Chinese parents angry at chronic shortage of classrooms amid building boom in Flushing

As Flushing faces a chronic shortage of classrooms for students, city officials are giving priority to building apartments in the area, something that has angered parents and local representatives.

The issue came to a head recently when community advocates voiced their opposition to the development of Flushing Commons, a complex of about 620 residential units, on city-owned property. Residents say that building a school should be the city’s priority. Robert Lieber, the deputy mayor for Economic Development said that the School Construction Authority has assessed the needs in the downtown Flushing area and opened PS 244 two years ago, adding about 350 classroom seats.

“This is nonsense. P.S.244 is an early childhood school, with only Pre-K to second grade. How about the kids of third grade and above? Just push them to junior high school?” said Marilyn Bitterman, the district manager of Community Board 7, who felt powerless in this issue. “We kept asking for new schools, but just had no luck with the Department of Education. They never answer our questions,” said Ms. Bitterman.

Overcrowded schools have been a sore subject for many in the bustling Asian community where parents view good schools as a way to a better life for their children.

A couple months ago, NYC Comptroller John Liu asked Michael Nolan, Director of Planning at NYC Department of Education, if the DOE had a comprehensive plan to solve the Flushing overcrowding issue. Nolan responded that Flushing was not included in the current plan, and the Department would address Flushing’s overcrowding in the future, without giving a definite date.

Although New York City and the state are experiencing tough economic times, the businesses in Flushing appear to be booming. For example, there are numerous buildings that either have recently been built or are under construction. Among the biggest project is Sky View Parc.

Sky View Parc sits on a 14-acre site along College Point Boulevard long owned by the Muss family. It is said to be the largest mixed-use project under construction in the city, with 3.3 million square feet. Six towers with 1,100 luxury condo apartments are to rise above an 800,000 square-foot shopping center with a park on the roof.

The other big project that will soon be under construction is Flushing Commons. The project is currently under review under the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. However, it has already passed the most difficult part of the procedure – acceptance by the community board – despite the strong opposition from the community. And with the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and Council Member Peter Koo (R-Flushing), it should have no problem getting final approval from the City Council. The project is expected to start construction in 2011 and be completed in 2013.

Besides these two projects, there are also some smaller projects under construction, or are soon to start construction, which could provide over one hundred condo apartments. Most of the projects are sitting in zip code 11354 and 11355 areas, including Sky View Parc and Flushing Commons.

According to the Department of Education, there are seven elementary schools in the area. Among them, P.S. 20 that has 1,442 students; P.S.21 with 1,046 students enrolled; and P.S.120, with an average enrollment of over 1,000 students.

“The kids from the two projects will go to P.S.20 and P.S.244. Our first response when we saw these two projects was, ‘Oh my God!” said Lois Chin Lee, the director of Queens School Age Day Care Center at P.S.20. According to Ms. Lee, the younger classes in P.S.20 have 27 kids, when it class size should not exceed 25 kids, and in the older grades each class has 32 kids.

“Without these two projects, P.S.20 is already overcrowded. We get new students every day, and my program has a waiting list of 500 kids. According to the State Law, we don’t have to accommodate Pre-K and Kindergarten Students, but we have to guarantee a seat for kids over 6 years old. The school just has no space for new students,” said Ms. Lee.

The situation in junior high school and high school is not getting better. It is worse in high school. For instance, Flushing High School, which was founded in 1875, now has 295 classes with 35 or more students each.

“The problem here is we have no space to build news schools,” said Peter Koo. In the overcrowded down flushing, it is very difficult to find proper spaces. The site of Home Depot, on College Point Blvd., was considered as a possible site for a new high school, but the national chain store decided to stay in the community.

“An easy way to solve the problem could be using one story in these new projects as an annex for local schools,” said Ms. Lee. “We can move a whole grade to the new building. I just don’t understand why the city did not consider a solution before they approved these projects.”

But Councilman Koo thinks there’s no rush to find a solution. “We really don’t know how many kids will move into the district right now. Once we find out the number, we will come out with a plan,” he said.

This article was written as part of New York Community Media Alliance’s Ethnic and Community Media Press Fellowship Developing an Education Beat. By Jia Xu, World Journal, 31 August 2010. Translated from Chinese by Jia Xu.