We believe part of the BHA’s job is to alert the community to problems while they’re still solvable. This one demands our particular attention…and yours.

“Catastrophic” is the word we’re hearing from parents and nursery school directors to describe what is happening with the increasing numbers of pre-school aged children being turned away from local nursery schools. Every pre-school in Brooklyn Heights (there are seven) reports considerably more applicants than spaces, as well as increases in applications over last year.

Parents applying to private nursery schools and PS 8’s pre-K are being told not to bother unless they already have an older sibling at the school. Even then, there are more siblings than there are places. PS 8 may be forced to give up its pre-K classes in order to free up the rooms for bulging K-5 classes.

Nothing erodes a community more than the absence of school choices and we are deeply concerned about this problem, which does not end with nursery school. The bulge in pre-school applications gets worse going up the age ladder into elementary schools. Existing schools, PS 8 included, lack the space within their buildings to grow. Without a doubt, the neighborhood, with all its peripheral growth, could fill a new school if we had one.

This is a major issue, the kind that will need the full force of the community and its elected officials to solve. Councilman Yassky and the PS 8 Task Force are already fully engaged. The BHA will use all its energy and advocacy experience to help work things out. We invite, no, we urge you to get behind the effort. Watch our website for regular updates.