This weekend, the Department of Education is hosting a fair for new high schools at Emigrant Savings Bank, across the street from DOE headquarters at 51 Chambers Street. No word yet about how many new schools, which will accept 9th-graders next fall, will be present at the fair, set to take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Officials say a handbook listing the new schools will be posted online and will be available at the fair.

Although high school applications were submitted in early December, 8th graders can request a new school application from their guidance counselor if they wish to change their application to apply to a new school for Fall 2010.

The first round of high school admissions results comes out this week, two days before the weekend fair. On Feb. 4, 8th and 9th-graders who applied for one of the city's nine specialized high schools will learn whether they have been admitted to a specialized school.

Middle and high school guidance counselors will be distributing the results on Thursday, although some schools will mail them in an effort to forestall the upset that frequently accompanies the distribution of the acceptances. Students who are accepted at a specialized school will also find out whether they were matched to another school on their list. If not they will have to wait until the main round results are distributed on March 23. The timeline for high school admissions is posted on the DOE's website.<!--more-->

The new school fair comes the week after a contentious hearing and vote at the January meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy to close 19 schools. Sixteen of them are high schools slated to be replaced by new small themed schools sure to be represented at the fair. (Interestingly, several of the schools slated for closured were themselves replacements for other schools).

Meanwhile, the Teachers' Union and the NAACP are saying that the school closures aren't a done deal, and have filed a lawsuitcharging that the panel ignored the provisions of the state law granting the mayor control of the schools.

We'll give you a rundown of the new schools as soon as we have information. For families seeking a new selective high school, the Frank McCourt High School set to open in the Brandeis building on the Upper West Side, will be hosting their first open house tonight, Feb. 2 from 6-8 p.m. at Brandeis. See our calendar for details.