State Bill To Boost Classroom Construction
To address overcrowded classrooms in southern Queens and Rockaway and across New York City, Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder announced that legislation requiring the School Construction Authority and the Department of Education to factor in future population growth when developing their five year educational facilities capital plan was signed into law.
“As a parent of two young children, it is unacceptable that any child is forced to learn out of a trailer because their school simply needs the extra space,” said Goldfeder. “This new law will alleviate future overcrowding and provide our schools with smaller classroom sizes and our students with the right learning environment they need to be successful.”
Specifically, the new law (A.10108/S.07873) authorizes the SCA to enter into agreements and work with city’s office of City Planning and Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Buildings and Housing Preservation and Development to help project classroom size and eliminate or reduce potential future overcrowding.
This law will ensure the SCA and the chancellor not only consider the current school population in neighborhoods across Queens, but also the growing populations of the communities when making important construction decisions, Goldfeder added.
Recently, City Comptroller Scott Stringer released in a report that a third of the city’s elementary schools were at 138 percent of capacity in 2012. Additionally, according to the Census Bureau population estimates, New York City increased 230,704 residents or about 2.8 percent over the 2010 mark with the second largest change of the city’s population occurring in Queens. The borough has grown by 2.9 percent or 65,500 new residents in less than three years.
