FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 14, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
New Flushing
playground debuts
Flushing residents have a brand new playground
to enjoy.
On June 4, local elected offi cials, community partners
and students and faculty from J.H.S. 189 and the
Flushing International School celebrated the unveiling
of a new $1 million playground. Located on the
rooft op area of the school, the park will be open to the
entire Flushing community during aft er-school hours
and on the weekends.
Th e new playground’s layout includes an artifi cial
turf fi eld, running track, handball wall, green-roof
gazebo, outdoor classroom and garden. Th e design
also features city Department of Environmental
Protection-designed green infrastructure, which will
capture 700,000 gallons of stormwater per year and
improve the health of Flushing Creek, according to
the city agency.
Students at both schools were involved in the planning,
design and budgetary process for the playground.
Th e experience provided hands-on learning
in science, technology, engineering and math.
Th e playground was funded by Queens Borough
President Melinda Katz’s offi ce, Councilman Peter
Koo, the MetLife Foundation and supporters of Th e
Trust for Public Land.
Suzanne Monteverdi
Off -duty cop arrested
for road rage
An off -duty cop was arrested aft er getting into a
violent road rage dispute early this morning near the
Brooklyn/Queens border.
According to police, at around 2 a.m. police offi cer
Emel Lyndl Alegre, 34, was driving on the Brooklyn-
Queens Expressway when he got into a dispute with a
42-year-old male driver.
Both drivers eventually pulled over at Metropolitan
Avenue, where authorities say that Alegre produced
a knife.
Alegre then punched the victim and slashed him
with the knife. Th e victim suff ered a slash to the back
of the head and refused medical attention at the scene.
Offi cers arrested Alegre shortly aft er the attack on
Metropolitan Avenue. He was charged with assault,
menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
Emily Davenport
Changes coming to
Flushing intersection
An active Flushing may soon see some long-awaited
safety changes.
Th e city’s Department of Transportation recently
presented to Community Board 7’s Transportation
Committee a proposal to bring a series of safety
improvements, including a left turn signal, to the
intersection of 26th Avenue, Francis Lewis Boulevard
and 169th Street. Th e committee voted overwhelmingly
in favor of the project.
Th e intersection, which is located near Holy Cross
High School, the Auburndale branch of the Queens
Library and local storefronts, has been a topic of concern
in recent years. In April 2017, state Senator Tony
Avella held a press conference at the site aft er DOT
denied a request for a left turn signal. Councilman
Paul Vallone has also written on behalf of constituents
to the city agency requesting safety changes.
Under the proposal, the city would increase the traffi
c light signal cycle at the site to 120 seconds, allowing
for a left turn signal and an increased pedestrian
crossing time. Pedestrian crosswalks would be painted
and widened to allow for safer crossings.
Suzanne Monteverdi
Photos by Suzanne Monteverdi/QNS
Parents rally in Flushing against city’s
move to change elite school admissions
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Dozens of concerned parents, students
and residents met in Flushing
last Friday to rail against the
city’s controversial move to eliminate
admissions testing to New
York City’s specialized public high
schools.
“Keep the test” was the rallying cry
from the group gathered at Queens
Crossing at the corner of 138th
Street and 39th Avenue on June 8.
Th e demonstration was organized in
the wake of Mayor Bill de Blasio and
Department of Education Schools
Chancellor Richard Carranza’s June
3 announcement they would seek
to eliminate the Specialized High
School Admission Test (SHSAT).
Currently, prospective students
for the city’s eight specialized public
high schools must take the SHSAT,
which is the sole exam required
for entry. Th e mayor’s plan, which
would eliminate the test entirely,
would reserve 45 percent of off ers for
the 5,000 available seats for black and
Hispanic students and base admissions
on elementary school grade
performance.
Th e June 8 rally was organized by
state Senator Toby Ann Stavisky,
who called the mayor and chancellor’s
move “disgraceful, dangerous
and divisive.”
“To the mayor and the chancellor,
I say, ‘Keep the test,’” Stavisky said.
Th e elimination of the SHSAT
would require state legislation. On
June 7, State Assembly Speaker Carl
Heastie announced that lawmakers
would not be voting on the bill
(A.10427-A) during this session,
which is scheduled to end on June
20.
Assemblyman Ron Kim, who
serves on the education committee,
voted “no” on the motion to pass the
legislation.
“We cannot achieve diversity
when we are pitting entire communities
of people against each other.
Th at is not what New York City is
about,” Kim said.
A number of local leaders who
spoke said the move unfairly targets
Asian Americans, who currently
make up 62 percent of students at
the specialized schools. Some made
reference to the newly appointed
schools chancellor’s recent comments
on Fox 5 New York.
“I just don’t buy into the narrative
that any one ethnic group
owns admission to these schools,”
Carranza said in response to the
claims on June 5.
“Asian Americans are not privileged;
nor do we believe we ‘own
the classrooms,’” executive director
of CUNY’s Asian American/Asian
Research Institute Joyce Moy said on
June 8. “We support diversity and
quality education. Our community
has been historically excluded, marginalized
and scapegoated. We have
had to fi ght for every seat, at every
table. We cannot allow seats to be
arbitrarily taken from us when we
have earned them.”
Caroline Xiong, a student at Little
Neck’s M.S. 67 who will attend
Hunter College High School next
year, said she took an eight-hour
class every day over last summer
to prepare for the school’s entrance
exam. She said taking away the
SHSAT will impact fellow hardworking
students who have prepared
to take the exam for years.
“It was a really stressful process
and I was really happy that I got in
and my hard work payed off ,” she
said. “When you work hard, you
want to be recognized for it. To get
rid of the test, it makes the people
who worked hard their whole life
kind of feel like it was all a waste.”
At the rally, Xiong held up a poster
board displaying a petition she wrote
to keep the test. Approximately 60
classmates signed onto the petition,
which is addressed to Assembly
members.
“Our dedication to our studies
directly correlate to the goal of
attending a good school,” the petition
reads. “Without the SHSAT,
that dream is in jeopardy. We should
all have the right to succeed based on
our eff orts.”
Th e eight specialized high schools
that base their admissions solely on
SHSAT scores include the Bronx
High School of Science, Queens
High School for the Sciences at York
College and Stuyvesant High School.
A total of 10 percent of specialized
high school students are black or
Latino, compared to nearly 70 percent
citywide, according to the mayor’s
offi ce.
“Th ere are talented students all
across the fi ve boroughs, but for far
too long our specialized high schools
have failed to refl ect the diversity of
our city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in
a statement released on June 3. “We
cannot let this injustice continue. By
giving a wider, more diverse pool
of our best students an equal shot
at admissions, we will make these
schools stronger and our city fairer.”
Attendees hold up signage at the Flushing rally on June 8
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