It's not school renewal, a label that triggers a host of interventions for low-performing schools. And it's not a school closure, technically. Nor is the city opening a new school — another process that comes with extra support and start-up funds.
Instead, the New York City Department of Education is embarking on a process to redesign M.S. 313 Satellite West Middle School, an under-enrolled school in Brooklyn's District 13 that struggles academically and carries a designation by the state, some say unfairly, as "persistently dangerous."
The city is also proposing to move Satellite West to a brand new building in Dumbo, located at 19 Dock Street, starting next fall.
On Monday night the city held the first of four meetings on the issue at P.S. 3 The Bedford Village. The small group of parents, teachers and education department staff members held a workshop-style meeting to brainstorm an ideal middle school.
They answered questions like: What does a good middle school look like to you? What lifelong skills would you like your student to develop in middle school? What support services are needed?
Cynthia McKnight, whose son is a fifth-grader at P.S. 11 Purvis J. Behan, said District 13 is in dire need of better middle school options, especially since the district has worked hard to strengthen and grow its elementary schools.
"And there's nothing to continue that," she said. "And because our school is very diverse -- we have public housing, homeless families -- that if they go to these failing middle schools, we lose all that gain."
A working group of community members and education officials are visiting a handful of high-performing middle schools, like M.S. 255 Salk School of Science, to take best practices back to Satellite West.
And while the city is making overtures to include parents in creating a vision for Satellite West, some parents are disappointed that they are not getting a new school altogether.
"I'm unsatisfied with the process as a general matter," said Maggie Spillane, a member of the district's Community Education Council who, along with others, has asserted that the city pledged a new school to the district.
"But I'm also very oriented around getting a result that works for families," she said, "and that could look like a lot of different things."
Spillane said one of her biggest concerns was that new schools come with a boost of funding, where a "redesigned" school may not.
Satellite West, besides needing attention in its own right, also happens to be caught in the proposal to redraw the school zones for P.S. 8 Robert Fulton and P.S. 307 Daniel Hale Williams. Satellite West is currently located in the P.S. 307 building across from Farragut Houses. The city needs to move the middle school so that it can expand, and to ensure that P.S. 307 will have room to grow.
The city's Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal to move Satellite West at its November meeting.