Record School Construction Program Expanding In Queens

The current $1.7 billion Queens construction program calling for 34 new schools and expansion of thirteen existing facilities, is going full blast:
Eight new schools are currently under construction.
Sites for eight more have been selected and construction is scheduled to start.
Sites for 12 schools are waiting to be selected.
Sixteen new schools are being designed.
Over 4,875 additional seats are being added to thirteen expanded schools.
Eleven high schools are in various stages of design.
The new budget also includes additional funds for necessary repairs of existing schools, as well as construction of two state-mandated pre-kindergarten schools.
Queens Borough President Claire Shulman, who has already established a "war room" to monitor problems generated by the boroughs overcrowded classrooms, declared that the new facilities will barely keep pace with Queens fast-growing school population.
"This expanded construction schedule," she stated, "is not a holiday gift for our youngsters, but a recognition of their birthright."
A recent report issued by Public Advocate Mark Green claimed that six of New York Citys ten most crowded school districts (S.D.) were located in Queens. Three quarters of Queens 174 elementary schools, he said, are operating at more than 99 percent of their capacities.
The Board of Education construction schedule borders on the hectic, with S.D. 24 (6,000 seats in ten new or expanded schools) and S.D. 27 (5,700 seats in eight new or expanded schools) receiving the major share of upgraded facilities. However, both S.D. 29 and 30, are each slated to receive additional facilities containing over 3,300 additional classroom seats.
Three less crowded districts will receive a smaller share: S.D. 25 will get about 1,500 seats, S.D. 26 receives 760 seats, and S.D. 28 gets 650 seats.
Educators will be watching two key aspects of this program: adequate staffing in new or enlarged facilities, and the ultimate locations of the new high schools now being designed by the Board of Educations engineers.
Current plans call for eleven new high schools to be built in Queens, accommodating 9,300 students who will be sent from the drastically expanding elementary and intermediate school system.
Sites for most of these high schools have not been determined, nor have their staffing requirements been announced.