8 AUGUST 15, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Maspeth’s P.S. gets $16M for more repairs
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
The Department of Education
announced on Aug. 9 that it has
decided to invest $16 million in
repairs on top of $14 million already
it has committed to renovating P.S.
9, a Maspeth elementary school that
serves hundreds of students with
various developmental, behavioral and
emotional issues.
Education Chancellor Richard
Carranza publicized the news in a
letter to Councilman Robert Holden
aft er a barrage of media coverage and
public criticism from the councilman
portrayed P.S. 9 as “dilapidated”
and “decrepit.”
Ever since he toured the building last
year, Holden has advocated for closing
the school down in favor of building a
new, state-of-the-art facility for disabled
students at 78-16 Cooper Ave.
Carranza’s letter breaks the proposed
renovations down in a timeline of
what construction measure the DOE
has already fi nished, what the agency
plans to do immediately and what its
long-term plans are for the facility.
Completed repairs to date include
renovations and maintenance to three
bathrooms, ceiling tile replacement,
pipe insulation repairs and scraping
Scaff olding around P.S. 9 in Maspeth. Photo via Google Maps
and painting of walls.
Short-term actions include continued
painting up to the school’s opening day,
creating access to a portion of the school
yard, a new changing table, a separate
changing room and a deep cleaning of
the entire building. By January 2020,
the agency also plans to convert three
classrooms into a music room, sensory
room and computer room, and upgrade
classroom furniture.
Its list of long-term projects include
$5 million worth of cafeteria and
basement upgrades by September
2021, $14 million worth of exterior
construction and the replacement of
the main staircase by the summer of
2020 and a $7-10 million project to make
the building accessible.
Beyond their diff erences over P.S. 9,
tensions have fl ared between Carranza
and Holden in recent months. In June
the councilman attacked Carranza’s
eff orts to emphasize racial inequities
in addressing gaps in education quality,
disciplinary measures and school
admissions within the school system.
Holden told QNS, however, that the
issue of the substandard conditions at
P.S. 9 feels personal to him. “The fi rst
time I went there, I thought, ‘I gotta do
something.’ It’s the thing I think about
at night, and fi rst thing I think about
when I wake up,” he said.
In response to Carranza’s letter
on P.S. 9, Holden pointed out that the
chancellor refused his invitation to
tour the school grounds, in the lead-up
to his decision.
“Is it because you knew you couldn’t
defend the school in its horrific
conditions and in an industrial
area not fi t for any children? Face it
Chancellor, you don’t have the guts to
go toe-to-toe with me on this school,”
Holden tweeted.
Holden said that he was especially
disappointed by the DOE’s decision in
this case because he thought that he
had the support of School Construction
Authority President Lorraine Grillo
in his proposal to build a brand-new
special needs school in the area.
In response to the announcement,
Holden penned a letter of his own
to Grillo, to request that the SCA
produce a cost analysis of fi xing P.S.
9 versus what it would cost to build a
brand-new facility.
Ridgewood activist cheers Child Victims Act
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
The landmark Child Victims Act
went into effect at midnight
Wednesday morning, and
around the state hundreds of
child sexual abuse survivors fi led
lawsuits against those who attacked
them, regardless of when the
abuse occurred.
Survivors whose claims have been
time-barred by the statute of limitation
laws are now given a one-year window
to have their day in court.
In Ridgewood, Connie Altamirano,
a 45-year-old single mother of two
who suffers from PTSD and other
complications following her own
sexual abuse as a child, refl ected on
her years of fi ghting for the CVA to
become law.
“It means a lot. It means today we are
taking another step towards giving
survivors a voice and protecting
children. It’s a step towards justice,”
Altamirano said. “It is a historic
moment for survivors who have
always felt like second-class citizens.
The CVA means we do matter. We do
have a voice. We do belong in society
and today we are not worthless.”
Altamirano is recovering from a
recent surgery but was monitoring
the news Wednesday morning.
“There have been 500 cases fi led so
far and 90 percent is against clergy,”
she said, her thoughts turning to
former Queens Assemblywoman
Margaret Markey, who fought for the
CVA for more than a decade despite
constant pressure from the Catholic
Church, which lobbied against the
legislation for years.
“Marge is the true hero in all of
this,” Altamirano said. “She’s the one
that started all of this. She’s the one
that bravely stood up not just as an
Assemblywoman but as a mother.”
Year after year, Markey pushed
the CVA but it was never brought to
the fl oor in the Republican-led Senate
due to the intense lobbying eff ort by
the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of
America and the insurance industry.
When Governor Andrew Cuomo
signed the CVA into law in February,
Markey was by his side and while she
did not speak, the governor said she
would go down in history “as a profi le
in courage” for staying the course
despite intense pushback from the
Catholic Church.
In a New York Times Magazine
profi le weeks later, it became clear
why Markey didn’t speak at the signing
ceremony. Since losing to challenger
Brian Barnwell as she sought a 10th
term in 2016, Markey has retired to her
Maspeth home aft er being diagnosed
with a form of dementia.
The article confirmed what had
been whispered about for years: that
Markey had fought so hard for the
CVA because her son, Charles, had
been abused as a child by a priest at
the family’s church.
He reported the allegations to the
Queens district attorney’s offi ce, but
prosecutors told him the statute of
limitations prevented them from
pursuing his case.
“Because of what she had been
through she knew how to speak to
survivors,” Altamirano recalled.
“She knew how to speak to me, to get
met to leave my house and stand up
and join the fi ght in Albany. Marge is
everyone’s hero, not just mine.”
Child Victim Act activist Connie Altamirano with state Senator Joseph
Addabbo during one of her frequent trips to Albany to push for the bill.
Photo courtesy of Connie Altamirano
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