By Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

PARK SLOPE — Saying that it’s “the only beautiful thing on Fourth Avenue,� a petition protesting the destruction of a century-old school building in Park Slope — P.S. 133, the William A. Butler School at 4th Avenue and Butler Street — has accumulated more than 130 signatures since it was started last Thursday. (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/4thAveLandmark/)

The School Construction Authority (SCA), however, is moving ahead with plans to knock down the old school and replace it with a new, larger facility. The existing building holds 264 District 13 students; the proposed facility would hold roughly 960 — most of them from neighboring District 15, a growing area with increasingly overcrowded schools.

The proposed facility would also include space for use by District 75 (City-Wide Special Education) students.

While District 15 desperately needs more classrooms, opponents say it would be a shame to knock down the historic building, designed by the noted Charles B. J. Snyder. According to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the structure is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and boasts “significant architectural features.� The site is also home to a decades-old community garden, which would be cut roughly in half under the plan.

Aside from the architectural issues, District 13 parents “are pissed,� said Carmen Colon, past president of District 13’s Community Education Council (CEC) and past District 15 representative to the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council (CPAC). “They feel it’s being built primarily for District 15.� “District 15 never had trouble representing the voice of their district,� Colon said. But “District 13’s CEC is not capable at this time. Some parents didn’t even know the CEC exists. District 13’s CEC can barely hold quorum. So it goes by default.

“Parents feel that District 13 always gets the shaft.�

District 15, which includes Park Slope, Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, part of Brooklyn Heights and Sunset Park, has traditionally had more active parent participation than District 13, which includes Bedford Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, north Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.

District 15’s Growing Needs

Jim Devor, first vice president of District 15’s Community Education Council (CEC), told the Brooklyn Eagle that a joint District 13/15 meeting was held in January. “To say that there was no community input is not accurate.�

However, he acknowledges that “District 13 is probably more attuned to immediate neighborhood concerns, including the scale of the building.�

Devor strongly supports the new school, and doesn’t think that the problems are insurmountable. “District 13 keeps its slots in the new school, an the rest will be in District 15.� His overriding concern is that the “real increased capacity needs of District 15 are met, which are even greater in the South Slope and Sunset Park.�

Devor said he shares some of District 13’s concerns regarding the very different constituency of “the catchment areas� of the two districts. “There’s a tendency to create a segregated school within a school; the ethnic numbers won’t be similar, and that’s a concern. We’d like to see a greater sensitivity to both schools’ diversity and roughly similar racial composition — we’re concerned there will be a ‘dark school’ and a ‘light school.’ We’ve expressed concern to the DOE; the local superintendent expressed sympathy with our concern.�

District 13’s racial composition is largely black (63 percent), followed by Hispanic (15 percent) and Asian (15 percent). Only 7 percent of District 13’s students are white. District 15 is more diverse, with more Hispanics (44 percent), followed by black (27 percent), white (18 percent) and Asian (11 percent).

NIMBY?

Devor told the Eagle that he emphatically supports not only the project, but its scope, and says that there’s a certain amount of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) behind the opposition’s petition.

“The ostensible reason given is that the building is too big — and it is bulky, I don’t deny that — but it’s only one story taller than the surrounding buildings,� he said. “Architecturally, the new school purports to maintain some of the architectural values of the old school,� he said, adding, “If they can build all these ugly buildings on Fourth Avenue, they can build a school building that’s not nearly so ugly.� The new school will triple the number of school children in the area, and that’s really what neighbors are objecting to, Devor claims. “I can understand it — 700 kids screaming reduces real estate values. That’s true all over America.�

Community gardeners are also upset about the loss of space, he said. “The SCA promised to restore some of the garden space, but people are suspicious of their ability to deliver on that promise.

“I know that there is a conflict of ‘virtues’ at issue here, but I have no ambivalence about supporting what best builds capacity for the public school education of our children,� he said.

Devor also said that since the DOE has procured temporary space for P.S. 133 children at the former St. Thomas Aquinas parochial school on Fourth Avenue, the work could be accomplished sooner and safer.

“It is now SCA's intention to demolish P.S. 133 sooner rather than later since it can be accomplished without adversely affecting the health and well being of the children -- an incipient risk under the original plan whereby the new school was to be constructed on the playground while the current school was still in operation.�

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