P.S./I.S. 87 Extension Project Underway
When the students of P.S./I.S. 87 return from their summer vacation to their Middle Village school next week, they will find that work has begun on the long-anticipated extension of the school building, which will provide additional classrooms, athletic space and other facilities.
City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley announced the start of the $24 million project in a press release issued on Tuesday, Aug. 28. Once completed, she noted, the addendum to the existing building will include classrooms accommodating 125 students as well as a new music room, a gymnasium and extra bathrooms.
“Parents deserve to send their child to a local school with small class sizes and the resources necessary to ensure a quality education,” Crowley stated. “This new extension will help P.S./I.S. 87 meet these goals. Whether it’s working on their jump shots or learning the clarinet, students will finally have the proper facilities in smaller class sizes for a well-rounded education.”
Members of the P.S./I.S. 87 school community had advocated for the construction of the extension since additional grades were added in 2002. Previously a school accommodating students from kindergarten through fifth grade, the school was expanded to a full-fledged elementary campus educating children through the eighth grade.
While the Department of Education (DOE) had plans in the works for such an addition to the building, they were reportedly scrapped in the wake of the city’s economic crisis following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Even so, in the years that followed, parents, students and teachers at P.S./I.S. 87 continued the lobby the DOE to expand the campus, charging that the students lacked adequate classroom space and a gymnasium. One particular point of trouble was the lack of bathroom space, as the existing building only has two toilets (one for each gender) on the first and second floors.
Crowley and then-Schools Chancellor Joel Klein toured P.S./I.S. 87 in November 2009 as she worked with parents and educators on the long-delayed plans for the school extension. Klein returned there the following April for a town hall meeting hosted by Community Education Council District 24.
At that session, the former chancellor was met with a crowd of parents, students and teachers who voiced their support for the extension’s construction.
The project was eventually added to the DOE’s five-year capital plan and funding was approved by the City Council in July 2010.
