8 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 21, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com Call for support to save LIC middle school BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] @aaltamirano28 Parents and students in Long Island City are asking for their community to speak up to keep a beloved middle school in a neighborhood growing every day. During the May 16 groundbreaking REGENTS EXAMS BEGIN JUNE 2 ● Intensive 6-hour review sessions ● NYS Licensed Instructors ● All Major Subjects ● Limited Class Sizes ● $170 per subject Course location: Queens College* *not a function of Queens College Go to passtheregents.com CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE or call 718-644-1849 of the Queens Library at Hunters Point, parents and students of P.S./ I.S. 78 handed out fl yers asking local residents to help speak out about the school crisis the neighborhood is going through. According to parents, the Department of Education is considering truncating the sixth through eighth grades at the school in order to accommodate the incoming elementary-aged students, after a decision was made to add two kindergarten classes to the school. “We’re trying to get all the parents out to push it and get it in front of other people’s faces so that we can make a difference because I think, just like for the library, if we really get together and make our presence known we can show everyone that without schools this is really not a community,” said Nancy Mendez-Shiu, who has a daughter and son at P.S./I.S. 78. “If we don’t have enough space for children, then people are going to move away from our community.” On the fl yers, “LIC neighbors” are asked to write, call or visit any or all of their city and state elected offi cials and leaders such as Mayor Bill de Blasio, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, District 30 leaders and local Community Board 2. Mendez-Shiu also added that for about 10 years, parents fought for the middle school to be brought into the community and in 2013 a new stateof the-art facility at 46-08 Fifth St. was erected and became the home of P.S./ I.S. 78’s third- through eighth-graders. The school’s pre-K through secondgrade classes remained at the original building located only a few blocks away at 48-09 Center Blvd. In a meeting two weeks ago, parents were told that if all the seats are fi lled in the new two additional kindergarten classes then there is a possibility that grades six through eight would be truncated started in the fall of 2016. The school would then only serve kindergarten through fi fth grade. “Our children deserve a space in our community here. They deserve to be able to go to school here,” Mendez- Shiu said. “We should make room for everyone.” Fellow parent Sabina Omerhodzic said that the area is being overdeveloped with more buildings being constructed, yet there are no schools to meet the growing population of young children. “More buildings bring more families, more children. We need to build more schools, not less. Don’t truncate, build more. That’s it. It’s very easy,” Omerhodzic said. The parents said the idea of middle school potentially being truncated has left students “depressed” and also wanting to protest to have their voices being heard. In one instance, a group of fourthgraders constructed a Lego model of the school and added a new building that could be constructed to help alleviate the overcrowding and also accommodate middle-schoolers. “I feel bad because we love P.S./I.S. 78, that’s why we are protesting and helping it, and just making us move to another school isn’t fair for us,” said fi fth-grader Monica Malas, who after spending two days being sad over the news got together with classmates to protest. According to the DOE, there is no proposal at this time to eliminate middle school grades at P.S./I.S. 78 and the agency is continually evaluating “space needs” to ensure it provides the highest quality education to each student. THE COURIER/Photo by Angy Altamirano Parents and students of P.S./I.S. 78 are asking the local community to help speak out about the school crisis Long Island City is currently facing. Flushing’s Bowne Playground to be redone BY ALINA SURIEL [email protected]/@alinangelica The Bowne Playground adjacent to P.S. 20 in Flushing is set to receive a multimillion-dollar renovation that will see the layout of the park completely updated and reimagined. The design has been internally approved by the Parks Department, and is now going through the process of receiving comments and approval from external regulatory agencies after Community Board 7 voted on May 18 in favor of approving the project. The Bowne Playground occupies 1.28 acres at Union Street between Barclay Avenue and Sanford Avenue. It is utilized by both neighborhood families and students at P.S. 20, which has an enrollment of around 1,400. The renovation aims to create new park amenities and increase play opportunities for children of all ages, as well as upgrade existing features and create community space with fl exible uses. The estimated end date for the project is set for 2017. The new design will change the layout of the park to divide the area into several different sections for different activities and age groups. Currently, the playground contains a play area, a swing set, and basketball and handball courts that surround a multiuse paved space in the center of the playground. The worn and cracked asphalt will be replaced, and two new play areas and swing sets for different age groups will be installed. The ball courts will remain, and new areas will be added, including a group of game tables, a space with adult fi tness equipment, and an open area for community gatherings and events. One of noticeable changes will be a new 4-foot wrought-iron exterior fence replacing the 12- and 16-foot chain-link fencing that currently encircles the playground’s perimeter. This switch was initially met with contention by some members of the community board who feared that lower barriers may pose a higher risk to children who might try to climb into the park and fall, or that teenagers might climb over in the nighttime after park hours. Joanne Amagrande-Savarese, chief of staff to the Queens Parks Department commissioner, said that the department did not anticipate having problems with children climbing over the fences because it would be easy to get in through other entryways into the area. She added that in recent years the department has been trying make parks look less enclosed and more open to the community, and have largely been lowering the height of park fences to a fourfoot standard in order to achieve this goal. “What we’re trying to do right now is make our parks more inviting and more accessible,” said Amagrande-Savarese. In addition to the new fences, the new playground will also be signifi cantly greener, with twice as much permeable surface area to collect stormwater. There are currently trees only around the perimeter of the playground, and the new design will signifi cantly increase the tree count to add more shade and differentiate between different areas of the park. “WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO DO RIGHT NOW IS MAKE OUR PARKS MORE INVITING AND MORE ACCESSIBLE.” JOANNE AMAGRANDE-SAVARESE
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