Corona’s P.S. 315 To Serve Elementary Students
Community Education Council District 24 (CEC 24), in preparation for a new Corona school, laid the groundwork to create a new zone surrounding that facility and voted to truncate grades at a Woodside school at its monthly meeting last Tuesday, Apr. 29, at P.S. 58 in Maspeth.
Following a presentation by Emily Ades from the Office of District Planning on detailed plans to create a new zone for the elementary school in Corona, the council unanimously passed a resolution to relocate P.S. 110 students to the new site.
The new zone is needed to alleviate overcrowding at P.S. 307, P.S. 16, P.S. 19 and P.S. 13, according to Ades and CEC District 24 President Nick Comaianni.
P.S. 110 had been sharing space with St. Raphael’s in Long Island City while the new school was built.
The brand-new school, P.S. 315 is located at 96-18 43rd Ave. in Corona and will serve students from kindergarten to fifth grade.
Ades’ presentation included a proposed map for the new zone, set to be voted on by the council at its next meeting later this month. She distributed a map with the proposed new school zone borders.
The map is only a proposal, Ades advised, with a final draft to be based on recommendations from the council and feedback from the community.
“We will work with the CEC to draw a map and present it to the community,” she said.
“A rezoning surrounding the schools (is) so we can create a zone for the school,” she added.
The rationale for the new zone is twofold–to “alleviate overcrowding,” so kindergarten students can attend their district school without traveling very far, according to Ades.
The new school will house 1100 students, partially reducing overcrowing in the area, Ades said.
She added, “we need (even) more buildings in this district,” and “one of the biggest issues is students cannot attend their district school because of overcrowding.”
Ades mentioned the new site is convenient for Corona, will primarily serve students in that area and is centrally located within the proposed new zone.
She also explained that by regulations, students living in the new zone, or with siblings already attending will be given priority for admission.
All the information in Ades’ presentation is posted online so the DOE can get feedback on the proposal. Anyone interested can email to queenszoning @schools.nyc.gov.
The council also unanimously passed two other resolutions at last Tuesday’s meeting.
The second vote was to truncate grades at P.S. 125 in Woodside from 5-8 to 6-8, beginning in the 2014-15 school year.
Students entering fifth grade this fall that would have attended P.S. 125 will attend P.S. 199 beginning in September 2014.
A third resolution concerning charter schools was also passed by the council.
It opposes provisions in the New York State budget requiring the Department of Education provide space for charter schools in public schools buildings.
“Charter schools in NYC frequently displace public school students from existing school facilities and create overcrowded conditions,” the resolution said in part, read aloud by CEC 24 Vice President Peter Vercessi.
The council believes charter schools should not get special treatment, or have DOE funds available for operations.
“Charter schools in New York City have been shown by the city’s independent budget office to receive more public funding per pupil than public schools,” the resolution also noted. “Community Education Council 24 hereby calls upon Governor Cuomo to allow the mayor to oversee the usage of NYC public school space in accordance with the State Education Law of mayoral control.”
CEC awards Fedkowskyj
At last Tuesday’s meeting the council took time to thank former member Dmytro Fedkowskyj. He served on the CEC for six years and was a member of the Panel for Education Policy from 2008-2013.
He was honored by the council for advocating on behalf of new schools and projects to alleviate school overcrowding in Queens.
“I want to thank the CEC for working hard for this district, to protect the interests of this district,” Fedkowskyj said after receiving the award.
“We put 5,000 more seats in the district,” added Fedkowskyj, who is now running for State Assembly. “We needed 10,000 at the time. I can just only hope our new mayor will find those seats in Queens,” He added.
Comaianni then gave the group some background on their work together.
“We submitted a 250 page report on why we should get more seats,” Comaianni said. “They were so impressed that we knew what we were talking about.”
“It was a collective effort,” said Fedkowskyj.
New council members
Two vacant seats on the council were filled at the meeting by new members Matthew Bologna, and Carl Chiaramonte.
Comainni praised all the applicants for wanting to be involved, and thanked the candidates for their interest.
“There are districts out there that don’t even have enough people,” he said.
The potential members were reviewed by the council, the applications were narrowed down and at the meeting the two were each asked one question by Comaianni.
Both were accepted unanimously by the council members present at the meeting.
They will both serve the one year remaining of a two-year term, with new elections in July of 2015.
The next CEC District 24 meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 27 at 7 p.m. with the location to be determined.
