WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 10, 2019 15
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Blue ribbon-winning Maspeth High School looks back on fi rst eight years
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BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
Maspeth High School’s first
principal, Khurshid Abdul
Mutakabbir, looked back on
eight years since the school was founded
with a small class of ninth-graders,
which has over the years earned a
national Blue Ribbon Award for excellence
in education and ranks as one of
New York’s best high schools.
The school is just one of eight New
York City schools to receive the award
in 2018 and among 349 across the
country.
“On this day, eight years ago, the
Department of Education approved
my proposal and nine months later
we opened our doors to 270 ninth
graders,”Abdul Mutakabbir said.
During its fi rst year, Maspeth High
School was based out of the Queens
Metropolitan High School campus
in Forest Hills; it later relocated to
its own building at 54-40 74th St. in
its namesake neighborhood, close to
Elmhurst Park.
Now with approximately 1,200 students,
Maspeth High School serves
a diverse crowd with 64 percent
minority enrollments and with 52
percent female students, according to
U.S. News & World Report.
MHS upholds a high standard of
education with about 60 teachers and a
15:1 student-to-teacher ratio, according
U.S. News & World, which places at at
#1,012 in the country for education.
But MHS put leaders across the borough
on edge in the beginning when
fears over the incubation period at
QMHS lasting longer than a year were
stoked by the lack of available space
for a new school.
Parents and pols alike criticized
the city Panel for Education Policy,
but elected offi cials breathed a sigh
of relief when the Maspeth campus
opened in 2013.
“It’s hard to fi nd property to even site
schools,” City Councilman Leroy Comrie
told TimesLedger in 2013. “This is
one of the most overcrowded parts
of Queens and we need to build even
more high schools in this area.”
Abdul Mutakabbir was praised by
then-City Councilwoman Elizabeth
Crowley and Assemblywoman Catherine
Nolan for being able to establish
the new within the span of a school
year as expected.
MHS serves students living in District
24.
Photo: Maspeth High School
Founding Principal Khurshid Abdul Mutakabbir celebrated eight years in building Maspeth High
School into a widely recognized institution.
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