PARK SLOPE — Let the wild rumpus start!
The official ribbon cutting for Park Slope's new elementary school, P.S. 118 — the Maurice Sendak Community School — will be held this Saturday, Sept. 21 from noon to 2 p.m. at 211 Eighth St.
Hopes are high for the new school, which was created during last year's rezoning of District 15 to ease overcrowding at nearby elementaries.
The fledgling institution has just 86 students this year — 50 kindergartners and 36 pre-K students — but 25 parents turned out to organize the ribbon cutting.
"We've come together as a community," said dad Matthew Didner.
He and other parents launched a fundraising campaign almost as soon as the school was created. They hosted a series of events over the winter, spring and summer so P.S. 118 families could get to know each other.
The effort paid off on the first day of school when children found familiar faces among their classmates, he said.
"The fact that we organized before the school opened really turned out to be a good thing for us because the kids knew three or four kids in their classes if not more," Didner said.
Parents also lined up several corporate sponsors to cover the costs of the ribbon cutting. The Corcoran Group helped pay for vinyl banners with Sendak illustrations that will be hung near the entrance to the school, which is in the former Catholic school building that housed P.S. 133 last year.
Elected officials including City Councilman Brad Lander, Assemblywoman Joan Millman and city comptroller candidate and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer are expected to attend the ribbon cutting.
Also in attendance will be trustees from the Maurice Sendak Foundation. P.S. 118 is the first school in Sendak's native borough to be named after the writer, who penned classics such as "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen."
