March 13, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
Plans for the two elementary schools long slated for Hunters Point at last reached the City Council, with a subcommittee unanimously approving their locations yesterday.
This vote paves the way for an expected approval from the full City Council on March 15. The SCA plans for construction on one of the schools to start soon afterward, sometime in late spring.
The schools, one at 54th Avenue and 2nd Street, and another at 57th Avenue, would bring over 1,180 seats to the area, and serve grades Pre-K to 5.
Both schools will form part of the city’s larger Hunters Point South development, and are located in Parcels C and F of the massive affordable housing project.
The school at parcel C, going by PS 341 with an address of 1-50 54th Ave., will seat 572 students in a four-story building, according to Kelly Murphy, director of real estate for the SCA.
The site will sprawl out to about 77,000 square feet, she added, and will include an early childhood playground and a separate playground for older students. Both playgrounds will be at ground level.
The school building will also house students from District 75, which provides special education, on their own floor.
The other school, PS 375, is located at 1-35 57th Ave., and will have 612 seats. The school will also be four floors high, and will have a ground level playground.
The schools will feature common school amenities like art, music, and science classrooms, reading resource rooms, and classrooms for special education. The two schools will also have “gymnatoriums,” which are spaces that double as a gymnasium and an auditorium.
Both schools are expected to be open in 2021, but plans for the school on parcel F are much further along than for parcel C, Murphy said, given the issues that came up with underground infrastructure there, including Amtrak tunnels.
Murphy told the subcommittee yesterday that preliminary infrastructure work will be completed for the school at parcel F in the coming weeks, with construction expected to start sometime in late spring.
Meanwhile, preliminary infrastructure work is under way at parcel C.
“We are still calling it 2021,” Murphy said of the parcel C school. “But that’s not as firm [as parcel F] because of Amtrak issues.”
Michael Mirisola, director of external affairs for the SCA, said their agency will be “ready to go” in terms of the school’s design and construction, and will essentially be waiting for Amtrak and other parties to fall in line.
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Long Island City) personally appeared at the City Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses hearing to describe a desperate need for these two schools his overcrowded district.
“We have had a crisis in and around this vast, growing part of my district,” Van Bramer said. “We are pushing incredibly hard for even more schools. But by hearing this, parents and families in Long Island City will breathe a little easier knowing that help is on the way.”
Van Bramer stressed to the SCA that the two schools cannot be built fast enough.
“We need to make sure that we do right by the families and children of Long Island City,” Van Bramer said. “This is a great step in the right direction.”