Though intermediate school long planned for B15 tower (Dean/6th), NYC now seeks to relocate Design Works H.S. & smaller middle school (+ special needs program)

NYC DOE, 2017, cites middle school

An Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park school was long conceptualized--and explained in official documents--as a middle school, or a hybrid of elementary and intermediate schools, which would respond to the increase in population introduced by the project.

After all, it's long been known in planning departments, from the School Construction Authority (SCA) and Department of Education (DOE), as I.S. 653, or Intermediate School 653, to be located in the base of the B15 tower. See image at right.

That tower, aka Plank Road, has a residential address of 662 Pacific Street and a school address of 491 Dean Street.

New plan

However, the DOE now sees the 806-seat K653 it as not just a solution to a small, crowded existing intermediate school (M.S. 915; Bridges: a School of Exploration and Equity) in Downtown Brooklyn, but more so the permanent home of the new Design Works High School, which for its launch was  temporarily sited into a Downtown Brooklyn space intended for an elementary school.

Design Works, which opened in the 2023-2024 school year, was developed in collaboration with Bank Street College of Education and The Pratt Institute. 

As Chalkbeat reported last June, its mission is "to create socially conscious design professionals." (Hm, could they study Atlantic Yards?)

That move, which would also include space for a small program for middle-school students with special needs, would happen in September 2024, assuming approval by schools officials.

That raises questions about where, when, and how school capacity would be bolstered if and when Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--seven or eight more towers--is completed. 

(Note that the school at the B15 site was delayed numerous times, then projected for September 2025, and now would be a year "early.") 

Looking south from Sixth Avenue near Pacific Street

Public hearing Jan. 22

A Joint Public Hearing regarding the proposals--the proposed re-siting of the high school and, separately, the re-siting of the other two school programs--will be held Monday, Jan. 22, at 6 pm by teleconference. 

As reported Dec. 28 by the Brooklyn Eagle, numerous public officials have signed on to the proposals, noting that M.S. 915 currently shares the George Westinghouse campus with two high schools and that Design Works High School deserves its own space.

The latter move, noted Council Member Lincoln Restler, would provide space for a long-awaited elementary school at Albee Square West. (The Downtown Brooklyn rezoning, which anticipated new office space rather than residential towers, scanted planning for schools.)

Restler was joined in a letter to school officials by colleagues Crystal Hudson, Chi Ossé, Shahana Hanif, as well as three state legislators and Rep. Nydia Velázquez.  (I previously reported the possibility of M.S. 915 moving to Prospect Heights, but not the high school.)

This contrasts with the 2015 advocacy from a somewhat different set of legislators, along with leaders of local parent-teacher organizations, for M.S. OneBrooklyn, a new public middle school focused on arts and culture, as well as a "comprehensive science, technology, engineering and math" (STEM) curriculum.

Potential enrollment

City documents project the following potential population at the new school--ultimately 400 high school students and 270 junior high school students, plus 9-16 special needs students-- at least if both proposals are approved.

Notably, Design Works High School would start with only two grades, and phase in additional grades over the next two school years. 

P369K, also known as The Coy L. Cox School, is a K-12 school for students with special needs. "The preponderance of our student population consists of students with Autism and students with Emotional Disturbances," the website states. 

It operates at several locations, and only the middle school students who share some classes with M.S. 915 would move to the Prospect Heights building.

If only the high school move were approved, the building, known as K653, would ultimately have a projected enrollment of about 400 sutdents, about half the capacity, as shown in the chart below.

Comment period

In addition to the Joint Public Hearing, comments may be filed by leaving a voicemail at 212- 374-0208 or emailing D13Proposals@schools.nyc.gov.

All comments received by at by 6 pm on Feb. 26--24 hours before a Panel for Educational Policy (PEP)  meeting will be included in the Public Comment Analysis, to be made available on the DOE website after 6 pm on Feb. 26.

Panel vote Feb. 27

The proposals must be approved by the PEP on Feb. 27, in a meeting at 6 p.m. at Prospect Heights Educational Campus, at 883 Classon Avenue. Online access to the meeting will open up at 5:30 pm.

Speaker sign-up in-person will run from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.

The rationale

According to a DOE Educational Impact Statement (bottom), the schools would share common spaces, such as auditoriums, gymnasiums, libraries, and cafeterias. K653 is more centrally located than Westinghouse, the document states, since it's closer to a number of elementary schools and 0.2 miles from a major public transportation hub.

The new K653 would "provide an appropriate long-term space and amenities for Design Works, including a cafeteria, a gymatorium, a gymnasium, an outdoor play yard, a rooftop play yard, a science room, and a library."

P369K@K915 is an inclusive education program affiliated with M.S. 915, so students take some classes with general education students at M.S. 915 and receive special education programs and services as recommended on their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) from P.S. K369.

Community engagement

Previous community engagement included an M.S. 915 School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting, a Design Works SLT meeting, and a Community Education Council (CEC) 13 meeting. 

Along with the announced public meetings, the NYCDOE will provide additional public engagement opportunities, including:

• An optional community meeting where NYCDOE representatives meet with the school communities, held prior to the Joint Public Hearing at the request of the school communities;
• Opportunities for ongoing dialogue with impacted communities, which could include small stakeholder meetings, working group meetings, community forums, and parent and SLT meetings

Presumably residents nearby the school want to know more about plans for drop-offs, exit, and teacher/staff parking. 

At the periodic--previously bi-monthly--Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meetings, they had been promised a presentation by the Department of Education prior to the school opening. 

Atlantic Yards mitigation

As stated in the June 2014 Second Memorandum of Environmental Commitments for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, as "mitigation for the projected significant adverse impact to the supply of elementary and intermediate school seats," the developer, then Forest City Ratner, was supposed to construct, within a new tower, "approximately 100,000 gross square foot elementary and intermediate public school of contiguous space,

"It is likely that the School will be located in the lower floors of Building 15," the document said. "In the event that an alternative location is selected, the School site shall be one of the other residential parcels located east of 6th Avenue."

Similarly, as described in the Project Description chapter of the June 2014 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS):

Additionally, to partially mitigate the significant adverse impact on public schools identified in the 2006 FEIS [Final EIS], the project sponsors have committed to provide, at the election of the New York City Department of Education (DOE), adequate space for the construction and operation of a 100,000 gsf elementary and intermediate school in the base of one of the Phase II residential buildings. 

Chapter 4B of the SEIS, regarding Community Facilities, drills down further into projected enrollment and the deficit of school seats.

It projected a shortfall of seats at elementary and intermediate schools within the 1⁄2-mile study area, noting that the buildout of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park was expected to introduce approximately 2,712 students to the project site, comprising 1,430 elementary school students, 592 intermediate school students, and 690 high school students. 

The new school would partly mitigate that impact.

However, "Brooklyn high schools would operate with surplus capacity," so the buildout of the project "would not result in any significant adverse impacts on high schools." 

Whether or not that remains accurate, it's clear that Design Works High School, founded after that document was issued, does not operate with surplus capacity.