Timeline for Opening Maspeth HS Discussed, Push Continues for Local Zone

By Eric Yun

A community meeting to discuss the opening of the new 1,000-seat high school currently under construction at the former Restaurant Depot site in Maspeth turned testy as parents and civic groups demanded the school be locally zoned.

Held at P.S. 58 by the City Department of Education’s Office of Portfolio and Planning, the meeting included a discussion of the timeline of the school opening and the type of school parents wanted for their children.

Earlier this year, a survey was conducted to determine what type of school parents wanted to see at the new site. The overwhelming response was for a regular high school without any special pilot programs. The school should have strong college and job prep courses and state of the art technology. One parent spoke about the need for a “normal” high school. This school would be competitive academically and feature various sports and clubs.

Alex Shub from Portfolio said he understand parents want a competitive school that sets kids up for future success, and he “guarantees we can build a school that can do just that.”

There is a complicated timeline for the opening of the new school. Currently, proposals from prospective principals are being evaluated to see if there are any that match the community needs. If a leader is found before mid-December, the school can be fast-tracked to open in 2011. Under this scenario the school would be incubated at the recently opened Metro High School, meaning extra space there would be used until the Maspeth site opens in 2012.

If a suitable principal is not found by mid-December, the city will not rush to open the school. Instead, it will wait to select a principal’s proposal until the spring or fall and open the school in 2012.

The issue most parents wanted to discuss, however, was the idea of zoning the school locally. The DOE generally likes to provide all city students a choice when it comes to attending a high school. After months of debate and community input, the city has decided to give School District 24 priority. This means that any student from District 24 that puts the new high school first in their application will have the first priority of entering the school. Afterwards, the school would be filled with anybody throughout the city.

The biggest fear from parents is their children who live just blocks away will lose a chance to attend the new school because another District 24 student from areas such as Ridgewood or Corona are admitted. In the unlikely event all Dis- trict 24 eighth graders apply for the new school a random lottery will be held to see who is admitted.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Mid- dle Village) stressed the importance of being calm. “We have to work together to make the most out of this new school,” she said. It is important to understand the admission process, and Crowley believes kids who truly want to go to this school will be able to be admitted.

There were some who believed settling for a District 24 school instead of a locally zoned school is despicable. Robert Holden, President of the Juniper Park Civic Association, bickered with Crowley over the decision. “We want our kids to walk to school. We demand a locally zoned school,” Holden said. Holden believes Crowley, who voted against the project in the City Council, has now completely given up the fight to have the school locally zoned.

Republican candidate for the State Senate Anthony Como also promised to fight for a locally zoned school. “The fight is never over until we win,” he said. “Until we win for a locally zoned school, the fight never ends.”

Officials Want More Metro Ave HS Seats for Glendale Students

By Conor Greene

As the Metropolitan Avenue school complex gets closer to its anticipated opening this fall, the battle over who gets to occupy the building is continuing with officials pushing for more seats for students in the Glendale area.

On Monday, members of Community Board 5’s Education Committee agreed to present three resolutions to the full board regarding the new complex, with features a 1,000 seat high school to be shared between District 24 and District 28, along with a 1,000seat 6-12 school dedicated solely for District 28.

The three resolutions call for 200 additional seats in the high school for students in District 24 so the two districts would more evenly split the total number of new high school seats. It also asks that a “second tier” be created so that priority shifts to students in PS 91’s zone if the 125 seats in each grade level currently assigned to District 24 aren’t filled from students in the PS/IS 87 and PS/IS 113 areas. The third resolution asks that the high school be opened to both ninth and tenth graders in its first year, instead of just freshmen as proposed.

The resolutions were expected to be voted on by the full CB 5 membership at its monthly meeting this past Wednesday. Check next week’s Forum West for an update on the vote.

In December, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) wrote to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein asking that a secondary zone be created limited to District 24 students to ensure the area doesn’t lose part of its 125 seat allocation. “The people of Glendale and Middle Village are in dire need of high school options and those families just outside the local zone should be given preference… before the school opens up to the rest of Queens,” she wrote.

Two weeks later, Crowley wrote to Klein to request that “immediate action” is taken to alleviate “dire overcrowding” in District 24. She proposed that the new Maspeth High School, which won’t be ready until 2012, be opened up in the available space at the Metropolitan Avenue complex, since that facility won’t be filled to capacity for several years. Once the Maspeth High School is complete, the students, teachers and administrators would simply move to the new building.

“As I understand, the [DOE] plans to incrementally ‘grow’ the two new schools located on the Metropolitan Avenue Complex,” wrote Crowley. “During the first years these schools are open the building will be at approximately 25% capacity. I believe we can take immediate action to alleviate the overcrowding of Queens high schools without sacrificing the level of education… If we act now to put together a school leadership team and have the administration for the Maspeth High School to start teaching children as early as the fall of this year.”

The issue of only opening the next high school up to one grade at a time has been met with criticism from some officials and parents due to the current situation. “The DOE’s argument that new schools do better when grades are phased in does merit consideration, but our Queens high schools are massively overcrowded, so delaying utilization of 1,000 new high school seats for many years can’t be in the best interested of our Queens high school students,” Dmytro Fedkowskyj, who is a CB 5member and the Borough President’s appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy, told The Forum.

The DOE said last month that parents and officials had several weeks to comment on the proposed zoning boundaries. The department didn’t immediately return a message for comment on the zoning proposal or the plan to open the school only to 9th grade, and Crowley’s office didn’t receive a formal response to either December letter.

The overcrowding situation in Queens has forced a number of high schools to operate on split sessions. According to Fedkowskyj, Francis Lewis is at 175% capacity on five sessions, Forest Hills High School is at 160% capacity on three sessions, Cardozzo is at 150% capacity on three sessions, and both Grover Cleveland and Newtown are at about 120% capacity while operating on multiple sessions.

At Monday’s meeting, attendees including D24 President Nick Comaianni suggested the three requests be submitted to the DOE as separate resolutions to prevent them all from being rejected at once. “Taking seats away from Forest Hills to give to us is not happening,” he said. “The reality is, Forest Hills will fight tooth and nail for those seats.”