Co-location of a New School, P.S. 873 (24Q873), with I.S. 73 in Q873

I.    Description of the subject and purpose of the proposed item under consideration.

Beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, P.S. 873 (24Q873, “P.S. 873”) a new school that will serve grades K-5, will open in school building Q873 (hereinafter referred to as “Q873”), an annex to school building Q073, located at 70-02 54 Avenue, Queens in Community School District 24 (“District 24”).  P.S. 873 will be a zoned elementary school, and it will open with approximately 50-75 Kindergarten students in 2010-2011. P.S. 873 will phase-in one new grade per year until it grows to its full scale with approximately 270-350 students in grades Kindergarten-5 in 2015-2016. P.S. 873 will be co-located in Q873 with I.S. 73 - The Frank Sansivieri Intermediate School (24Q073, “I.S. 73”), an existing school currently serving grades 6-8.  The 2008-2009 target utilization rate of Q873 was 82%, and its target capacity is 425.

I.S. 73 currently houses its grade 6 students in Q873, and its grade 7 and 8 students are housed in its main building, Q073. The 2008-2009 target utilization rate of Q073 was 86%, and its target capacity is 1,554.  There are no other schools housed in Q073.  The enrollment of I.S. 73 has been steadily decreasing over the past several years. I.S. 73 enrolls students in both 6th and 7th grade, as it has K-5 and K-6 feeder elementary schools. Two of I.S. 73’s feeder elementary schools, P.S. 049 Dorothy Bonawit Kole (24Q049, “P.S. 49”) and P.S. 102 Bayview (24Q102, “P.S. 102”) are currently expanding to K-8, contributing to the decline in I.S. 73’s enrollment. In fact, I.S. 73’s current 7th grade class is much smaller than its current 8th grade class. This year, I.S. 73 will graduate approximately 715 grade 8 students, while grade 7 contains approximately 590 students. Due to the matriculation of this large 8th grade class and I.S. 73’s lower enrollment trends, particularly in the 7th grade, beginning in 2010-2011, there will be space in Q073 for I.S. 73 to begin gradually transferring back some of its 6th grade sections that are currently served at Q873 to Q073 in order to create space in Q873 for P.S. 873. Eventually, all of I.S. 73’s 6th grade sections will be served in the main building.

Based on current enrollment trends, Q873 will have sufficient space for the phase-in of P.S. 873 and for some of I.S. 73’s 6th grade sections; and in the long term, Q873 will have sufficient space for P.S. 873 and Q073 will have sufficient space for I.S. 73 to operate at full organizational capacity. However, as P.S. 873 phases-in at Q873, the Department of Education (“DOE”) will continue to consider the available space in Q873 and in Q073 and will monitor enrollment trends at I.S. 73 to make a determination regarding whether P.S. 873 can remain in Q873 in the long-term. The combined projected enrollment in 2010-2011 for P.S. 873 and I.S. 73 is approximately 1,650, and the combined capacity of Q073 and Q873 is 1,979. At scale, the projected enrollment of I.S. 73 is 1,500-1,550 and the capacity of Q073 is 1,554; the projected enrollment of P.S. 873 is 270-350 and the capacity of Q873 is 425.

The co-location of P.S. 873 in Q873 addresses the need to relieve elementary school overcrowding in District 24.

II.    Information regarding where the full text of the proposed item may be obtained.

The Educational Impact Statement can be found on the Department of Education’s Web site:

http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/PEP/publicnotice/April_Vote

III.  Submission of public comment.

Written comments can be sent to D24Proposals@schools.nyc.gov.
Oral comments can be left at 718-935-4198.

IV.      The name, office, address, email and telephone number of the city district representative, knowledgeable on the item under consideration, from whom information may be obtained concerning the item.

Name: Natalie Ondiak
Office: Office of Portfolio Planning
Address: 52 Chambers St
Email: Portfolio@schools.nyc.gov
Phone: 212-374-3482

V.        Date, time and place of joint public hearing for this proposal.   

April 14, 2010 at 6:30pm
70-02 54th Avenue, Queens

There will be no question and answer period. Questions about the proposal can be directed as indicated in section IV above.

Speaker sign-up will begin 30 minutes before the hearing and will close 15 minutes after the start.

VI.       Date, time and place of the PEP meeting at which the Board will vote on the proposed item.

April 20, 2010
6:00pm
Health Building
125 Worth Street, Manhattan
 


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