To tackle school overcrowding,
the councilman has initiated
using imminent domain
for the good public purpose
of building schools in highly
overcrowded districts, he said.
Dromm, along with other
politicians, would like to see
the creation of special zoning
districts to encourage school
construction in high-need districts,
which would require
public review and a vote by the
City Council.
Additionally, the group
wants the city to explore new
funding strategies to pay for
future school construction,
such as implementing impact
fees on new developments that
will bring more children into
communities, and having developers
whose projects create
significant adverse impacts to
public school pay into a school
construction fund that would
be set up by the city.
Meanwhile, Councilman
Robert Holden has been searching
for properties on Google
Earth for construction of new
schools in the northern parts
of his district, he said.
“Maspeth and Woodside
experience the most overcrowding,
and we’ve been trying
to find more locations for
schools,” said Holden. “I was
able to get one location at 69-02
Queens Blvd. where a developer
wanted to put up two residential
towers and he needed
a zoning change on a small
parcel in the back and I said I
wouldn’t approve any development
unless there’s a school.”
That development, Holden
says, will bring 500 new seats
for grades K-5 after the developer
worked with the School
Construction Authority.
“I also found another location,
which is about less than
a mile away that could possibly
be a school or maybe even
a high school because it’s large
enough,” said Holden. “I’m still
working on another school trying
to get that to go into Cooper
Avenue. It’s a District 75 school
for special education.”
Additionally, Holden has
helped with providing a gymnasium
for P.S. 71, a new stateof
the-art cafeteria and kitchen
at P.S./I.S. 87, and a stand-alone
gymnasium and auditorium at
P.S. 68. He is currently working
on helping to assist with a gymnasium
at P.S. 91, he said.
In its proposed $17 billion
FY 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital
Plan, the DOE and SCA is
working on bringing a total of
over 5,000 seats to Queens by
2023 to alleviate school overcrowding,
according to SCA
President Lorraine Grillo.
“We’ve been working very
hard in District 24, particularly
in the areas of Corona and East
Elmhurst,” said Grillo. “We’ve
built hundreds and thousands of
seats over there and we’ve been
doing that over the last maybe
five to 10 years to relieve the
overcrowding in that area.”
According to Grillo, the
SCA is currently working on
three projects in Long Island
City and they’re searching for
another space in Court Square
as well, she said.
“We have another intermediate
school going up in Sunnyside
in District 30 that really helps
the LIC area and we’ve focused
on that for years,” said Grillo.
“I’m a Queens kid. I grew up in
Astoria, grew up in District 30
and I know the area very well
and what the needs are.”
In regards to class size reduction,
Grillo said, there is
a category within the capital
plan.
“Those are for areas where
the district may not be overcrowded,
but a particular
school may be remote from other
schools and it is consistently
overcrowded, so we try to go
into those districts and relieve
that problem,” said Grillo.
Since 2018, the SCA has created
a new addition to P.S. 19
in Corona, three new locations
for pre-K, and an annex at P.S.
143 in CSD 24. The SCA has five
new upcoming projects opening
through 2023 in CSD 24 and 30.
Overall, the FY 2020-2024
Capital Plan will fund the construction
of 57,000 new seats in
New York City – for a total of
83,000 seats between this plan
and the prior, FY 2015-2019
Plan. There will be $550 million
for early education initiatives,
$150 million for class size
reduction, and $180 million for
removal of classroom trailers.
Expires 11/30/19 Post & Crown Additional. Expires 11/30/19
2019 QUEENS TOMORROW 19