By Adam Kramer
The district, which covers Queens Village, Springfield Gardens, Rosedale, Laurelton and parts of Jamaica and Fresh Meadows, has tapped sites at 222-21 Jamaica Ave. in Queens Village, 175-02 Jamaica Ave. in Jamaica, and 234th Street and Merrick Boulevard in Laurelton for the schools, which will add 2,112 new classroom seats by September 2003.
“These new schools will go a long way toward removing the strangulation of overcrowding in the district,” said Michael Johnson, district administrator for School District 29, at the public meeting last Thursday at IS 59, 132-55 Ridgedale St. in Springfield Gardens. “The new schools will be magnet schools, which will put the district on the top of education.”
Board members, students and parents often talk about the lack of classroom space, cafeteria seats to accommodate a regular lunch period, and the size of the classes in schools throughout the district.
The district's 23 elementary schools and five middle schools, which provide classroom seats for 27,000 students, are operating at a utilization rate of 130 percent.
Instead of designing traditional classrooms, Johnson said the schools will follow a concept called the Multiple Intelligences Theory, which includes classrooms set up as learning centers.
He said computer rooms will be eliminated. Instead, four computers will be placed in each classroom and the school libraries will be equipped with banks of computers.
The three schools are each slated to have a specially designed science lab, dance studio, visual arts studio and a music/band room.
“We are excited about these schools,” Johnson said. “The schools are going to be real educational sites in an child-friendly environment.”
Celeste Amalfitano, manager of operations and site acquisition for the School Construction Authority, said the schools were in the design stage, with some further along than others. The SCA was also conducting environmental impact studies on all of the sites.
Edward Applebome, an environmental consultant for the SCA, said he was preparing the analysis but has not reached any conclusions.
The question of possible contamination at the site at 175-02 Jamaica Ave. is a major concern for many residents of southeast Queens after ground contamination was discovered at the Veterans Administration, the Green Bus Line warehouse and an old UPS site in southeast Queens. Residents are worried that other buildings in their community also might be contaminated.
Gertrude Gonesh, a longtime southeast Queens resident, said she was concerned about the site at 175-02 Jamaica Ave. She said the previous owners had left because of sewage contamination.
Applebome said as far as he knew none of the previous tenants of the building would have caused contamination to the land or sewage. If there is any sort of a problem, he said, it might be in the structure.
Dan McCormack, a spokesman for the School Construction Authority, said the Board of Ed is still in negotiations for the site and if they do purchase it the structure will probably be demolished to make way for the new school.
When another audience member pressed the SCA about soil testing at the sites, Amalfitano said the soil would be tested.
