New High School for Sunset Park!

The newly constructed Sunset Park High School — our neighborhood's first public high school — will open its doors to students in September 2009. In late January, the Department of Education approved a design, developed with community input, for a 1,500-seat school with one principal and three small learning communities focusing on the performing and visual arts, health and human services, and business and entrepreneurship.

Sunset Park High School (SPHS) is the result of 40 years of advocacy by community residents and neighborhood organizations seeking equitable access to quality education for youth in Sunset Park. When promised funds for a school building were cut from the city's capital plan again and again, the Sunset Park High School Task Force organized a successful campaign to secure funding. Construction began in 2006, and since then, the Task Force has worked to ensure that the long-awaited school responds to community priorities.

Click here to read about the community’s efforts in the New York Daily News.

SPHS will open in Fall 2009 with 324 9th grade students, and will add an additional grade each year to reach its full capacity of 1,500 students. Teachers and administrators will receive support from the Institute for Student Achievement, and community-based organizations — including Center for Family Life — will partner with the school to provide afterschool programming and supports for youth and their families.

Students who wish to apply to SPHS must submit a New High Schools Choice Form to their guidance counselor by February 26, 2009.

Application instructions and a description of Sunset Park High School can be found in the Department of Education’s Directory of the New NYC Public High Schools (click to download PDF).

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