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DOE applications now open for 2020-21 school year
QUEENS WEEKLY,OCTOBER 13, 2019 BY JENNA BAGCAL
Just a month into the new
school year, the Department of
Education is calling on parents
to get a leg up on next year’s
school applications.
The city agency just announced
that students in middle
and high school can apply
for up to 12 programs from now
until Dec. 2. The application
process is open to current fifth-
and sixth-grade students and
students just entering eighth
grade, according to Patch.
First-time ninth-graders can
also apply to DOE high schools.
According to the DOE, students
and parents can learn
about their options and apply
on the MySchools online portal.
Middle school students can
select up to 12 schools and the
agency clarifies that the more
schools on an application, the
better the chances of getting an
offer to one of the schools.
“It does NOT lower your
chance of getting an offer to any
of your top choice programs,”
DOE said on its website.
Applicants are asked to list
schools in their true order of
preference, as students will be
considered for their first-choice
program first and subsequent
programs in the listed order.
Middle schools will not see the
order so they will not know if
they were someone’s first or
last choice.
The DOE encourages middle
school applicants to sign up
for middle school email lists,
visit schools and attend middle
school district fairs, which begin
on Oct. 16.
High school students can
also choose up to 12 schools after
receiving a high school admissions
welcome letter, which
has instructions on how to register
for the MySchools portal.
According to the agency, there
is no advantage to submitting
an application early and applications
may be changed and resubmitted
until the deadline.
Students interested in applying
to specialized high schools
and audition for LaGuardia
High School must register
for testing and auditions by
Exam with school student having a educational test, thinking hard, writing answer in classroom for university
education admission and world literacy day concept Photo via Getty Images
Oct. 10.
During the application process,
parents and students
should sign up for high school
email lists and attend a high
school admissions fair.
The DOE will notify students
of the schools they got into in
March 2020.
Richards launches campaign for Queens borough president
BY MAX PARROTT
Donovan Richards marched up to the
most prominent symbol of Queens on
Wednesday to announce his intention to run
the borough.
Richards threw in his bid for the office of
borough president on Oct. 2 at the Unisphere
along with arranging an endorsement from
former Borough President Claire Shulman.
Richards touted his record as a councilman
of encouraging economic recovery
among low-income communities and farther
eastern reaches of the borough.
“There’s been incredible growth in our
borough. But as we watch the skyline transform
in front of our eyes each and everyday,
there are too many of us who are being left behind.
We can and we must do better for every
part of this borough,” Richards said.
Richards joins Astoria Councilman Costa
Constantinides and Long Island City Councilman
Jimmy Van Bramer in pursuing the office,
as well as Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman,
whose southeastern district overlaps
with his own in Laurelton and Rosedale.
Richards’ vision included property tax reforms
that would address racial bias, investment
in the “nonexistent” transportation
infrastructure of eastern Queens, a more
community-driven zoning process, an immigration
unit at borough hall and reforms to
the community board structure.
His speech made the argument for his
know-how based on his City Council committee
appointments. As a councilman, Richards
first became chair of the City Council’s Environmental
Protection Committee during the
2014-2017 session, and later became the Zoning
Committee chair and chair of the Public
Safety Committee.
“There’s no one in this race who can talk
about bringing a community back from destruction
after a storm like the historic Hurricane
Sandy, nor the historic investments
for what I call the forgotten communities in
Queens,” Richards said.
In addition to securing a $2.2 billion
investment in Queens infrastructure improvements
following Sandy, Richards took
credit for ushering in Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing, the rules requiring affordable
housing in rezoned areas, under his watch as
Zoning Committee Chair.
“He has the ability. He has the experience.
He has the energy. And look at what his record
says. His record is nothing short of a
miracle,” Shulman said.
Shulman, who served from 1986 until 2002
as the first woman to be elected borough president,
rose in municipal government through
her involvement on community boards.
Richards said that he thinks the community
board system is an important structure to ensure
that there’s equity in terms of where the
city invests its resources.
Richards added that he believes the city
can engage a more diverse cross section of
the borough through live broadcasts of meetings
online. Likewise he criticized what he
perceived to be a top-down approach to the
Amazon LIC development by city and state
officials as a mistake.
The other progressive sticking point that
Richard dismissed was real estate donations.
He declined to disavow campaign from developers,
saying that he doesn’t believe that his
integrity would ever be compromised.
Former Borough President Claire Shulman and Councilman Donovan Richards
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS