In Park Slope, school rezone plan ‘devastates’ parents who bought for certain districts

The new proposed boundaries that determine which public schools brownstone Brooklyn children will attend going forward were unveiled yesterday — and it has some neighbors worried for their kids, and their property values.

The area that sends kids to Public School 321 in Park Slope, which has long drawn families to the neighborhood, would shrink by about 10 blocks, the the York Times reported. The border for the P.S. 321 zone would move north to First Street, and east to Fifth Avenue from Third Avenue — a choice that left many parents devastated, the Times said.

The changes have the real estate community concerned about shifting real estate values in the area, and buyers who thought they had invested in a particular zone.

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“My family bought a place in what we thought was P.S. 321,” one parent told the Times. “Now we’d be put into a new school. We played by the rules; we bought in zone because we want to be in that zone.” The zones for Public Schools 39 and 10 would also change under the proposal.

As The Real Deal has previously noted, agents are often advised by their firms not to discuss school districts because of concern about Fair Housing laws.

The local Community Education Council has 45 days to vote on the plan. [NYT] –Guelda Voien