Academy of Arts & Letters May Move To Bed-Stuy: Report

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — The Academy of Arts & Letters may be moving to Bed-Stuy, Chalkbeat reported Tuesday.

The Department of Education would relocate the school as a way to give it more space as well as to promote integration, according to Chalkbeat. Arts & Letters— which currently shares space with P.S. 20— would merge with P.S. 305. under the plan, the publication reported.

While Arts & Letters and P.S. 20. are both overcrowded, Bed-Stuy's P.S. 305 is significantly under capacity, according to DOE data, meaning it can absorb more students.

In recent months, a working group of parents and school staff from the schools have been devising proposals that would take effect the next school year, Chalkbeat reported. And in a letter signed by the principals of the three schools, the working group weighed their options for the future of the trio of institutions.

"The working group concluded that, within the parameters of the possible scenarios presented to us, the best way forward is for Arts & Letters to merge with P.S. 305 in building K305 beginning in the 2020-2021 school year," the group wrote in the letter, published late last month on NYC School Help. “We believe this plan would help grow enrollment, strengthen programmatic offerings, expand resources, and promote diversity and integration.”

Still, there are details in the relocation plan that need to be ironed out, the group argued.

“There are lots of questions that still need to be asked and answered,” the letter reads. “Many of the questions are common across all three of our schools like ‘What will happen next?’ ‘When will I get a chance to voice my thoughts?’ ‘How will my school community change?’ and ‘Will the schools be funded so as to thrive with this move and merger?’”

Joyce Szuflita, a school admission consultant who runs the blog that published the letter, was warm to the plan.

"I think this sounds like a great solution," she wrote on her site. "A merge helps A&L find a new permanent home and it help bring thoughtful attention and popular muscle to 305, a local school that is drastically under-enrolled."