WHERE'S YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT?

Audition-ban bummer in B’klyn

The T school is going to lose some of that pride and some of that competitive e prestige. — District 15 source

Hold the applause. Brooklyn middle school New Voices School of Academic and Creative Arts is no longer allowed to audition prospective students under the district’s new diversity plan — and local parents say it is robbing starryeyed youngsters of the prestige that comes with attending an elite school.

“The school is going to lose some of that pride and that competitive prestige — there’s no way around it,” a district source told The Post.

The Sunset Park school (above) is one of the most sought-after middle schools in District 15, and sends an aboveaverage number of students to the prestigious LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts, according to the Department of Education.

Until now, New Voices — the only performingarts middle school in the district — has selected its scholars through auditions and interviews.

But on Thursday, Mayor de Blasio approved a plan to scrap admissions standards at all middle schools in District 15 in favor of a lottery system, with half the seats reserved for lowincome, homeless and Englishlanguage-learning applicants.

Now parents are worried their tots won’t make the cut.

“I had no idea this was happening. I’m going to have to go to a meeting, call someone,” said Eddie Rosario, 57, who has a seventhgrader at the school and another daughter hoping to attend next year.

“If they’re doing away with auditions . . . I’m going to have to talk to someone. What’s next? Are they changing the process at the arts high schools, too?”

The Department of Education says standards like auditions block access for underprivileged kids, and the new policy will diversify student bodies across the district.

Of New Voices’ 600 current students, 52 percent are white, 33 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian.

Some parents say auditions actually give students a leg up.

“They should be holding auditions, no question. Some of the kids, that’s the only reason that they get accepted,” said Andrea James, 49, a Brownsville resident whose daughter attends New Voices and said the school was “a huge leap” for her family.

“The fact is, there are a lot more African-American students here because of those auditions. The diversity’s up. Some of these kids wouldn’t be here otherwise, but they are immensely talented and the auditions make all the difference.”