at the end of April. On May 8 the decision to place the new school in the building was announced, before school officials could consult parents about the plan. “The school administration was not given a say in the DOE’s decision,” Gioe-Cordi wrote.
Khalil Gibran will occupy the building for two years, using two classrooms and one office space in its first year and two additional classrooms in its second year, DOE officials said. At most, the plan would introduce 120 new students into the building, they said, although the New York Times noted that Khalil Gibran has yet to enroll a single student for its first year.