A proposed Arab-themed public school is facing new questions from parents at a school that is supposed to host it, after it was shut out of another school because of similar concerns.
The Khalil Gibran International Academy is set to open in September. It is to spend its first two years sharing a building with the Brooklyn High School of the Arts and the Math & Science Exploratory School, a middle school.
But parents of pupils at the middle school say they are concerned that there isn’t enough space for the Arab-themed academy, and the school PTA has scheduled a meeting Monday about the issue.
“This can cause overcrowding and chaos,” said Katia Lief, who has a seventh-grader at the math and science school.
City education department officials announced the location this week, after running into opposition to a plan to put the academy at Public School 282, a Brooklyn elementary school. PS 282 parents said sharing a building might mean fewer resources for their children.
Various other critics have claimed _ in Web sites, newspaper commentaries and other forums _ that the Arab-themed school could become a hotbed of militant Islam.
Math & Science Exploratory School parents aren’t objecting to the Khalil Gibran academy’s mission, said PTA Vice President Thomas McMahon.
“Our issue is not with the substance of the school. It’s with the space,” he said. “If those concerns could be met, we are willing to work to make the new school a success.”
Education department spokespeople did not immediate respond to telephone and e-mail messages early Saturday.
The arts high school’s principal, Robert Finley III, has said adding the school for a couple of years shouldn’t cause many problems.
The academy, named after the famed Lebanese Christian poet, is to be one of numerous small, themed public high schools in the nation’s largest school system. The school will be one of only a few nationwide that incorporate the Arabic language and Arab culture.
While offering the basic curriculum required by the city, it also will teach Arabic and integrate history and other aspects of Arab culture. City school leaders hope the academy, which will be open to students of all backgrounds, will eventually teach half of its classes in Arabic.
Plans call for enrolling an inaugural class of 60 sixth-graders. It’s still unclear where the school will move after two years, but it is expected to expand gradually to accommodate grades six through 12.
