By Adam Kramer
It’s a done deal — three new schools will be built on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Glen Oaks.
Gov. George Pataki announced last week that the state has sold 32 acres on the grounds of Creedmoor to the New York City School Construction Authority to build new schools and fields to house more than 2,800 students.
“The sale of this state land in Queens will help provide nearly 3,000 students from Queens with more space and an enhanced learning environment,” Pataki said. “Rather than allowing this unused property to languish in the hands of a state bureaucracy, we are moving ahead with a terrific plan to put it back to work for the benefit of the children of New York City.”
The School Construction Authority, which bought the land for $12 million, plans to build a $195 educational campus on the property, serving students from School Districts 26 and 29.
The city Board of Education will build three schools, an outdoor playground and 250 parking places on 19.3 acres of a 32.7-acre plot of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital campus.
Two of the schools, covering prekindergarten through eighth grade, will be run by the Chancellor’s School District and a high school will be under the Queens High School Division.
The elementary schools will hold 1,685 students: a 760-seat PS/IS 266Q and a 925-seat PS/IS 208Q serving School Districts 26 and 29. The 1,182-seat high school – the High School of Teaching Professions – will be open to all Queens high school students.
“It has taken a long time to get to this point, but it is moving along very nicely,” said state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), who had suggested the site in a 1998 meeting with Borough President Claire Shulman and then-Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew. “The schools will have about 3,000 seats, which will not solve the boroughwide problem, but will put a dent in it.”
He said he hoped the high school, which will train students to become teachers, would one day solve the city’s teacher shortage.
District 26, which covers northeast Queens, and District 29, which includes a large segment of southeast Queens, now operate at 5 percent above capacity at the elementary school level and right at capacity at the intermediate school level, the SCA said. Queens high schools are 24 percent overcapacity, according to the agency.
The Glen Oaks School campus is to be at 78-70 Grand Central Parkway North, on a block bounded by Grand Central Parkway to the north, Commonwealth Boulevard to the east, Union Turnpike to the south and the Cross Island Parkway to the west.
The plan differs from the original proposal that called for a 704-seat elementary school, a 900-seat intermediate school and a 1,000-seat high school. The School Construction Authority said the schools are needed in both school districts and the high school division.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
