Clinton Hill Parents Oppose Urban Assembly Academy Expansion

Public School 20 shares its Adelphi Street building with the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters. PS20 has 350 students; Arts and Letters 309 students. The two-schools share a library, auditorium, gym and cafeteria. Common areas are allocated in shifts. Current enrollment causes kindergarteners to eat lunch at 10:30 a.m., parents tell the New York Daily News.

Now, Arts and Letters hopes to expand from a 6th-to-8th-grade school into a K-to-8 school. The expansion would begin with the admission of kindergarteners next year; the additional 141 students would bring the amount of students sharing common areas at PS 20 to 800.

Parents aren't happy. They protested the expansion at Borough Hall last week, and they plan to protest again during a public hearing at the school on Nov. 20.

In its March 2010 Letter of Intent, Arts and Letters defines its reasons for expansion: "As you know, young people come to us in 6th grade from all different schools, from which they bring a variety of habits and attitudes towards learning. We believe that we need to begin working with families and children much earlier."

DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld told the New York Daily News, "Urban Assembly's middle school is very strong, and we're confident students in the elementary school will be served just as well."