More and more new New York City private schools are opening. New for-profit private schools are popping up all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, broadening seat supply in affluent areas with high demand.
My clients have been most excited by Avenues, a runaway success, and by Brooklyn’s BASIS Independent, a STEM-focused school that opened in 2015.
In 2017, BASIS plans to expand into Manhattan with BASIS Independent Manhattan. Located on the Upper West Side, the school will serve kindergarten through 8th graders.
AltSchool, a Brooklyn Heights-based K-6th grade school for students who want a technology-focused, team-centered, individualized educational program, will open an East Village location in 2016. The school’s approach has been widely covered in the media, including this New Yorker article.
Portfolio School, opening this fall, is “about creative problem solving, a skill that will be ever more important for our future generations.” The school will stress self-paced, project-based learning. Portfolio School plans to eventually enroll K-12, but will start by accepting middle schoolers.
The international space continues to attract new for-profit players who see a niche enrolling affluent children from New York’s large international population. New schools include The New York International School, which opened in 2015, which provides dual language immersion in either Spanish or Mandarin and The German School Brooklyn, for bilingual German students in K-3rd grade.
Wetherby-Pembridge will open in 2017 for families who want their children to follow the English National Curriculum. The school writes: “The boys’ form will be called Wetherby and the girls’ form will be called Pembridge Hall.”
Another new entrant, the Nord Anglia International School, also provides the English National Curriculum, along with an exclusive Juilliard-branded performing arts curriculum.
STEM, portfolios, Mandarin, German, technology, English curriculum –Brooklyn and Manhattan now offer so many choices.
New York is a tough market. Most families prefer established schools. With so many new schools opening, only the ones that know best how to appeal to picky New Yorkers will survive.