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Read the press release here.

Typo Puts Park Slope Buildings on List of Possible Sunset Park School Sites

By Leslie Albrecht | December 6, 2016 3:38pm
 Wait lists are common at P.S. 169 in Sunset Park. DOE has said it is working to provide more seats in the neighborhood.
Wait lists are common at P.S. 169 in Sunset Park. DOE has said it is working to provide more seats in the neighborhood.
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DNAinfo/Alan Neuhauser

PARK SLOPE — Several Park Slope buildings were mistakenly identified as the possible site for a new school after the School Construction Authority made a typo in a letter to local leaders, officials said Tuesday.

A list of eight possible new school sites should have included a Sunset Park location on 27th St., not Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, said SCA spokeswoman Tamar Smith.

DNAinfo asked the Department of Education on Monday why it was using Park Slope properties to ease Sunset Park overcrowding, but the press office did not respond directly to the question, DNAinfo New York reported Monday.

"After editing and including many addresses, one got garbled and you were quite correct to question it because the address listed, 234-248 7th Avenue (in Park Slope) makes no sense at all — it was meant to read 234-248 27th Street, which is a property in Sunset Park," Smith said.

SCA informed the offices of City Councilman Brad Lander (who represents Park Slope) and Councilman Carlos Menchaca (who represents Sunset Park) as well as Community Board 6 and Community Board 7 about the error, Smith said.

When DNAinfo on Monday asked the Department of Education's press office specifically whether the Seventh Avenue site was correct, a spokeswoman emailed a generic statement reiterating DOE's goal to build new schools for crowded Sunset Park.

It's a promise that parents have heard for years, even as kindergarten wait lists have become the norm at most Sunset Park elementary schools.

A year ago, DNAinfo reported that SCA was investigating eight other sites for possible schools. Officials have said finding property for schools is difficult because sites have to meet certain size requirements and fit other criteria that makes the transaction more complicated than typical real estate dealings.