Students & Families Frequently Asked Questions

PAVE Academy is a free public charter school that opened in Red Hook, Brooklyn in August 2008. It currently serves 185 students in Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. The school will grow one grade each year through 8th grade. 

PAVE Academy prepares its students to excel in competitive high schools and ultimately college. PAVE believes in a rigorous curriculum to push our scholars, a firm code of conduct and discipline to maximize students’ learning time, and a classroom environment that promotes curiosity, joy and enthusiasm. 

Yes. All PAVE Academy students wear navy blue pants or skirts and a light blue polo shirt with a PAVE logo. 

Students who live within a quarter mile of PAVE are not eligible to ride the bus. Students who live within four miles of (but more than a quarter mile from) the school are likely eligible for school bus pick up and drop off. Click here to view a map of our location.

Students can arrive at 7:20 am for a hot breakfast. Students must arrive by 7:50 am or they will be considered tardy. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the school day ends at 3:45 PM. On Friday, the school day ends at 1:45 PM. PAVE students spend more than 90 more minutes in school per day than students in typical public elementary schools. Click here to view a typical daily academic schedule.

PAVE Academy is fortunate to have partnered with an outstanding community organization, the Red Hook Recreation Center. This year, 25 1st and 2nd graders participate in this program where they receive homework help and engage in enriching activities. 

Please visit the Calendar page of our website for more information.

Any resident of New York City expected to be a Kindergartener, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th grader in the 2012-2013 school year is eligible for PAVE Academy’s lottery. Our Kindergarten applicants must turn five by December 31, 2012. PAVE is currently fully enrolled for the 2011-12 school year.

All New York City Charter Schools must give preference to students residing in the school district where the school is located. PAVE Academy is located within Community School District 15. However, students who reside outside of the district are welcome to enter the lottery and will be admitted if space permits. 

By law, PAVE Academy has a sibling preference policy. New York State law defines siblings as a brother, sister, or other child legally under your care and residing in the same household. If siblings apply to Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd Grade and one sibling gets in through the lottery, his/her sibling(s) automatically receive a spot in the school. You must complete a separate Lottery Application Form for each child. Please feel free to photocopy the Lottery Application Form and distribute it to anyone else you know may be interested. 

To include your child in the lottery you must complete a Lottery Application Form.  It will be due by March 31st. 

The public lottery will be conducted within the first ten days of April.

We will be accepting 44 students for Kindergarten. We will be taking fewer students for other grades and will have more information in the spring. 

Names will be drawn from a lottery drum until all spaces in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades are filled. Once grades are filled, names will continue to be drawn to determine a students’ spot on the wait list. 

If your child is selected through the lottery process, you will have 10 days to sign a school contract to secure a spot. 

Names will be placed on a wait-list. PAVE Academy will call you as spaces become available.