East Brooklyn Community High School, a transfer school opening in September 2009, will be modeled after South Brooklyn Community High School, a school in Red Hook , which also works with Good Shepherd Services. The schools offer small classes, individualized programs, and extensive counseling for both students and their families. Founding Principal Patrick McGillicuddy, a six-year veteran teacher of South Brooklyn Community HS, said counseling services at the new school will be provided through a partnership with the SCO Family of Services.

McGillicuddy said that East Brooklyn will give students ample opportunities to gain work experience through internships and will feature project-based learning, preparing students for Regents exams through the completion of in-depth research reports. East Brooklyn will be located in a brand new building in Canarsie, which it will share with the Science and Medicine Middle School, also opening in 2009. East Brooklyn will accept 150 students in fall 2009, and grow to serve 200 at full capacity. McGillicuddy said that students will leave the school ready to continue their education at either a two-year college or career-training school.

Admissions: East Brooklyn does not have any minimum credit requirements, and is open to all New York City residents ages 16-20 who have been previously enrolled in high school. McGillicuddy said the school has "an intense intake process" to ensure that students, who were truant or who had dropped out of school, are ready to commit to achieving a high school diploma. (Cristin Strining, February 2009)

"The residents of Canarsie are not all pleased that this transfer high school will be housed in the same building as a middle school. This will place children as young as 11 under the same roof with adults as old as 20. We feel that this creates a potentially dangerous situation and we are angered by not having been informed prior to this decision being reached by the Dept. of Ed."