4 The QUENS Courier • april 23, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Schools Chancellor discusses District 30 issues, ‘renewal schools’ plan BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aaltamirano@queenscourier.com/@aaltamirano28 Parents and educators made their voices heard during a town hall meeting for District 30 where topics such as school overcrowding, testing and the start of a renewal program for schools were discussed. Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña joined parents and members of the Community District Education Council 30 on April 16 in Long Island City for a town hall meeting discussing issues and concerns arising in District 30. Among the topics brought up by audience members — who were asked to write out questions on postcards that CEC 30 members read — included recent school testing, more parent engagement, overcrowding at local schools and the need for mandatory recess. When answering questions on concerns over recent testing, which has been under criticism for being used mostly to evaluate teachers, Fariña said that the DOE is working to run things more smoothly. She believes that the tests should make up only 30 percent of the teachers’ evaluation, and the rest of the evaluation should be left to the school principals. However, Fariña added that she does not believe opting out of the state tests is the answer. “I want to be clear that I do believe in testing. I believe our kids are challenged every day of their lives in different ways,” she said. “As long as I have been with testing, no matter what you call the test, there’s always some stress, there’s always some fear.” Fariña also brought up the idea of creating diagnostic tests, where students would take one test at the start of the school year and then another at the end of the year in order to evaluate progression. In regards to parent engagement, Fariña said she wants to increase involvement of parents and guardians. She said she would like more days for parentteacher conferences, workshops for parents, and even recommended parents start book clubs to not only create relationships but also get an idea of what books Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña listened to issues and concerns from parents and members of the Community District Education Council 30 during a town hall meeting in Long Island City. their children are assigned to read. She also added that one of the priorities is to create more programs aimed to parents and children whose first language is not English. “We’re working on many different levels and we’re trying to make it better for all parents to access all our schools,” Fariña said. Among other topics discussed during the meeting was the plan to create what the chancellor called “renewal schools.” Through this model, schools that are struggling, such as Long Island City’s P.S. 111, would become “renewed.” This means that the school day would be extended to at least 5 p.m., the school would offer extra programs with after-school programs also open to parents, health services, academic support, and some form of enrichment activities such as an arts program or physical education. THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano “Our job is to help struggling schools. Our job is not to close them. Our job is not assume that they have to struggle forever or be failing schools forever, and we’ve gone into the renewal school model with that fully in place,” the schools chancellor said. At these schools there will also be renewal directors, who will work with principals to provide more support and guidance. The directors will also observe and evaluate teachers at these specific schools to make sure they are a right fit for the site. “We need to do a wraparound service around these schools so that all the needs are met,” Fariña said. “You can say a school is only about education, but the reality is that it’s a lot more than that. They need to be community hubs. They need to be places where, to the most degree possible, we do everything we can and bar no efforts to get this done.” More than 100 townhouses, park and ‘eco dock’ planned for Whitestone Waterpointe site BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com @LiamLaGuerre Many Whitestone residents recently exhaled when they learned the new owner of one of two massive vacant development sites in the area agreed to work with the community’s wishes and construct dozens of single-family homes. Now community members may start holding their breaths again. Edgestone Group, which owns the 18-acre vacant Waterpointe site at 151-45 6th Rd., plans to construct 107 residential buildings on it — more than double the number of units that were originally promised for the property years ago. Plans for the project, which were revealed at a Community Board 7 committee meeting on Tuesday, call for 97 twofamily townhouse homes and nine additional single-family houses. In total there will be 203 units and most of the units will be two-bedrooms. Years ago, developer Bayrock Group, which paid $25.7 million in 2005 for the property, originally had Department of City Planning special permits to build 52 singlefamily homes on the property. This plan was also supported by the community. However, the company fell apart financially and Edgestone purchased it at a discounted $11.3 million in 2012, city records show. State Sen. Tony Avella has already declared war on Edgestone’s project, because its much larger than the original 52-home plan, although it still meets zoning regulations. “This kind of threat to the neighborhood will not be tolerated,” Avella said. “It is time for us to take a stand against overdevelopment once and for all.” In Edgestone’s plan, there will be two-car parking for the townhouses. Also, the new community includes a park at the waterfront with a walking path, a playground, a marina, a pier and an ‘eco dock’ from which people can go kayaking. There is also a 107th building that residents can use as common space for events. Members of the community board were very cold toward the plan. Kim Cody, a member of the board and president of the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association, pointed out that the project will flood the community with hundreds of new residents, which will burden schools, roads, sewers and other public systems. “You’re going to put a lot of stress on our community,” Cody said. “It’s unneeded stress.” Edgestone representatives said at the meeting that single-family homes wouldn’t “make sense,” because they would have to retail for $2 million each, and that would take too long to sell. Architect Joseph Sultana, who grew up in Whitestone, added the more affordable townhouses gives younger potential residents the ability to purchase homes in Whitestone, one of Queens’ more affluent neighborhoods, and elderly residents will also benefit. “My parents are getting older and they have a nice house in Beechhurst, but they don’t need a big house,” Sultana said. “They need to figure out where to live because they are thinking about selling their house.” Currently, Edgestone is still working to remediate the site, which is covered by toxic soil that the former owner brought in. Representatives of the firm said they hope to start trucking contaminated soil from the site in September at the earliest. This didn’t help warm the mood of the meeting, as members of the board are afraid toxic dust from the soil can spew into the community during transport. “What I learned tonight is this is going to have a much more major impact on the community than I originally thought,” said Joe Sweeney, a member of CB 7. “In the end, yes it might be affordable, but at the detriment of the rest of the community.” Many Whitestone residents recently exhaled when they learned the new owner of one of two massive vacant development sites in the area agreed to work with the community’s wishes and construct dozens of single-family homes.
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