Sept. 20, 2016 By Hannah Wulkan
Local politicians and community members gathered yesterday to officially announce plans to build a middle school on the corner of 48th Street and Barnett Avenue.
The new school, which comes as a product of over two years of community activism, will be built on the site of a former pool hall and gym and will help address the ongoing issue of school overcrowding.
The proposed location, however, has raised some concerns about its impact on parking and traffic.
“I would say the overwhelming majority of people in the community understand the need exists, and appreciate how important it really is to build a middle school,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer.
“We have to do what’s right by our children, and I think that good neighborhoods have good schools, and those attract young families who want to raise their kids, raise their families, and that’s what we’re doing here today.”
Location of proposed school
The school is still in the very early stages of development and is unlikely to open for several years, according to a spokesperson for the School Construction Authority.
The proposal has to go through the design stage, approval process and then the school itself must then be built after the existing pool hall is demolished.
Given the early nature of the project, it is difficult to say for sure how many children the school will serve. However, Van Bramer said that early estimates of 800 seats seemed a bit high.
Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan addressed the fact that the project raises issues of parking and traffic, saying “There is some anxiety about traffic and kids, but you know what, it’s going to be a beautiful thing for our community to have this wonderful school.”
Van Bramer stressed that putting a school in the location is the best possible outcome for the neighborhood.
The building, he said, “is a vacant eyesore,” and many residents were concerned about what business might replace it. “We’re going to replace it with a state of the art middle school.”
When asked if he was working on specific solutions to address community concerns about traffic and parking, Van Bramer said: “I think we understand that there are always some inconveniences that come with construction and we’re going to work with the School Construction Authority and the community to minimize those disruptions and work on any of the other issues that may arise.”
“This is just the beginning of the process, the community will be involved, and we’re going to try to address as many of the issues as possible, but it’s absolutely vital that we build the school,” Van Bramer said.
The new school came about at the urging of Sean and Deb McGowan, community activists who founded the Sunnyside-Woodside Middle School Project more than two years ago to push for the new middle school to be built in the community. The organization started a petition, formed a Facebook page and met with politicians to advocate for the new school, and finally saw it come to fruition.
“It’s a mind blowing experience just to be standing here,” said Deb McGowan, explaining that the beginning of the building process comes almost three years after they began fighting for it.
“What I love the most about this community is that the moms and dads don’t just fight for their own children, they fight for everyone else’s children as well,” Van Bramer said.
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75 Comments
I think this is really wonderful news for the community. Hats off to the good work of the McGowans and the elected officials who went to bat for this as well as all the individuals along the way who contributed. I do hope Sunnyside will allow public parking in that area. There are tons of parking lots that could be used for the community. I hope that the officials will address the neighborhood’s concerns bit without question the new middle school is needed and is a great thing. No solution is every perfect but any problems that arise from this are worth it.
I UNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL SCHOOLS, BUT THIS IS NOT
AN IDEAL AREA. THIS AREA IS ALREADY CONGESTED WITH TRAFFIC AND PEDESTRIANS . THE PARKING IN THIS AREA IS VERY LIMITED .ONCE THE SCHOOL IS BUILT THE PARENTS WILL BE DOUBLE PARKING LIKE THEY DO AT P.S.11. IF IN FACT, THIS BUILDING WAS ANINDOOR PARKING IT SHOULD HAD BEEN RESTORED AND USED AS AN IN DOOR GARAGE FOR ALL THE ONFORTUNATE CAR OWNER THAT CANNOT FIND A SPOT IN THE AREA.
There are more than 300 children per grade in PS 11 and PS 150 combined. Therefore, if the new school is limited to children zoned for those two elementary schools (which are neighborhood schools), then all the children in the new middle school will be from the local neighborhood and most, if not all, will be able to walk to school. Teachers and other school employees should be urged to approach the management of the Stop&Shop mall to see if they can park there between 7:30am and 3:30 pm on school days – the rooftop parking lot is surely large enough to accommodate the employees of the school on days (and times) when shopping is relatively light.
Am I to assume that you came back to this article because of the opposition on the other article? Are you really serious with that comment about the stop and shop? You keep throwing out these things like “if the school is zoned” which is exactly the point everyone else is making. There is no indication that this will happen because it is what you want. Please don’t let the power of your petitions go to your head. …If this school happens at this location, I hope and pray that all the Sunnyside Gardens residents petition to make this a school just for Sunnyside and send the Woodsiders behind the projects. Perhaps then you’ll actually get it.
For anyone that is still reading this thread and wondering what to do. The SCA is just a proposal for that site and will be accepting public comments until Nov 4th.
https://dnnhh5cc1.blob.core.windows.net/portals/0/Community/New_School_Sites/Barnett%20Avenue%20-%20Notice%20of%20Filing%20and%20Attachments%20-%2009202016.pdf?sr=b&si=DNNFileManagerPolicy&sig=po7odvG0c92Y2SXEoimvb%2Bz06NZdGTbnxtfyB4ChqQ0%3D
Yes!- he may sound like a jerk but you sound like a child. No you sound like a jerk, no you sound like a jerk, no you sound like a jerk. Oh shut up already. If i was your husband and i had to listen to you all day you would have to hide all the rope in the house because id hang myself. But then again your probably divorced who could listen to you whine all day. Take your xanax already. Take your kids and move.
True Speak and Mac are both right. The comments that are against this propsoal are being wrongly construed as being “anti-child” which is insulting.
I think the voices you are hearing are just objecting to the location because of all the clear problems that would arise out the location being contemplated.
How about we request JVB and all these other advocates to provide some color as to why this school won’t exacerbate all the existing issues as it relates to congestion in the Gardens?????
RESPONSE TO “Mythoughts”:
This is not “anti child rhentoric”- It is simply “anti-location” facts.
The 30+ dislikes to your comment would likely agree with with me…BTW- I do have kids that would in theory be of age to attend this school in years to come and I still vehemently believe this is wrong for the community.
I think the school is a great idea. I don’t have kids now but if it turns out to be a good school it will give me a good reason to stay in the neighborhood when I do. All the anti-child rhetoric on here is appalling. Do people really think this community can continue to be vibrant into the future without welcoming in the next generation? And yes it will be good for property values. As to the location, there aren’t many open and available spaces that can accommodate a middle school in the area – don’t make the perfect into the enemy of the good.
-my thoughts Your accusation of “anti child” rhetoric is flat out offensive and ignorant. Your use of that type rhetoric is nothing less then a form of bullying used by a person who is incapable of persuading others in a debate or discussion using facts and details on an issue., Not one person posting here has shown a contempt of children. The concerns have been about parking, poor location and lack supervision, all valid points. As for property values going up for residential property next to a school, that totally bucks truth fact and history. Then again you don’t appear to be one who cares about truth fact or history.
Thank you, Mac. Thi neighborhood has tons of kids coming and going all day long either to schools or to the park. It always has and no one minds them. They live here! What we haven’t had are 800 of other neighborhoods kids added to that traffic. This is a little neighborhood, with little crooked streets in that area in particular. Enough is enough. Parents, and those to be, have shown themselves to be temperamental and aggressive at perceived slights. If the people they plow over were even slightly like that they would form a herd and trample them. I’ve seen it happen before.
Terrible idea. Kids will be roaming wild. And if you think that 125 is “ghetto” please don’t think that the kids in the Gardens are much better.
I’m all for the education of our children, but this is going to create a lot of traffic problems. Also the fact that a new building might be built behind the Phipps.
Where are we going to park our cars. People think about the neighbors too not just what you have accomplished. This is TOO much for Woodside/Sunnyside it’s becoming another crowded LIC.:(
This is an example of some more poor urban planning. Potentially an additional 800 more people on the Manhattan bound AM 7 trains. Woodside or Jackson Heights is the logical site for this school. My son attends IS 125 and the overwhelming majority of the kids in his class are from Woodside And Jackson Heights. When I attended that very school in the early 70’s this was certainly not the case. Yes, many kids in this area attended Queen of Angels and St. Teresa but the IS 125 expansion made up for the loss of these 2 schools. We need to keep children closer to home and in the process reduce the ever growing over crowding of the seven train. Our elected officials are being lazy and need to scout a new site that takes these concerns into consideration. This sounds like nothing but a huge windfall for the owner of that old hard to rent building and nothing more.
No one is disputing parents’ wish for an additional school.
People are criticizing the _location_.
The proposed school is in the middle of a residential neighborhood, where construction will be incredibly disruptive for years. The size of the school is very disturbing (800 children), as is the distance from any form of public transportation. This implies long walks, car drop offs, and school buses galore.
Concerns about unsupervised young people going to and from the school are not unwarranted.
I don’t think this is over.
Ann- you are spot on.
Totally understand the desire for a school, but there is no consideration for the people who actually live in the area….and I have kids that in theory could benefit from this.
The foot and car traffic will be a disaster. Think about having kids walking all the way down 48th from the Queens Blvd. Doesnt seem like a good idea at all.
There already is a huge middle school at 47th street and 47th avenue. Stop bringing kids by mass transit to that school from Corona and Jackson Heights and open the new school up there so the good kids of those neighborhoods could goto school near where they live instead of putting them at risk of getting hurt on the subways and buses.
That school is not in the same district as Sunnyside Gardens. Sunnyside Gardens’ closest district school is IS10 over behind the Woodside projects. All the district 30 middle schools are worse than 125 by a large margin. In fact, 125 is probably the best non magnet public middle school west of forest hills in queens. Also, the number of kids coming from Corona to 125 is a rounding error, and those that do come are welcome because they have parents engaged enough to make school choice over just having their kids go to the nearest school which more or less auto enrolls them. While you can try to get into 125 from District 30, District 24 students have priority. And since none of you researched before buying in District 30 outside of checking PS150s Great School score, you should also understand that the great school portion of that school is district wide gifted and talented. The rest of the school is demographically and academically no different than PS199, which is okay and improving, but not excellent. So it wasn’t enough for you to just move to the gardens. Junior needs district level scores on the G&T exam. District 30 has looming structural problems. It has 4 of the largest housing projects in queens, and is increasingly too expensive for middle class families.
Most if not all of kids zoned for PS 150 and PS 11 are zoned for IS 125 even though it is in D24. Check a gardens address on the the schools.nyc.gov website and you will see.
No they aren’t. North of Queens Blvd is not zoned to any middle school but is in district 30. You are looking at the default view which shows closest school rather than zoned school. You need to choose More and 2016 Middle School Zones and you’ll see that you are not zoned to IS 125 or any other Middle School. Notice the grey shading? That’s your district. The green line is your middle school zone. You can choose among other District 30 middle schools. The default zone for IS125 is bound by Queens Blvd, the East side of the cemetery, Newtown Creek, and 30th St. In fact, I just looked it up and 125 isn’t available to you at all unless your kids went to elementary school in district 24. Your options for open public school are are all on the other side of Northern Blvd or in Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. You actually need this new school pretty badly. Who wants to send their 6th grader across Northern Blvd traffic and past Woodside Houses every day?
Here is the address for Sunnyside Towers: Notice it says ZONED middle school for IS 125. My daughter is in the 5th grade and we are zoned for 125 even though we go to a D30 elementary school. It is on the middle school application for PS 11 and PS 150 every year.
46-01 39th ave, Queens
Search Results
Zoned Schools
Zoned Elementary Schools
Notes: No special zoning instructions for this zone
A
P.S. 150 Queens (Q150)
40-01 43 AVENUE, Queens, NY 11104
718-784-2252
Grades: PK, 0K, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, SE
District: 30
Distance: 0.53mi
ZoomDirections
Zoned Middle Schools
Notes: Zoned to IS 125, located in District 24.
B
I.S. 125 Thom J. McCann Woodside (Q125)
46-02 47 AVENUE, Queens, NY 11377
718-937-0320
Grades: 06, 07, 08, SE
District: 24
Distance: 0.78mi
ZoomDirections
schools are bad? what planet are we on?
For those who have homes close to where the middle school is being built , go visit your local realtor and I guarantee your property values have already dropped.
I was hoping they’d make it a shelter for Syrian “refugees.”
Hopefully they will actually go into the school which will help keep the neighborhood vandalism down.
Terrible idea
Kids will run wild
It is time to Markey all of our local elected officials. Particularly JVB. They tried to organize this a few days ago but couldn’t find enough people who supported the school. It would be interesting to know how many people in the picture are connected to the RBNY.
Maybe you should go back to school MAC and learn to read. Article said Mc Gowan and you say mc govern. Definately a need for a new school in this area. Congrats to all involved.
Long time Sunnysider – you know who Mac meant stupid. If you can’t stick to the topic of conversation then keep your useless comment to your ignorant self. Mac you bring up a lot of good points. Thank you. Who is going to supervise 800 children running through that neighborhood on a daily basis? No mention of this.
@Longtime You should be more concerned with the outlines of Mac’s post regarding the unsupervised children and the actual problems that plague JHS 125 then the spelling of your friends name. 125 is the track record of the people bringing us this new school and it is not a very good one. Let me guess you’re Fox informed.
Joe,people complaining about a middle school 125.kids coming from other neighborhoods, vandalism,fights.it is you who sounds like a fox watching republican white guy
Me- nobody mentioned race until you did. The incident with the stolen zip car didn’t happen? My mother lives on 46th street off Greenpoint and her home attendant has filed 2 police reports concerning the unsupervised children of 125 in the span of just 2 years. They’re public record go look them up you racist. Everything is race with you. Next time stay on the topic being discussed in this case the topic of unsupervised children. When you lose the debate just concede defeat instead of screaming racism because when an actual case of racism does occur nobody will believe. You’re the woman who cried wolf.
So in other words we don’t want brown kids running around the gardens and coming into our private park
@me Exactly!!! If you’re not a paid member or an invited guest, you do not belong in a “private” park. That is what makes it different from a public park.
@me. – it is extremely insulting to people that really care about this “location” issue that you are trying to turn this into a generalized race issue. You are the poster Judging posts and assigning color. Grow up!
A private park, is private just like a private school. You get what you pay for.
me and mac Anyone of any color, size, shape, religion, nationality or race who lives in the Sunnyside Gardens Park zones has a right to join the park, attend meetings and have a voice in how it is run. The developers bought unused rail yards from the LIRR built homes and apartments surrounding court yards and gave the final block of property as a “commons” for everyone who lived in their development. That is the foundation of the park. You live in the area, you go in, get an application, pay up and you are a member.
“Definately” an irony alert in this comment…
I can’t wait till these kids mess up your precious gardens you pompous gits
Big mistake
More noise like the LIE construction isn’t enough!
LIRR
I wouldn’t be surprised if Van Bramer ran the LIE through Sunnyside!
I would like to be on the board ..I will be in charge implementing pertinent rules for the quality of life for Sunnyside Towers . Quiets zones no honking, no slowing down. You need to be off the corner 15 min after your release etc etc etc Your not going to take away parking spots either . No you won’t !!!! You really know how to terribly inconvience people
What is the history of the building? Something must have been there before the pool hall. Looks old. Was it built when Sunnyside Gardens was built?
The building was a type writer ribbon factory for many years in 70’s and 80’s.
That’s cool. Someone else (offline) told me it was originally a some kind of storage or garages for the Sunnyside Garden apartments but was sold by th 60s. No confirmation if that is correct.
it was built as the Sunnside Gardens garage. It is a garage. that has been used for other purposes. Notice the driveway on 48th St. It is to drive to the second floor and park your car.
It was built for anyone in Sunnyside Gardens with a car.
Wow a garage would probably do amazing there. I wonder why they didn’t keep it?
Ssider they want more income than they think they can generate from a parking garage. But we still need it. Queens is not for walkers, although parts are.
If people actually voiced their concerns instead of coming to this forum and complaining, they could actually see results. I don’t even know who elected these “local politicians”. We don’t know who does what in our neighborhood, and a person who knows the most number of people gets to make decision for rest of us. It’s pretty crappy situation. Most of us (although I can’t speak for the people who frequent this blog) have full time jobs, we don’t have time for politicians, but we should still be able to involve in things that impact our neighborhood.
It’s a fact that neighborhood needs more schools, and instead of complaining about kids or a new school, why don’t you take it up with 108 if you think these kids are criminals or they bring crime and vandalism?
People find a reason to complain about every single thing that’s happening in our neighborhood, but they are too lazy to get off their bums off their computers to do something good for the neighborhood.
We couldn’t stop strip-bars and crime attracting pawn shops from opening in our neighborhood, do you think you can stop a school from being built? I’ll take school over nail salons or high rise residential buildings any day. It’s not the development we should be complaining about, it’s the lack of up-keep. The parking situation on our streets, occupied by commuters or overnight commercial vehicle parking or huge trucks causing gridlock/excessive noise, speeding vehicles, delivery ebikes and bicycles zipping in and out between moving cars, increased number of cabs & black cars racing to pick up people on queens blvd (just on Sunday there was a potentially deadly accident on 44 and Blvd, I am surprised SSblog did not report that).
The 108…are you serious?! They don’t respond to anything in a timely fashion. This school in this location is a terrible idea. There is a ton of foot traffic between northern and queens Blvd every weekend and vandilism, littering, loitering, are becoming increasingly worse. As a homeowner (with kids) all we want is for them to be safe. I can’t imagine what 800 preteens with no supervision will create. Why this location? Personally, I am all for a school just not in this location. The alleys that were made to view the gardens will create opportunities for lingering preteens. The 108’s response time is sub par for real issues. It’s amazing to me that you think the police department would care about the crime and vandilism. Just last week I had a conversation with the 108 about the consistent abuse our property is taking by the passerbys and neighbors in the hood and was told we would need to report it as harassment in order to get a response. Couple that with the massive amount of pot smoking and noise…terrible idea. By the time they actually show up the people have moved on. I’m talking about reporting something at 11am and getting report of a 108 visit about it at 4am. Personally I would much rather see a residential building because one would hope property owners would at least care about keeping the neighborhood clean and safe. Oh and please install some red light cameras. The speed on 48th st is unbelievable since the speed bumps went in on the side streets. Cars speeding from queens Blvd to northern Blvd is out of control.
If 108 is slow to respond to actual vandalism, loitering, and possible crime, then report them higher up, talk to JVB or get media involved. Take pictures, videos, report them. There should be no reason for pot smoking teens or vandal teens to make you feel unsafe or otherwise uncomfortable in your home or neighborhood. Sure, some people on this site might think smoking pot is no big deal, but it’s still illegal especially for teenagers to be doing that out on the street and by your homes. The stinking stench is enough for me to go out and push those blunts up their noses and kick their asses, but sadly that will get you in more trouble.
What exactly is 108 so busy with? Isn’t the crime down to lowest levels in history anyway? Why can’t they respond to these disputes. Neighborhood is getting worse because cops are on-demand with extensive buffer wait times. I hear you, though, if they are super slow to respond to illegally parked cars even though it gets them another checkmark on their ticket quota, with add’l revenue, I can understand how slower they might be about damage to YOUR personal property and just a bit of pot smoking losers. Neighborhood is turning into thrash, not only that we are getting bars on every corner.
@me- you’re obviously new to the area and have limited knowledge of it’s history. 1- There were many more bars on both sides of the boulevard in the 60’s and 70’s, way more than there are now. 2- it takes 2 minutes for a group of kids to finish a joint. Do you really think a marijuana call warrants an emergency response? It’s a low level offense and a waste of law enforcement resources and a waste of tax payer money. Oh your quote “but it’s still illegal especially for teenagers” is absurd. So, while we take cops off the street to book these teenagers at the precinct house on Vernon you’ll be the first to cry there are no cops around when a “real” crime is committed. A great example is the recent attempted rapes at 69th street where the perp was caught by cops investigating a “real” crime and not busting teenagers smoking pot and adding them to the criminal justice industrial complex and destroying their young lives in the process. If you don’t like bars don’t go in them. Also the overwhelming majority of the new bars in the neighborhood are restaurants as well unlike the 60’s & 70’s. Move to a dry county you selfrighteous moralistic phony.
It is not a pool hall. It was built in the early years of Sunnyside Gardens existence to house the cars generations of residents find they need. When parents express a need everyone and their sisters have to rush to fulfill it. When seniors do, they all turn away. Their drive to raise their progeny blinds them to the people that worked for decades to give them a world to bring them up in.
I guess you were home schooled or went to school really far away in an abandoned warehouse district or something. The nerve of parents wanting a school in a residential area. This might be the first school in a residential area in the country. Someone call the news. I’m all for a senior center somewhere though. Perhaps you should start pushing for one instead of just being against everything.
Agreed.
You are the one that sounds like a jerk. You must NOT have children. What would you prefer they leave it as is or better yet lets bring in more nail salons and 99 cents stores can never have enough of those! And for the record not all kids create vandalism and/or are disrupted. Maybe if rents weren’t so high and employers weren’t so cheap kids could spend more times at home with the family!
you are the one that sounds like a Jerk
-Yes!! Just address the the content and concerns of Mac’s post and save the stupid personal attacks for when shout at your TV watching Fox News you imbecile.
This school in this location is a huge mistake. Just look at the problems 125 has created vandalism, fights, rowdy unsupervised children. Don’t forget the stolen car from the garage on the corner of 47th and Queens Blvd which 4 kids from the school smacked up near Northern Blvd just a few months ago. This needs to be stopped. This naive McGovern couple have no idea of the problems they have created for the people who live over there. This naive couple should sit outside 125 when school lets out and see first hand what goes on. These two honestly believe they’re some type of heroes. The jerk Mr. McGovern posted to the comment stream on the last article here in the Sunnyside Post looking for a pat on the back and refused to answer anyone’s questions regarding the issues concerning the new school. This school is a terrible mistake being forced down the throats of the people who live around 48th and 39th ave in the name of “the children”. Thanks to two niave know nothing’s.
There goes your property value.
No it won’t. Property values in Sunnyside will not decrease, maybe level out. Coops and condos by ps150 are soaring
@Maria You need to take a quick course in real estate appraisal.The Sunnyside Gardens District was designed as planned community. The area was first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in England in the first decades of the twentieth century. specifically Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth Garden City. Each private residence has a small front garden facing the street and a private garden in the rear. There are two configurations: the courtyard condition and the mews condition; at the edges of the community some homes simply line the street, with a common walkway running the length of the row. Homes in the courtyard blocks enclose an inner courtyard that was designated a common, landscaped but not used for recreation. This to keep the community within the projects commitment to tranquility, 800 students breaches this commitment. People bought homes in the gardens “specifically” for the tenants expounded by the Garden Community movement. This selling point would no longer be true bringing down resale values of the homes especially those nearest the new school.
PS150 was there way before the condos and co-ops built around it were there. They were all rentals first. People buy the apartments knowing the school is there and are fine with it.
A 2009 study commissioned by Georgia Tech found was that properties near schools with a rating of 4 or 5 stars were almost completely insulated from declining values while those near schools with 1-3 stars experienced massive losses in value over that 3 year period.
Have you got kids in the neighborhood? There is no viable middle school for PS150 and PS11 students. Property value will increase.
The viable middle school for PS11 and PS150 is and was JHS125. That school is now packed with kids from Corona, Elmhurst and other areas further down the 7 line. My kids are grown and I now have grand children who live in Sunnyside, who we pay to send to private school because the people who will be opening this new school currently do such a wonderful job with the school they’re currently running. JVB and the McGowans are making Other neighborhoods problem Sunnyside’s problem. As for your absurd statement the school will increase property value this does not match up with reality.
No it wasn’t and isn’t. You guys really need to stop posting false information. District 30 kids, including north Sunnyside, are not eligible for IS125.
Anonymous- you are wrong I attended 150 then 125 just like my neighbors and friends on 48th street between Skillman and 39th avenues.
No Johnny. I’m not. Go to the nyc schools. Check out the zones. Make sure you actually see the zones rather than closest school. Then download the pdf for district 24. Look at IS125 and you’ll see that is not open to kids outside the zone. I don’t know if districts were different 40 years ago or if IS125 was underutilized in the past and had open enrollment. Right now it isn’t. And it hasn’t been for at least the last 10 years. Maybe at some point, 24 and 30 were the same district, but they aren’t now. You can still use fake addresses because it isn’t the UES and you can finish in the same district where you start even if you move, but north Sunnyside addresses simply are not zoned to IS125. If you don’t believe me, call the school board or IS125 itself.
PS 11 and PS 150 most definitely are zoned for IS 125. It is not false information. It is clear as day on the schools.gov.nyc website.
You are wrong about IS 125, which is in D24. Children from 150 and 11 in D30 ARE zoned for 125 and have been since the school first opened many decades ago. I used to be on the D24 CEC and some of our members complained about the D30 students going to 125 when all our D24 middle schools are overcrowded.
Mac – By the “people who are running this school” do you mean the NYC Dept. of Education? IS125 has some wonderful programs, including the ability for 7th and 8th graders to take as many as FIVE Regents exams. Schools are as good as the students and their parents who are enrolled there, and if PS 150 and PS 11 students are the target population for this new middle school, then I think it will be a top school.
I’m really glad to know that your knowledge of the system is based on what you think. Do you have any idea how the NYC school system works? Once a school becomes a good school, it gets re-zoned. So the lifespan of this “lovely” project you worked so hard to advocate for, will be short-lived at best. I am sure that is all you care about until your kids are out of MS and then you can move.
Well written, Mac. You got to the heart of the issue.
Dumping a school here- and I do mean dumping gives no thought to what this will do to the quiet enclave that Sunnyside Gardens was meant to be and has been for nearly 100 years. A new school for 800 children completely changes the dynamic of the neighborhood as a quiet RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD.
Everyone was so against the Phipps project and the Luminere house because it changed the integrity of the neighborhood….well guess what, a school for 800 kids will create just as much if not more car and foot traffic as the other projects that were dismissed.
Perhaps I am being naive here, but how does this just get annouced as something that is going to happen?
When it came to Phipps and Luminere- there was a public forum to discuss…. When is that going to be available to the public?
What are the tax implication for folks in the neighborhood?