Next year, Jada Vaught might have to find a new school for her children — as the city proposes P.S. 76 stop serving elementary grades and merge with a nearby middle school.

“I feel like it's unfair to most parents because this is a good school for elementary kids,” she told NY1.

But District 3 Superintendent Kamar Samuels says enrollment has fallen by 40% in the last five years, leaving only 237 students enrolled in grades kindergarten through eight.

“Low enrollment causes significant budget challenges, significant programing challenges,” Samuels said in a briefing with reporters last month.  

Because schools receive funding per each student, the education department is proposing what’s called a truncation: reducing the number of grades P.S. 76 serves, to eliminate kindergarten through fifth grade. About 100 students, including Vaught’s kids, would have to find a new school.

“We’ll make sure that our families get one-on-one support and find a stronger option in District 3,” Samuels said.

Then, education leaders propose a merger, re-location and expansion: P.S. 76’s middle school grades would merge with Mott Hall II, a more popular middle school about a mile away. Mott Hall II would move into P.S. 76’s building. The merged school would keep Mott Hall II’s name and principal, and then would be expanded to serve high school grades and offer classes through the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program, something Samuels says the community wants.  

But to parents at the school absorbed by the merger, it feels like a closure.  

“The teachers are great. Like, I know, like, the school safety. They're so sweet. They’re kind. And I feel like my kids are comfortable in the school, and I don't want to keep changing their schools,” Vaught said.  

The plan also includes ending another school's middle school grades and moving a special education program.

The dizzying changes were set to be voted on last month, but with a new chancellor just taking office, the vote has been postponed to Dec. 4.

This kind of move is becoming more common as the city grapples with lower enrollment, but during a briefing officials said there was no specific threshold for when a small school is too small.

“Making any of these changes is a big deal for community members who graduated from the school, have kids at the school, who teach at the school, who work at the school. So, you know, we want to be very respectful and responsive in doing that. But certainly it’s a major factor to look at whether we just have critical mass to provide a good quality education to students,” First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said.