SUNSET PARK — P.S. 169 in Sunset Park had 48 zoned students on its kindergarten waitlist, just one year after the Department of Education touted the elimination of waitlists in the overcrowded school last year.
Despite a citywide drop in the number of students wait-listed in the 2016-17 kindergarten class, four Sunset Park schools had waitlists this year, according to DOE data released Tuesday.
District 20, which includes a small part of Sunset Park along with Borough Park and Bay Ridge, had the most schools with waitlists for the second year in a row.
Most of Sunset Park is part of District 15, which also includes Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and Red Hook, and had five schools with waitlists this year.
P.S. 169, located at 4305 Seventh Ave., is known as one of the most overcrowded schools in the area and previously had one of the longest waitlists in the city.
Last year, the school had no waitlist for the first time in years, which education leaders credited to additional seats and a vote to rezone the neighborhood to address overcrowding.
But this year in Sunset Park, along with P.S. 169, P.S. 971 School for Math, Science and Healthy Living, P.S. 503 The School of Discovery and P.S. 94 The Henry Longfellow all had a waitlist for zoned kindergarten students.
Sunset Park has funding for 1,096 new seats in the neighborhood, but only 113 of those will be available this year when P.S. 516 opens in September, according to the School Construction Authority (SCA).
Frustrated parents have repeatedly demanded new schools in the neighborhood, questioning the DOE on its seeming lack of action.
The challenge of building or opening new schools hinges on finding a property with at least 20,000 square feet for a K-5 school or one with a landlord willing to lease to the city, officials told parents at a meeting last month.
DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield said in a statement Friday afternoon that they were "encouraged that Citywide, the number of students waitlisted fell 9 percent this year and has been cut in half since the start of this administration."
"We continue to explore a variety of strategies to reduce waitlists including rezonings and new construction. Any student who was waitlisted at their zoned school received an alternative kindergarten offer.”
