Lights, camera, action on the new school year and the opening of a brand new school building in Long Island City.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott met with local elected officials, representatives and school leaders on Monday to take a tour of the new Hunter’s Point Campus, located at 1-50 51st Avenue, on the first day of classes.
During the walk through the building, Walcott visited a special education, middle school and high school classroom to meet with students and view their lessons.
“The Hunter’s Point Campus offers a state-of-the-art facility for students and staff,” said Walcott. “There are brand new science rooms at the middle school and students at the Academy for Careers in Television and Film have a unique vista of Manhattan from the building’s terrace that will help them perfect their filming and editing skills.”
The new school is part of the Hunter’s Point South development project which broke ground in March on the first phase of construction and opened the Hunter’s Point South Park last month. The building houses a middle school, with 12 classrooms and two special education classrooms, and The Academy for Careers in Television and Film high school, which made its move from 36-41 28th Street in Long Island City. With both schools, the building has a capacity of 1,071 students.
“My whole school community,parents, students and staff alike were just blown away to come here every morning,” said Edgar Rodriguez, principal of the Academy for Careers in Television and Film high school. “The kids are extremely happy, the staff had an amazing day. Everything turned out quite positive.”
The campus has a shared gymnasium, separate boys’ and girls’ locker rooms for both schools, a library, auditorium, tech center, speech room, cafeteria, full sized kitchen, art room, music room, science lab, prep lab, science demo rooms and resource rooms.
“We started from the bottom and now we’re here,” said high school senior Brandon Bass, 17, from Jamaica.
The high school now has 14 standard classrooms, two special educations classrooms and a student general store.
“The new school is nice, it’s awesome,” said senior Justin Bruggemann, 18, from Flushing. “I love it. I’m excited for the school year.”
Walcott also participated in a practice filming session with the students on the school’s fourth floor balcony which overlooks the Manhattan skyline.
“It feels great, it’s a big change. It’s all brand new,” said senior Lesley Ptacek, 16, from Jackson Heights. “It’s great we’re meeting the Chancellor and showing him what we have learned.”
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