Unhappy with your middle school choices? The Education Department plans to open 16 new middle schools next September. While choosing a new school over an established one is risky, at least two of these new schools look like promising options: School of the Future in Manhattan will open a sister school in East New York and the Eagle Academy for Young Men is opening another school in Harlem, in District 5.

Many of these new schools have yet to be approved by the Panel for Educational Policy(PEP) which will meet to vote on school closings and openings at its March 11 meeting. A few are screened programs but most are unscreened, giving preference to students who attend an open house or info session. Students who are eligible to attend the new middle schools will receive application information from their elementary schools, according to the DOE. Or you can contact the new schools to find out when their info sessions are being held.

Applications are due on March 6, a week before the PEP meeting. Kids who apply and are accepted to one of the new schools may choose between the new school and the middle school they originally applied to, according to the DOE.

Manhattan

Eagle Academy for Young Men in Harlem, (District 5) the latest of a series of successful single-sex schools founded by David Banks, will be housed in the Mott Hall High School building. It is open to boys in Manhattan.

A French dual language program will be opening at a tiny middle school in District 3 - Academic and Athletic Excellence on West 93rd Street.

Bronx:

A secondary school for students who are repeating 6th grade and have low scores on their state ELA and math exams will open on the Taft campus: New Directions Secondary School.

The Highbridge Green School (District 9) will open in its own brand new building featuring a rooftop garden and a green house. Priority goes to students in several District 9 elementary schools: PS 11, PS 73, PS 114 and PS 126 and to students from Districts 9 and 10.

Bronx Alliance Middle School will join two other new small middle schools --  Baychester Middle School and MS 529 -- in the former IS 142 building.

Brooklyn

Van Siclen Community Middle School(District 19) will open in the IS 166 building if that school is approved for phase-out at the March 11 PEP meeting. 

Vista Academy and Liberty Avenue Middle School (District 19) will open in the IS 302building if that school is approved for phase-out.

School of the Future Brooklyn (District 19) will follow the same philosophy as the very successful Manhattan school of the same name. Housed in PS 174, priority in admissions will go to students coming from that elementary school. See its website to sign up for updates. 

Brooklyn Environmental Exploration School (BEES) (District 23) will be housed in PS 73 and will give priority in admissions to students from that school.

Riverdale Avenue Middle School (District 23) will join the Riverdale Avenue Community School, which opened in 2012, in the same building. Students attending the General Chappie Elementary School, which is being phased out, get priority in admissions.

Queens

Hawtree Creek Middle School (District 27) will open in the MS 226 building, pending PEP approval.

The Emerson School (District 28) will open in a building already shared by JHS 8 and York Early College Academy, a 6-12 school. 

Queens United Middle School (District 29) will expand PS 156 in Laurelton into a middle school, with priority admissions to students from that school.

Hunters Point Community Middle School (District 30) is in a new buliding that's part of the Hunters Point Development on the East River in Long Island City. 

new gifted and talented program is opening in MS 126 (District 30). Students must score high on the OLSAT for admission.