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Parents to Get Peek at New Park Slope School

By Leslie Albrecht | January 21, 2013 1:48pm

PARK SLOPE — Parents will get a sneak peek at Park Slope's brand new elementary school on Tuesday night.

P.S. 118, the new K-5 school opening inside the former St. Thomas Aquinas school building at 211 Eighth St. and Fourth Avenue, will host an open house for families eager to see the facilities.

The new school was created to help ease the space crunch at overcrowded P.S 321, the zone of which will shrink this fall. P.S. 118 will serve families who live between Third and Fifth avenues, from President Street to Sixth Street (the block of Seventh Street between Third and Fourth avenues will also be in the new zone.)

Some parents were bitterly disappointed to be cut out of the zone for high-performing P.S. 321, and they've vowed to make P.S. 118 "as desirable" as P.S. 321. Parents have already formed a group, Founding Families of P.S. 118, that will become the school's PTA when it opens in the fall.

The new school's principal, Elizabeth Garraway, is scheduled to attend the open house. Garraway is currently an assistant principal at P.S. 321.

P.S. 118 is expected to hold up to 50 kindergarten students divided into two sections, according to the Department of Education. The total capacity for the new school is just 229 students, according to the DOE. The Aquinas building is currently housing P.S. 133, which will move to a new building this fall.

The zone for P.S. 118 includes many non-residential buildings, but the Department of Education estimates that it's home to 50 or 60 kindergarten students. Once primarily an industrial area, the neighborhood has seen a boom in residential development. Plans are underway for a new six-unit apartment building on Carroll Street, and a luxury residential developer recently purchased a warehouse a block outside the new school zone.

The open house at P.S. 118 runs from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at 211 Eighth St. and Fourth Avenue.