Push to turn Bishop Kearney into southern Brooklyn’s first specialized high school
A pair of southern Brooklyn lawmakers are asking the city to open a new specialized high school in Bensonhurst, where a soon-to-be-closed all-girls Catholic high school now stands.
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Councilmember Justin Brannan wrote a joint letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza Wednesday asking that the site of Bishop Kearney High School, which is scheduled to shutter by the end of the month, be dedicated to a new specialized high school.
In the letter, the officials cited the demand for more specialized schools, noting that in 2019, only 4,798 of 27,521 applicants were offered admission to one of the city’s nine selective high schools. Of those students who enrolled, close to 25 percent were from southern Brooklyn school districts like 20, 21 and 22, they said.