FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com NOVEMBER 28, 2013 • The Queens Courier 3 Bayside students thank soldiers from home BY MELIS A CHAN [email protected] Three soldiers from Queens and Long Island got a hero’s welcome Monday when they paid a visit to a Bayside school. Students from P.S. 130 welcomed P.S. 130 students showed “gratitude” to Navy recruiters Rocky Ramdyal, Wubin Emerson Liao and Army Master Sgt. Robert Frame. CITY EYES TWO MORE NORTHEAST QUEENS SCHOOL SITES THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Help make the holidays bright The holiday season has arrived, and The Queens Courier will once again be collecting toys and clothing to be donated this year to the Queens Centers for Progress’ Apple Preschool in Jamaica for our annual holiday gift drive. The Apple Preschool program offers children between three to five years old with disabilities a large variety of educational and therapeutic services, including speech, occupational and physical therapy and counseling. The children interact with special education teachers and clinicians who work on language skills, cognitive, motor and social development. After participating in the program, the majority of the children become integrated into the public school system. Apple Preschool is asking for new, unused and unwrapped donations for their students, 31 girls and 52 boys between the ages of three and four. Donations can be dropped off at The Courier’s office, located at 38-15 Bell Boulevard in Bayside, or at People’s United Bank branches at 8989 Union Turnpike in Glendale, 34-51 48th Street in Long Island City, or 7417 Grand Avenue in Maspeth. the trio of military men on November 25 with armfuls of letters and a homemade flag with each child’s handprint, thanking them for their service. Working with a nonprofit, volunteer corporation called Operation Gratitude, the youngsters wrote 150 letters and collected 126 pounds of candy and 150 toothbrushes to be sent to deployed military men and women. This is the third year the school has helped the initiative. “It means a great deal to me and other soldiers, serving overseas,” said Master Sgt. Robert Frame, one of three guests. “There are very tough times in combat, and it’s easy to kind of get lost in the challenges and rigors of war. When you receive letters from all these kids, from schools back home, it really lets you know what it is you’re fighting for.” Frame, 33 of Albertson, Long Island has been in the Army for 15 years, having served two tours in Iraq. He is in charge of cadet operations at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point. Frame fielded question after question from the curious bunch. Then two Queens Navy recruiters — Rocky Ramdyal and Wubin Emerson Liao — showed their captivated audience a life vest that inflates upon impact. Ramdyal, an aviation electronics technician, is entering his 16th year with the Navy. The Woodhaven native, last stationed in Hawaii, became a recruiter in downtown Flushing last year. Liao of Elmhurst, also a recruiter, is a logistics specialist, serving nearly six years with the Navy. He did a four-year tour of duty in Japan before returning home. “Getting letters from students means a lot more than getting letters from your parents, who know what you’re doing,” Ramdyal said. “When you’re in a war zone area, when you see that letter saying, ‘thank you,’ it means a lot because it’s like our job isn’t going unnoticed.” BY MELIS A CHAN [email protected] The city’s School Construction Authority (SCA) is looking for more than an acre of Queens land to build a new high school, The Courier has learned. The SCA has allocated funds for the future institution, poised to alleviate Queens high school congestion, but is still scouring the borough for a site slightly larger than an acre to build it on, according to SCA Director of External Affairs Mary Leas. “We’d love to find a nice, big site for a high school,” Leas said. “Over an acre would be best. It’s not easy to find a site that size. Then when we do, we really want to investigate it and see if we could make it work. An acre is a lot of property in the city.” The SCA briefed Community District Education Council 26 (CDEC) Thursday on its proposed $12 billion capital budget for 2015 to 2019, which includes the new high school. A Department of Education spokesperson told The Courier the city is eyeing a site in Whitestone that “has not been identified.” Residents in the area, in September, said they saw SCA scouts surveying the vacant Whitestone Jewels Property at 150- 33 6th Avenue. The six-acre site is in the midst of a foreclosure action by OneWest Bank. State Senator Tony Avella said the location is not “viable” for a school, due to lack of infrastructure and public transportation options. “The city would have to put in sewers and water mains. It would be a transportation nightmare for parents and students,” he said. The authority ruled out a Little Neck school site — long suggested by the CDEC — due to its “remote” location near 58-20 Little Neck Parkway, on the border of Long Island. “It’s very hard to site a high school in a community,” Leas said. “Just even looking at a site could cause quite a flurry of activity amongst communities that don’t want the high schools.” The SCA’s preliminary fiveyear plan also includes building a 465-seat elementary school in either Oakland Gardens or Fresh Meadows. Partial funds have been set aside for the potential elementary school, but the SCA has not found a site yet, according to Monica Gutierrez, an SCA community relations manager. The City Council last week passed a controversial plan to build a prekindergarten through fifth grade school at 210-11 48th Avenue in Bayside. According to the SCA, it will likely take about three years to open. Its design process, which has not yet begun, is expected to be finalized in about a year. The SCA gave the presentation to seek feedback from the school district that encompasses Bayside, Douglaston and Little Neck. To suggest site locations to the city, email [email protected]. EXCLUSIVE
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