By Chris Fuchs
In a nearly hour-long discussion, the role of a community board as purely advisory was brought into sharp focus Monday night when members of Community Board 7 were asked to approve a site for the construction of a school on Franklin Avenue in Flushing.
After a series of questions and motions, the board voted 19-7 to reject the site, on Franklin Avenue near Colden Street in Flushing, proposed by the School Construction Authority. Board of Education officials view the 430-seat school, which would serve children from kindergarten through third grade, as a step toward easing some of the overcrowding in School District 25 in Flushing
On May 14, a committee of Community Board 7 in Flushing met to review the proposal for the school, PS 244. Nicholas Miglino, the chairman, said the committee was split between those who wanted to approve the site and those who wanted to reject it. Because of the school’s location in a residential community, surrounded by 12 apartment towers, some members were worried about whether the school would affect traffic and parking, among other things.
A number of board members also expressed concerns that the analysis made by the School Construction Authority was too vague and that it failed to detail the design of the proposed school. “We were virtually given a blank piece of paper and told to approve this,” said Chuck Apelian, a member of the committee.
According to the Board of Education, the school would be between three and four stories and include 21 classrooms, a library, a kitchen, a cafeteria, and an outdoor play area. At present, the site on the south side of Franklin Avenue is vacant. If built, the school would become part of a patchwork of single-family homes and apartment houses, some as high as 25 stories.
The board’s vote Monday night was strictly advisory. One member said Queens Borough President Claire Shulman was likely to recommend that the proposed site be approved, which is then forwarded to the city, the final arbiter. As of late Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the School Construction Authority, Debra Wetzel, did not return a phone call seeking comment on the proposal.
John Liu, one of the seven board members who voted in favor of the site, urged the rest of the board to follow suit, saying the need to expedite the construction of new schools outweighed getting caught in the minutiae of such proposals.
“At some point, we have to balance having to know every single detail with knowing a reasonable amount of information,” Liu said, “and keeping something moving rather than clamoring for every ounce of information before we make a decision.”
The 15-page document, put together by the Board of Education, gives broad-brush explanations of why the school should be built, listing every elementary school in District 25 and by how much each is overcrowded. There are 18,463 students in the district, 754 over capacity.
It also outlines seven other sites that were considered and why they were rejected. But most of the document consists of various site maps, floor plans and photos of the neighborhood where the school would be built.
Displeased with the presentation made by the School Construction Authority, Adrian Joyce, a board and committee member, voted against the site.
“I think it’s really incumbent upon us to send a message back to the Board of Education and the School Construction Authority that we are an intelligent board and that we would like to see something conceptually,” he said at the meeting. “I am all for schools but not until I know what they are giving us.”
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
