FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 14, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Success Academy cuts ribbon for Ozone Park school
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMEDSCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
QNS
Success Academy parents, students and
educators were gathered with Congressman
Gregory Meeks to celebrate the opening
of Success Academy Ozone Park Middle
School with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on
Monday, Oct. 4.
Th e space for the new school, which
opened in August and serves 250 Success
Academy Queens fi ft h- and sixth-grade
students, was provided by the city in late
May, aft er years of tenacious advocacy by
thousands of parents and educators who
received support from elected offi cials.
Representatives of Senator James Sanders
Jr., Assemblyman Khaleel Anderson
and Councilwoman Adrienne Adams were
in attendance for the event.
“Today we live in a global society. Our
young people no longer compete within their
block, within their neighborhood, within
their city, state or nation,” Meeks said. “Th ey
have to be ready to compete with people all
around the world, and we here in New York,
especially in Queens County, we have to
make sure we benefi t and include ourselves
in this global society. Th at’s a key issue we
have to deal with and you have to have the
education to do that.”
Meeks added, “It takes a team to make
sure you are educated in a facility that is also
conducive for that learning. It also shows
young people that you care. You care about
their education. You care about their environment.
When they grow up knowing that
adults care about who they are and where
they are, and how they learn and what they
do — it’s something that is transformative.”
Th e city agreed to provide the building,
Congressman Gregory Meeks, a student and Success Academy Founder Eva Moscowitz cut the red ribbon at the new Success Academy middle school in
Ozone Park.
a former Catholic school located at 109-55
128th St., in May, when the students’ temporary
co-location at I.S. 238 in Hollis was
about to expire.
According to Success Academy, the new
building required signifi cant work. Due to
the last-minute timing of the off er in late
May, the SA renovations team was tasked
with a top-to-bottom renovation of the
space — including all new electrical and
plumbing systems, demolition, rebuilding,
painting, tiling and fl ooring — in just over
two months.
Although Success Academy had fi rst requested
space from the city in 2017, school
offi cials said Mayor Bill de Blasio had failed
to act until 2019, when parent advocacy
groups kept pushing demanding accountability
and a space for their kids to learn.
In September of 2019, more than 4,000
advocates gathered to rally for education
equity in Roy Wilkins Park and began appealing
for help.
Over the next 18 months, they sent 19,000
emails and made over 2,300 phone calls to
elected offi cials asking for their support.
Th is included multiple press conferences,
including one with more than 200 southeast
Queens fourth-graders, who would’ve been
left without seats for the next school year.
Photo courtesy of Success Academy
Before a tour of the new school, sixthgrader
Ayden Brotherson said being in the
building gave him personal satisfaction
knowing that he was part of the fi ght for a
new school.
“I would like to thank the many people
who have been instrumental in the
preparation of this new building for us,
but also remind us that currently our
brothers and sisters at Success Academy
Far Rockaway are in a space fi ght of their
own,” Brotherson said. “Let us all use this
experience to be reminded that if we stand
together we can accomplish what might
seem impossible.”
A powerful donation
BY QNS STAFF
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Schneps Media presented a check in
the amount of $2,550 to AABR, our
charity partner for this year’s Power
Women of Queens.
Libby Traynor, LCSW,
AABR executive director, was among
this year’s illustrious group of honorees.
AABR is a nonprofi t organization that
since 1956 has provided support for
more than 1,000 individuals throughout
the New York metropolitan region.
Services span 30-day habilitation and
educational programs, and AABR provides
housing for over 160 individuals in
23 community residences.
Within the AABR family of
programs is t h e
acclaimed New York Child Learning
Institute (NYCLI), a pioneering school
for children with autism.
Pictured left to right are Tonia N.
Cimino, events concierge; Libby Traynor;
Joseph Sirica, events concierge; and Sue
Vener, director and principal of the New
York Child Learning Institute.
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