SCHOOLS TOMORROW
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Queens public schools battle overcrowding as city expands campuses
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
With more than 1.1 million
students in the New
York City public school
system, the demand for
more seats in classrooms has
significantly increased over
the years to alleviate chronic
overcrowding — especially in
Queens, which has led the city
in the number of schools at or
over capacity.
Queens politicians and organizers
have been advocating
for the construction of
new schools in the borough
— particularly in Community
School District (CSD) 24 which
includes the neighborhoods
of Maspeth, Ridgewood, Elmhurst,
Corona, Middle Village,
Glendale, Hunters Point and
Long Island City.
The second most overcrowded
school district in Queens,
CSD 30, includes the neighborhoods
of Queensbridge, Dutch
Kills, Sunnyside, Woodside,
Ravenswood, Astoria, Ditmars,
Steinway, Jackson Heights and
East Elmhurst.
“We still have hugely overcrowded
schools and more
than half a million students in
New York City in overcrowded
schools according to the DOE’s
own statistics,” said Leonie
Haimson, executive director of
Class Size Matters, a nonprofit
advocacy group that works toward
implementing smaller
classrooms in the city for almost
20 years. “We’ve moved
backwards since then. Class
sizes are much larger now
since I began advocating.”
In its 2018 report on overcrowding
highlighting CSD
24 as its case study, the City
Council found that at the K-8
level, CSD 24 has a 118 percent
utilization rate with overcrowding
in 38 of 44 elementary
and middle schools. There
is a shortage of 6,599 seats and
the highest enrollment of any
school district with a capacity
of 43,445 students.
In CSD 24, the overall district
utilization rate is 94.5
percent with 22 overcrowded
schools, according to the
DOE’s Blue Book (2017-2018).
The elementary utilization
rate is at 97.4 percent and middle
school utilization rate is at
87.8 percent.
Specifically, in Long Island
City at P.S. 78, the utilization
rate is at 109 percent and is
already over capacity at 135
percent.
“More than 70 children
who were zoned to the school
were put on the waitlist for
kindergarten last spring,
while classes for numerous
pre-K kids are being housed
in trailers,” said Haimson.
The report also highlighted
overcrowding in Queens CSD
25 and 26 — all at or above 115
percent capacity in 2014-2015
and CSD 28 at over 100 percent
capacity.
According to Haimson,
more funding is needed for
smaller classes and construction
of more schools rapidly
and efficiently in Queens
and throughout the city. The
organization is also calling
for more transparency in the
school planning process.
“The issue of class sizes come
up in every single borough town
hall meeting that the mayor and
chancellor has attended, and the
mayor promised to reduce class
sizes when he first transferred
office and the chancellor admits
that class size makes a huge difference,”
said Haimson. “But
they both make excuses and the
chancellor then says we have to
wait for more state funding and
then they would give it to principals
to do with it as they like,
which is not a reasonable answer
at all.”
Councilman Daniel Dromm,
a representative of CSD 24 and
former New York City public
school teacher for over 20
years at P.S. 199 in Sunnyside,
became an advocate for class
size reduction after teaching
in one of the most overcrowded
schools in the city, he said.
“They had to make space in
closets, locker rooms, dressing
rooms and elsewhere,” said
Dromm, chair of the City Council
Finance Committee. “Class
size reduction will help teachers
provide instructional class
lessons and the city has never
tried class size reduction. With
34 kids in a classroom, they
can’t spend as much time with
each child.”
There is an additional need
of 3,961 seats in CSD 24 and 490
seats in CSD 30, according to
Dromm.
“We’ve had some success in
reducing the number of seats
needed in District 30, but not
as much success in District
24 where it’s a mixed bag,”
said Dromm. “There are successes
in some areas and not
in others. The Department of
Education doesn’t take into
account new developments in
the city and the influx of immigrants
in the community,
such as Jackson Heights, Elmhurst
and Astoria.”
Come September in CSD 30,
P.S. 398Q will be opening its
doors to students for the new
school year with an additional
458 seats. Originally, the developer
had plans to construct
an apartment complex at the
White Castle site located at
69-01 34th Ave. in Jackson
Heights, said Dromm.
18 QUEENS TOMORROW 2019