14 NOVEMBER 8, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Parents demand public schools, ADA accessibility
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
Community Education Council
24 is asking for big improvements
to schools in the southwestern
Queens district by issuing
a set of resolutions to build a new
school at a proposed homeless shelter
site in Glendale, and requests that
all of the district’s schools comply
with the Americans with Disabilities
Act.
Demand for the 78-16 Cooper Ave.
site not only goes along with work
from Councilman Robert Holden, but
leaders from CEC 24 want the possible
facility in review by the School Construction
Authority to act as a release
valve for overcrowding, according to
the resolutions.
“I appreciate the CEC’s eff orts in advocating
for improved school safety,
construction and funding,” Holden
said. “School District 24 is overburdened
and I have made it my mission
to change that by fi ghting for locations
such as 78-16 Cooper Ave. and by working
closely with the SCA on multiple
locations.”
CEC 24 is calling for the Cooper
Avenue site to become a high school
to help relieve overcrowding in the
area as the district is one of the most
congested in the city.
The city Department of Homeless
Services began negotiations to create
a shelter at the location this summer,
months aft er it announced an earlier
shelter plan was off the table. Holden
intervened and said he would help
the agency fi nd a diff erent location to
house the homeless.
The councilman was fi rst to suggest
the Cooper Avenue site, recently
cleared in an environmental study for
asbestos, as a new public school site,
and announced the DHS’ cooperation
with his offi ce in that shelter search at
a September meeting.
While the 2018 city budget only included
$150 million to increase ADA
accessibility in schools, CEC 24 is calling
for $850 million in the 2020-2025
capital plan to increase accessibility
with only one in fi ve schools being
compliant with the law passed in 1990.
Citing a clause from the law itself,
CEC 24 seemed to make the argument
that the city was discriminating
in not fully funding the effort to
make every school compliant with
the law, leaving to students to seek
an education elsewhere and often
sacrifice the quality of learning in
the process.
“Students with physical disabilities
fi nd themselves cut off from the majority
of DOE schools because of architectural
barriers and are, instead, forced
to travel signifi cant distances and make
academic and curricular compromises
to attend schools they can physically
access,” the resolution read.
Only $100 million was approved
in the DOE 2015-2019 capital plan for
the renovations to make schools ADA
compliant while the eff ort to install an
elevator at P.S. 9 in Maspeth was slated
to cost up to $5 million, but has since
been canceled.
P.S. 9, on 57th Avenue, is a school
that serves mainly students with
disabilities such as autism and Down
syndrome.
One of the resolutions also calls for a
rezoning in order to build Q398 at the
location of 69-01 34th Ave. in Jackson
Heights which could possibly serve
around 475 students.
Barnwell, Nolan demand transparency on shelters
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan
is keeping the conversation
alive surrounding a proposed
homeless shelter at P.S. 9 on 57th Street
in Maspeth despite the Department of
Homeless Services (DHS) need to go
through a Uniform Land Use Review
Process to place residents at the
property.
Councilman Robert Holden has
been in talks with DHS Commissioner
Steve Banks who has said he is looking
at site with Community Board 5, but
P.S. 9 at 58-74 57th St. in Maspeth was
only briefl y considered.
Nolan and Assemblyman Brian
Barnwell issued a letter to Mayor Bill
de Blasio demanding to be included in
talks regarding homeless shelters in
their communities.
“We are opposed to any additional
shelters in our communities. We oppose
converting P9 into a shelter; a school
building is not an appropriate location
to place homeless individuals,” the letter
said. “School District 24 is one of the
most overcrowded school districts in the
city; we need more schools, not fewer.”
A ULURP application to turn P.S.
9 into a homeless shelter if the city
Department of Education were to walk
away from it would likely take up to
a year, although there is no evidence
that DHS has proposal for the site.
Holden said in an October Juniper
Park Civic Association meeting he is
working with the School Construction
Authority to turn the building at 78-16
Cooper Ave. into a school and CEC 24
backed the initiative in a set of resolutions
last week.
While P.S. 9 may have been in consideration
to be turned into a shelter,
Holden was in favor of the DOE moving
the students from the building
which is in a mainly industrial zone.
The facility, built around the turn of
the century is aging considerably and
does not have ADA accessibility for the
students who battle with conditions
such as autism and Down syndrome.
The letter stated the communities of
Community Boards 1, 2 and 5 “have no
ability to absorb homeless populations.”
File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
The former factory at 78-16 Cooper Ave. in Glendale
Photo via Google Maps
P.S. 9 in Maspeth
link
link
link
link
