District 20's Community Education Council will vote Wednesday on a proposal to alter the district's zoning boundaries. While the changes are intended to alleviate overcrowding, some local residents fear the proposed boundaries will divide schools along ethnic lines, reducing student diversity.

The DOE has acknowledged serious overcrowding in the district and plans to open five new schools over the next few years. Under the current proposal, schools in Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, Borough Park, and Bensonhurst would see reductions in their student pool, in order to make space for two new schools, PS 971 at 62nd Street and Fourth Avenue and PS 264 at 88th Street and Fourth Avenue.

Educators and administrators atPS 69 are speaking out against the rezoning. If the plan is approved, the school will no longer accept students who live between Second Avenue and Sixth Avenue. PS 69’s principal, Jaynemarie Capetanakis, told the New York Post that this alteration "takes away a lot of Hispanic and Arabic families.” The school  is currently overcrowded- running at 145 percent of its capacity, but it does not want to sacrifice it diversity to reduce overcrowding, the principal and several teachers told school officials at a recent meeting.

The District 20  CEC will vote on the proposal at its  7 p.m. meeting tomorrow night, Dec. 9, at PS/IS 104.