Photo: QueensPost
Dec. 6, 2012 By Christian Murray
Details of the planned elementary school at 45-46 42nd Street (Queens Blvd. and 47th Ave.) were revealed Thursday night at the Community Board 2 meeting.
The school, to be called PS 313, will be 5 stories high, constructed of red brick and will include a clock tower. The red-brick exterior of the building is expected to be in keeping with the look of neighboring properties.
The school will include a full library, art room and science facilities. It will also include a gymnatorium, which combines the auditorium space with the gym.
“The School Construction Authority has maximized the limited site space, which is 40 feet wide by 180 feet deep,” said Jean Carubia, the chair of the education committee. For instance, the play yard will be on the roof.
The site is currently vacant land—and goes from 42nd through to 43rd Street. The main entrance to the school will be on 42nd Street.
The school, which will be 75,000 sqf, will be constructed with some green building features—which include glazing that will make the rooms cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Furthermore, the windows will be positioned to allow more natural light to come through—reducing the need for electricity.
PS 313 is scheduled to open in September 2014 and is expected to alleviate overcrowding at nearby PS 199. The School Construction Authority is expected to break ground at the beginning of 2013.
The Department of Education has yet to determine whether the school will offer gifted & talented programs or dual language programs.
For previous coverage, click here.
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44 Comments
I feel sorry for the people who live in the back of 42-09 47th Ave as their apts will have no sunlight and the view will be block by a brick wall!!
Now about the parking issue- my family has had a car since 1957. They have already taken up half of 42nd street and constrution hasn’t even begun. And I’m sure it won’t for at least 7 or 8 months. This is ridiculous!!!
@ANGRAY- First of all, I have MS so getting out is not as easy as you may think!!! Second- I have lived here my whole life, born and raised and I don’t like what’s happening to this neighborhood. Soon it will look like a little Manhattan, trying to squeeze things in that don’t belong here!! Changing the nice quite facade of our neighborhood.
Currently, G&T for this zone requires an hour one-way bus trip (P.S. 150 has a G&T prgoram, but no school on the south side of the Blvd. does). We need a G&T program at this scool. We also need a charter school nearby (agreed – convert the vacant Catholic school space for these things).
While public schools provide a much-needed service, some parents want more. If a G&T program is not included, that is a shame. I want to support Sunnyside public schools, but absolutely not at my child’s educational expense. If it is between toting them into Manhattan and paying the absurb tuition there, or placing them in a nearby public school that does not so much as offer a G&T program, I will do the former.
What I would pay in Manhattan tuition can be recouped in the relative low-cost of living in Sunnyside. But how unfortuante if the schools in our district cannot at least offer quality education via a G&T program – becuase not everyone has the option for private Manhattan schools. A G&T program requires testing for elegibility and can give particularly gifted children – across all income levels – a chance at a more rigorous and scholastically solid start.
@SWS Why do people who disagree seem to have to dislike each other, especially on this site?
Poor Sycamore, trying so hard to get in the last word but people keep pointing out your nonsense. There was an old Sycamore tree on my block that refused to to allow the winds of change (I mean the winds of Sandy) move her, and now she is no more. Either adapt or move aside.
@ Angray Your name says it all. End of discussion.
Some folks prefer to think only of their own needs and prefer to live in the past. Walkers and bikers are EXACTLY what Sunnyside needs (says someone born in Queens and who has resides in Sunnyside for close to 20 years.) Drivers are an anachronism, dinosaurs whose days are numbered. Think of what is best for the community and used public transportation. I visit friends on LI by way of the LIRR, btw. It’s really quite easy. But you’d rather sit alone in you car, polluting our world while you wish you were still back in the “good old days.”
@Sycamore – Do you understand the phrase “…do (btw not due) as the Roman’s do”? You said you are not city-centric and here you are in NYC. SO yes “When in Rome, do as the Roman’s do” and learn to use other modes of transportation or deal with the nuisance of owning a car in the city.
I don’t care about the history of car ownership in Sunnyside. It is completely selfish to believe that parking comes before childrens’ education! Even if you don’t have kids or your kids are grown, we should all take pride in our local schools and want the best education for the children of our community! Hopefully it will be a much better school than that hellhole, PS 125!
@ Just Saying Thank you for speaking up. I am a third generation Sunnysider. We always had a car growing up. I’ve had my own since I was 18. Unlike the newcomers, I am not city-centric. I have family all over Long Island, whom I drive to see. I go to parks and events on Long Island all the time. I have doctors out there. At different times over the course of my life I have gone to New Jersey a lot, I’ve gone upstate a lot. I drive to see family in Maryland and Ohio. Sure, lots of people never learned to drive and don’t have a car, but they are absolutely delighted when I offer to take them out of the city. People who think I should revert to walking or biking don’t have a very wide frame of reference. They are new to this area and inflamed with a set of ideas developed elsewhere. They are in Rome but refuse to due what Romans do. Very rude.
Such an amusing discussion. It’s nice to see that there isn’t a shortage of common sense in our community. Public education, nurturing and providing for children, and sacrificing our own petty desires for the greater good of the next generation are ideas that make up the bedrock of our community.
I would prefer fewer school buses and more children that walk to school; busing seems to be expensive, wasteful, and counter-intuitive, but so many of these kids are too out of shape to walk 3 blocks, let alone tree-quarters of a mile like I did.
But the saddest and most ridiculous sentiment? “public schools turn out good lefty voters who are brainwashed.” This sort of ignorance and and deep-seated resentment makes me wonder where this person received their education!
And “let’s make sure they build a parking garage under the school” really smacks of misplaced priorities. It’s amazing that we see any progress around her with so many backward ideas.
Don’t really care if you are for the new School or not , I attended the Foodtown rally and had time to pick up a coffee before the CB 2 meeting. This is your community-so, get up- get out and get involved.You could have asked all the questions you wanted,like”like who are they to make decisions for us”?. I believe they rely on input from the community before any decisions are made, and no they don’t all live in Sunnyside(only)they also live Woodside and Long Island City.
i hope the nice side of the building is on 42nd street. i hate looking looking at the a$$ of a building. Always an afterthought, dumpsters, food deliveries etc… i cant tell by the pic which side is getting the bad side.
listen Angray you say ” Why are people so concerned for parking spots… This is something that should have been considered when you decided to have a car in NYC ”
First of all how long are you living in sunnyside ? my self since 1963 and family since 1945 we have had cars since before this town became over crowded with Commuter parking new apartment buildings and corporation slum lords trying to get the real Sunnysiders to move out
I would bet you live in a house with garage or not close to queens blvd yes we do need schools i agree totally but i love to know the exact number of children they bus into our schools PS 150 when the added on to it was not thought out properly they should have made that extension mirror the other side if they had done right they would have had 60 or more classrooms now its a waste of space how it is set up now
I Love Sunyside but starting to feal its not my home anymore its loosing that my home town fealing I had growing up here so sad
I like the idea of a new school in our ‘hood, BUT, the entrance on a side street is a REALLY dumb idea. For a few hours a day the street will be completely choked off by idling buses (drivers routinely ignore the idling law). Traffic will not be able to move on the street.
If the entrance cannot be placed on the Avenue, then have the kids dropped off there and walked to the front door by school personnel. Use common sense.
I can tell you all for sure from formerly living across from P.S. 150 on 41st Street between 43rd Avenue & Skillman Avenue, that there is a LOT of noise that comes from the school yard – not just at 11am and after 3pm. The schoolyard was used on the weekends all the time and now I believe is inundated by soccer players. I love the way the soccer players continuously take away playground space from the kids. ALSO, on Sunday nights, P.S. 150 allows various religious group to use a space in their school, so we were forced to listen to preaching over a loud speaker, followed by singing and chanting until 11pm. This is the reality of what you have when you live near a school. This is what you will have to look forward to if you live near the soon to be built new school. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I am so glad I moved a couple blocks away and no longer live across from P.S. 150. You can’t fight city hall on this one folks! 🙁
Julia… they build them with high fences. This is a common practice and not at all unsafe.
I wonder if the DOE will think to put fencing with very narrow openings along the links on all 4 sides and as a ceiling over the play area like what already exists for other school buildings with roof top playgrounds.
And yes, the public school turn out good lefty voters who are brainwashed!
Play yard on the roof? I predict lawsuits when somebody is injured. The lawyers will be happy.
The facts are that this is planned to be a 432-seat school to relieve overcrowding at PS 199 – which is so bad that the school ends at 4th grade and its 5th graders attend the middle school IS 125 (in trailers!). This will be a District 24 school and since D24 ends at Queens Blvd and the north side is D30, this school will not serve kids from the north side. Thus there should be no concern about children having to cross Queens Blvd. Furthermore, there should be little yellow busing for this new school since a primary school this size will likely be hyper-locally zoned and thus all enrolled could conceiveably walk to school. Sad that one person’s concern is the noise that children playing will make 🙁
Why are people so concerned for parking spots… This is something that should have been considered when you decided to have a car in NYC. This is a much needed school in our neighborhood.
@Mad as Hell – Get out of your apartment once in a while? Do you not work? I live near a school and the only times I hear “kids screaming all day long” is actually only during recess (~11AM) and after school (3PM).
DunK: “All the catholic schools are closing around 25 a year and yet the city wont use them” That is not true, the city uses old Catholic school buildings as schools. Queens of Angels on 44th off of Skillman is rented to the city and used as the PS150 pre-k and K annex.
As for this being “new news”, I first heard about this several years ago from a friend who lives across the street. It is hardly new news.
play yard on the roof? seriously?
What did the City (or Board of Education) pay for the ground plot? The land had been owned by a developer who intended to build a condominium there but was unable to raise the financing he needed. Unless the City paid him at least what he paid for the property, he must have lost money on the deal.
I hate being slammed by politicians. How dare they schedule the rally at the same time! That is a below the belt blow. They did things like that when they were changing the traffic pattern over on my side of the Blvd of Death. They turned my formerly quiet street into a thoroughfare for all the retail on Northern Blvd and 48th Street. Make no mistake, we are being manipulated by a cohort of developers and local pols and it is all about dealing with the huge increase in population here–driven by developing high-rise towers in Manhattan marketed as “the safest investment in the world” to the international market. We who have endured the hard-times in this neighborhood–remember the 70s when every park was “needle park” because there were no police–are just so much mud on their shoes. Sure kids need schools, but they wouldn’t be here the powers that be hadn’t sold our low-cost neighborhoods to those fleeing Manhattan prices. They don’t really want to be here, they just can’t afford the life they really want.
I mean building regulation not restriction oops
WHY DON’T THEY BUILD A DAMN PARKING GARAGE UNDER THE SCHOOL!!!!
THAT SHOULD BE A BUILDING RESTRICTION..
@tempus fugit
Left-wing, politically-correct, obedient democrat voters who elect officials petitioning to soak billions into math and science programs for youth education. Another butthurt tea partier I assume?
All the catholic schools are closing around 25 a year and yet the city wont use them(u can remove all the crosses) why couldnt the city rent or buy st rapaels school,it s now sitting empty and in great shape.i will tell u why there is no kickbacks from an already built building!
I lived on this block (on 42nd) for years prior to moving a year ago. I knew there were plans for a school. I remember seeing flyers a few times in my lobby and in other buildings a few years ago encouraging people to go to the community board meetings. The flyers specifically mentioned how this school would impact parking and traffic. I don’t have a car and school traffic doesn’t bother me, so I didn’t care about the school moving in. I still live very close to this site, and I still don’t care if the school moves in. It has to go somewhere.
Schools are actually great neighbors–they are quiet at night and on weekends and they bring their own security and crossing guards. I don’t understand what the problem is here.
@local hamburglar
Math and science? LOL
Public schools exist to churn out the next generation of left-wing, politically-correct, obedient democrat voters.
And yet a ballet studio for kids gets zoned out.
Everyone complaining doesn’t have kids. That one guy up there , Mad as Hell, bitching cuz he has to hear the playing of children, what a Grinch.
They think Sunnyside is a hot spot and forget there’s families here. They should turn the food town into a day care center cuz that’s what Sunnyside needs next.
Maybe the school would be better located where Foodtown is.
@Dunk I’m sure it was a considered factor but I wouldn’t assume it was the sole intent. More importantly is the increased safety that the school will bring to the area. Lets hope they get a lot of math and science fundings and can get some specialized programs to start this generation off properly.
If they stoped bringing in children from other areas by bus the schools would not be as overfilled as much why would they put the front entrance on 42 street side walks are smaller and the street is too as well parents buses dropping off children will cause such a back up on 42 nd street and noise
If a school has to be put there why not have the 43 street side as entrance they say the windows will use sunlight i feal for the people who live there next door a 5 story building they will loose thier sun light as a building walls up right next to thier windows the old building was only 2 storys tall hardly blocking view light or air
not to mention the parking will be bad if they take street parking away during school days away for teachers and staff im near PS 150 the schoool buss traffic and and parking a nightmare here and when the new long Island Railroad stop comes to sunyside it will bring more cars and traffic
And one more thing where are the buses going to park?? Parking around here is a fight to the death. I don’t want to hear all that traffic and kids screaming all day long, we have enough of that coming from the park all hours day and night!!!
I agree with Dunk!! Why are we just finding out about this?? Why weren’t the residents of 42nd Street told before hand? The so-called Community Board is a joke, how many of them live here in Sunnyside and who are they to make decisions for us!!! I live in the building in front of the lot, I don’t want my view blocked by a brick wall or having anybody looking in my window. And I would like to know who is paying for this THE CITY, WHAT A WASTE OF MY TAX DOLLARS!!
Parking around here is almost impossible now.Imagine what it will be like when all of these streets are further restricted due to school buses, teachers parking and parents dropping off kids etc. 42nd street is too narrow to have the main entrance here,why not on 43rd street which is a wider 2 way street.I’d say 43rd st residents have a lot more influence with the SCA.How come there were no public meetings locally to discuss the impact.It seems to have been kept very quiet and a lot of locals are surprised by the news.This is definitely the death knell for this part of Sunnyside.Get ready for the soon to increase in graffiti levels,as if it has’nt already increased enough already.
The foodtown protest was a diversion , to stop people coming to this meeting , a five story school is landing in the middle of what used to be a nice quite block!
That’s awesome news! I’m so glad you shared this with us.
I like the clock tower idea