Schools

No New Classrooms For Growing School District

City's Five-Year Capital Spending Plan Doesn't Include Money For Classroom Construction, Expansion In District 26

Zero.

That's the number of new classrooms on tap for District 26, which includes Little Neck, according to a recently-released amendment to the city's Five-Year Capital Plan sent by deputy schools chancellor Kathleen Grimm.

In a letter dated Nov. 12, Grimm recommended a 50,000 seat increase for city schools. To pay for it, she wants an increase in the $11. 7 billion funding level agreed to in February by $4.4 billion to address new capacity and technology needs.

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However, none of those new seats will be in northeastern Queens.

"Right now, we have the best schools in city, but that won't be true if we don't address the issue of class size," said Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, reacting to a copy of the spending plan released to elected officials and school board presidents in the last two weeks.

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Without the funding to construct and expand classrooms in place, School District 26's estimated 3,000 seat shortfall will only widen in the coming years, Halloran said.

Reached Friday afternoon, Community District Education Council president Rob Caloras presented a more complex mix of needs across the district.

"We do have a deficit," Caloras said. "We also have some schools that are busting at the seams and others that are not."

As for the specifics of the five-year capital spending plan, Caloras said he wanted to reserve judgment until he had a chance to review the 17-page amendment.

In the past five years, Caloras said that there have been only two capital projects resulting in the creation of additional seats at schools in District 26.

One of those projects involved the placement of classroom trailers at in Little Neck; the other, the construction of an annex at P.S. 188 in Oakland Gardens.

If the amendment is approved, lack of new classroom funding would be less than welcome news to District 26 parents like Jackie Soto and Cerdi Beltre, who at a CDEC meeting Wednesday about overcrowding at their sons' Gifted and Talented class at P.S. 115 in Glen Oaks.

CDEC 26 will hold a meeting Dec. 15 to discuss the capital plan. 


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