FACT:  Dozens of neighborhood families are on the Pre-K waitlist for PS 20 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

FACT:  PS 20 now has additional classroom space to expand its Pre-K and meet community need

FACT:  Principal Barbera WANTS more Pre-K students but has been denied due to "funding limitations"

PS 20 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, now has space available to expand its Pre-K program due to the relocation of Arts & Letters, which previously also occupied the same building.  However, dozens of families--many of whom live within blocks of PS 20 and are in the school's zone--now sit on its Pre-K waitlist and have been assigned to other sites (which would require substantial travel and related potential health risks of using public transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic). 

Principal Barbera of PS 20 has gone on record saying that she enthusiastically welcomes more Pre-K families and has space for more students and classes. She has asked the Department of Education to allot more Pre-K seats but her requests have been denied. 

The Department of Education should approve this request and offer more Pre-K seats at PS 20 to meet community need. If this does not happen, dozens of families who live within the PS 20 zone and within blocks of the school will be unable to access public, Pre-K education in their neighborhood school--which has the space--and forced to travel or send their four year old children on public transportation to distant schools, all during a serious health crisis.

The signed petition will be circulated to the Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education, the District 13 Superintendent, Department of Education administrators, Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, Comptroller Scott Stringer, and others, in hopes that families who live in the PS 20 neighborhood will be allowed the right to send their Pre-K students to their neighborhood school, PS 20.