For the second time, a proposed Arabic language academy is being rebuffed by parents at a school chosen to house it.
Parents at the topnotch Math and Science Exploratory School in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, have called an “emergency PTA meeting” for Monday over plans to put the Khalil Gibran International Academy at its campus at 345 Dean St.
“Our issue is not with the substance of the school. It’s with the space,” said PTA Vice President Thomas McMahon. “If those concerns could be met, we are willing to work to make the new school a success.”
“There’s definitely a space issue,” agreed Katia Lief, who has a seventh-grader at the well-regarded middle school. “This can cause overcrowding and chaos. If parents can be heard, maybe there can be some kind of result.”
Department of Education representatives are expected to attend Monday’s meeting.
The academy originally was slated to share the campus of Public School 282 in Park Slope. But parents there also protested, citing a space crunch.
Education officials last week pulled the program from PS 282, then on Wednesday, announced the new Boerum Hill site, which also houses the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.
The academy is to open in September with up to 60 sixth-graders. In announcing the new site, education officials said they were “confident” all three schools could share the campus.
