Education Committee Panel 2022

Panelists:

Doctor Composto, Superintendent District 30

Zeeshan Ott - School Construction Authority, External Affairs

Morry Galonoy - Community Board 2 Chair

Deb Alexander, CEC30 Member

Cathy Nolan - Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan

Julie Won - Councilwoman District 26

Additional Notes/Resources

Live recording of the event can be rewatched here

Question 1: Can SCA provide a status of situating the new Elementary School in Court Square that was promised in 2018, is $60M enough given PS384 cost $67.5M and it seems SCA has not been able to negotiate / find a proper site for several years?

SCA: I know it is frustrating to be in the same spot the last few years. We have had several conversations that unfortunately have not turned into workable sites. At this point we still have a couple properties we are still actively exploring and having positive conversations. We do not release any public conversations since it typically creates a bidding war, especially when there is strong community interest for a location. We have seen it increases the cost for the properties. That said we are always looking for suggestions, it is always helpful for us to get suggestions, local residents can contact us below. SCA does require certain parameters such as 20,000 sqft and two street frontages.

http://www.nycsca.org/Community/New-School-Sites

Siting parameters: http://www.nycsca.org/Real-Estate/Overview

Site suggestions can be sent to: Sites@nycsca.org

It’s also great CEC30 and CB2 is here, once a site is selected for example the site needs to go to City Council for approval but before it goes to CM, a public hearing is required which will go through Community Board 2 and CEC30. In terms of the budget, we are fully funded for the project, I think the siting challenge has been more about finding sellers who want to sell for this purpose as well as finding suitable properties, which has been particularly difficult in the Court Square area given the size and development ready sites. As mentioned we are still in active conversations on a couple of sites right now.

Audience Question: Can a school be part of a larger building? (Yes, it can be)

Nolan: I want to say to our friends in SCA. This is a 30 year old development in LIC, and it’s annoying it’s not your fault but as the messenger we are still jerking around on schools when everybody knows these large buildings are being built. And everybody has known for 40 years it’s being built. I also see in the chat about a question of co-locating a school in a larger building. The City for awhile was doing rentals, and there were many problems with that which we now see with Covid in terms of the windows and ventilation, so the City prefers to build out. And these developments should had been built out in mind. I do see a lot of support for this from Dr Composto, and our new Councilwoman Julie Won, so we must get this done. Personally this is very important to me as many of you know Nicholas went to PS78.

To SCA I want to say it’s not up to us to find the site, but this is not small. In LIC it is very dense now, and there are tens of thousands of people who want to send their children to public schools. And whatever I can do, please let me know. The school by the waterfront for example gets significant money from the NY State that I’ve brought into the District.

CB2 : It is not local residents job to go out and find real estate sites. SCA needs to do it’s jobs and situate a new school site as promised.

CSCA: Just for Zeeshan knows, we have been sending potential community sites to the SCA for many years, since he may not be aware as he is new to the SCA team. The community has been active for quite some time in sending out potential sites.

Question 2: How does the DOE plan to handle the vaccine for school age children? Will it be mandatory at some point? If so, when?

DOE: There are no current guidance regarding vaccinations for students or a conversation about that. I do want to remind everyone though that vaccines are the best way to fight Covid and for those interested they should get vaccinated. At this point there is no mandate for our children to be vaccinated.

Nolan: We’ve been working hard to make sure everybody gets PPE. Do want to thank Mayor Adams and give credit where it’s due, we’ve given PPE out to elected officials and distributed them to local civic groups and others within the community. Do want to make sure we’re working hard to address Covid-issue.

Won: I want to reiterate what Assembly member and Dr Composto said, I have been surveying every single school. And most of the schools we’ve visited over 30 out of the 40 planned, we do have higher vaccinate rates in our District than elsewhere but we are going to continue to work with our Schools to get the vaccinate rates higher and encourage more to vaccinate.

DOE: There are sites now all over Queens Blvd. If there is a need or desire, we can certainly ask for it and get a van over to the school for additional vaccine sites.

Question 3: The governor has been planning to revisit the mask issue when schools return after break. Are there positivity rates or benchmarks the DOE is looking for to remove the mask mandate?

CSCA: Breaking news, according to the latest reports by the Mayor to remove the mask mandate in schools but let’s ask the question anyway to Dr Composto.

DOE: I don’t know what numbers they are looking for but it does look like the numbers are low enough so it will be effective March 7th I believe. I am very comfortable listening to our Mayor and for our children that the ban has been lifted for children outside. We are moving forward in the right direction

Nolan: I do want to say, and thank our new Council member who is going out there to all the schools. But I think it’s hard for us and the Council and the Assembly, this is the Executive branch making these decisions based on CDC guidelines. But I do agree there does need to be something better if god forbid something happens again, some sort of guidelines or metrics. And maybe there should be a bill that requires the Governor to check the CDC or State Health Dept so we hope that is what people are doing but we don’t necessarily know. The State of Emergency however gave the Governor a lot of power, and it was appropriate at that time but we’ve seen how things have been a little chaotic. I am a little hesitate about a legislative bill to see if it could happen but if people have thoughts on these things, they can contact me or my team.

Won: I don’t have anything to add at this time.

CB2: Just to chime in, I do agree with Assemblywoman, there are conflicting information we do see from different sources. I would want to see some clear path following the science, whether it’s CDC or State Health, it would be good to have.

Question 4: LIC will get a new Elementary School by HPS, on Parcel C, those schools were meant to accommodate growing populations by the waterfront, not Court Square, although families attend those schools today. Can you advise how HPD Parcels D & E (targeting an RFP for land-use development) will affect overall school capacity in LIC? 

CB2: I apologize, I am going to have to defer. I am still new to this role at CB2 but maybe somebody can give me more input on this. SCA can you help?

SCA: Yes, the rezoning process did account for the parcel developments. F being 384 now, and C which is coming were factored in for the new population count. Additionally we do update our seat population annually and sometimes more than that which comes from enrollment numbers and other factors. So even if there are changes that were proposed from the initial environmental review process, we do look at that. We are fully funded for the Parcel C site and the Court Square site and we believe that will accommodate the entire area.

Question: Any updates on Parcel C?

SCA: We are still trying to work with Amtrak as we have to go over the rail lines. I think we might have an update in the next 2ish months, but we are still waiting from our real estate team.

Question: Parcel D and E, what use will it be identified?

SCA: I can’t speak to that, it would be more an HPD specific. If you look at the original environmental review docs, for the two sites the expected count was 6650 housing units between both sites for A and B. So they did anticipate residential development there. In terms of the specific RFP I can’t say it would depend on HPD.

Question 5: Can you tell us how the zoning changes for PS 384 will impact school capacity for the new school in Court Square, or will there be a new process?

CEC30: You all know PS384 is a non-zoned school and we are working through the zoning process. But because of the seat question I wanted to ask, should zoning go in a particular way where you look holistically at the whole area, it’s possible a whole new plan comes into the area, if that happens potentially that could help the overall school capacity. It’s a different way of looking at seat availability which we are examining in the zoning process.

CSCA: Enrollment is going down across the District. So you are saying if you look at rezoning the whole area, there may be other schools families in LIC could realistically look at?

CEC30: Yes, however this is not finalized and again as mentioned this is an ongoing zoning process with community engagement with lots of ideas and options on the table. This could mean many things with a lot of different thoughts out there. We have to see if enrollment numbers stay down or if it was Covid related but there will be a lot of community engagement in March/April, the CEC does plan to hold a vote in the fall. For those interested they can follow details at www.cec30.org

DOE: Nothing else to add but I would say we have to hear from the community. It’s important we hear from all our stakeholders, and make sure we look at offering personalized kids and making sure every kid is treated as Gifted & Talented.

Nolan: Want to offer support for DOE, we do have excellent schools in District 30 and it’s important we are proud of that. If there is anything else we can do, during my term if there is money for an older school I can assist with, please let me know. There are different things elected officials can do whether renovating cafeteria or adding in a new dance studios, etc. Historically the area has had overcrowding in schools and that’s where we had those trailers in the past. I do want to go back to the SCA at some point with the Amtrak that is not an acceptable answer we cannot keep kicking it around and they need to address Parcel C and move foward.

Question 6: Can you provide more details about the Brilliance Program replacing the Gifted and Talented Program?

DOE: did have 3000 parents come out for engagement and reimagine education. One thing I was happy to hear him say, the new educational chancellor is he is not touching the G&T program but enhancing it. He’s going to not dismantle our specialized high schools but add to them and make it more differentiated so we can have personalized programs and education for our children. On the business side and career he is going to focus on partnering with big companies which is also great. It feels we are going in the right direction, as it’s about finding out what our children need and then finding the right path for them. This is not confirmed but again I believe they will be heading in the right direction, and he is interested in engaging in our communities which is all of us.

CSCA: So no changes in programming or curriculum for fall 2022 school year?

Won: Want to say the chancellor did take his seat, I have also been engaged with them too. And our community is very engaged, for those middle school students who historically would have been testing G&T but now there is no guidance on what is to replace it. I haven’t heard anything but as soon as we do we will make sure to inform everybody.