December 30, 2025
Brooklyn Latin Meets the Grand Street Settlement
By John Myers
By Jeffrey Wang
When students logged onto Jupiter, the grading and scheduling platform, this semester, they found that their physical education class was listed as being in the “Community Center,” instead of the GYM that they were used to.
Beginning in the 2025–26 school year, the Brooklyn Latin School (BLS) announced its plan to partner with the neighboring community center, Grand Street Settlement, to provide students a space to have their state mandated physical education classes, given issues with crowding in the building’s shared gym, which is occupied by three different schools.
Students’ reactions to the change have been mixed, with one junior, Katie Tan, saying, “It’s clean, spacious, and I like how it doesn’t feel cramped like it did when we had it in the gym. There’s an extended outdoor area where we can go when the weather’s nice, so I actually enjoy being more active.” Though Tan was mostly satisfied with the change, she added, “It can be a hassle when the weather’s not good, and we occasionally have to resort to doing gym in the auditorium, where it’s less than convenient.” Another junior, Rajeev Vanreusel, highlighted the lack of activities they could do due to time spent walking back and forth between the school building and the center. Between leaving the building and walking back, plus explaining the lesson, students are only able to get about 10 minutes of activity time if the instructor chooses to go by the regular curriculum. “We can only really do stations because we have so little time to change and get back to the school building.”
Beginning in the early 2000s, Michael Bloomberg, who was New York City’s mayor from 2002 to 2013, promoted the policy of breaking large schools apart and creating smaller schools with shared space. This policy, known as the “Children First” agenda, was implemented to create more productive and safe learning environments, and to combat violence. Bloomberg was notorious for his use of statistics and analyzing problems through a business perspective, but critics say that his policies regarding education fell short. This policy of dividing schools and imposing forced co-habitation among schools created issues with the sharing of space, as many buildings were awkwardly divided and sparked constant quarreling among schools for space.
Currently, the Brooklyn Latin School shares one building with two other schools, the Williamsburg High School for Arts and Technology and Lyons Community School. Brooklyn Latin occupies the entire first floor, with a couple classrooms on the second and third floors. In addition, dedicated staircases are assigned to each school, in an effort to ease foot traffic jams. Diverging from other major “specialized” high schools, Brooklyn Latin does not have a library or a dedicated auditorium. Events must be planned beforehand, and inclement weather and unexpected events sometimes hinder normal operations.
At the BLS, Assistant Headmaster Wencelao Yee, responsible for managing and organizing the partnership with Grand Street Settlement, stated his optimism with this continued partnership, but noted there were limitations. Yee says, for example, during election seasons, the center would not be available to students due to its role as a poll site for NYC elections. This reoccurring issue forces PE teachers and the school administration to come up with alternate arrangements and raises the question of whether or not this will be a viable solution in the future.
