Never played an instrument? You’re in the band!
Brooklyn’s District 15 isn’t just barring middle schools from selecting students based on their grades — the area’s lone performing-arts middle school is now forbidden from holding auditions.
Entry into New Voices School of Academic & Creative Arts in Sunset Park will now be determined solely by lottery — with no pirouettes or piano-playing required.
A Department of Education spokesman said the process will allow all kids an opportunity without the pressure of auditioning at such a young age.
The department says audition-based admissions were blocking underprivileged kids from getting in.
With an enrollment of roughly 600 kids, New Voices is 52 percent white, 33 percent Hispanic, 7 percent black and 5 percent Asian, according to DOE figures.
The new system will now reserve 52 percent of the school’s seats for kids who come from low-income families, are homeless or are English-language learners.



