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FORT GREENE — Parents at an elementary school being considered as the permanent site for New York City's first Arabic-themed school say they are against the idea.
P.S. 287 PTA President Edgardo Rivera told Department of Education officials at Wednesday's PTA meeting that parents don't want older children at their Fort Greene school, according to the Associated Press. P.S. 287 is located at 50 Navy St., near the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
While the New York City Department of Education says it is happy to consider parents' feeling in this matter, the PTA's argument doesn't appear to hold water. P.S. 287 currently shares its building — without complaint — with the High School for Law and Justice, slated to move into the Family Court Building on Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn this September.
"We are considering P.S. 287 as a long term site for Khalil Gibran International Academy," DOE spokesperson Melody Meyer told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle yesterday.
She expressed puzzlement with P.S. 287's sudden aversion to older students in the school building. "An important detail has been overlooked," she said. "The school currently shares space with a high school, the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, which is moving into the renovated Family Court Building.
"We have been talking with the School Leadership Team since early February," Meyer said. "For two or three weeks there's been no issue; everything was fine until yesterday. The PTA president was part of our conversation from the beginning. He [Edgardo Rivera] invited the Department of Education to the regularly scheduled PTA meeting to answer questions."
PTA President Rivera did not return a call for comment by press time.