Bushwick Ascend Lower
751 Knickerbocker Avenue
The Ascend Difference:
Students of all backgrounds are valued, respected, and feel a sense of belonging.
Students are empowered to develop essential knowledge, skills and agency needed to succeed in college and beyond.
School buildings with spacious, light-filled classrooms and common spaces where students can learn collaboratively.
Our schools are rooted in our Brooklyn community.
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Bushwick Ascend Lower School opened in September 2010 in CSD 32, serving grades K and 1. Today the school enrolls over 500 students in grades K through 4.
Zelda Washington
Principal

Zelda Washington serves as principal as well as dean of instruction for grade three at Bushwick Ascend Lower School. Prior to taking on the role of school director at Bushwick Ascend Lower School, Zelda Washington served as the school’s founding dean. She came to Ascend from a district school in New York, where she served as a youth development coordinator. In this role, she implemented programs to promote students’ positive social development, designed and implemented parent workshops and professional development for teachers, and created and maintained the school’s website. Previously, as a consultant to the city’s Learning Through the Expanded Arts Program, Washington focused on developing students’ conflict resolution skills through the visual and performing arts. In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Washington served as a crisis counselor for Project Liberty. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from New York University and a master of divinity from Nyack College.
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