No school, no pic
About a year ago I was on the subway with an acquaintance of mine when the talk turned to schools. His oldest was in 4th or 5th grade, and he and his wife were frantic/frazzled/worried over and about where she would be attending middle school. Being in my own kid triage bubble, I thought to myself ‘Gee, I never really realized what a hassle/headache/nightmare it is to apply to NYC public middle schools, and all the fuss over a 10-year old!’
Which quickly got me thinking ‘Wow, we have it really good in Long Island City, because our school is one of the very few in the whole city that runs K-8.’ And for the next year I added it to my list of plusses in touting LIC to all my friends considering moving here.
Fortunately none of them took me up on it, because based on what was revealed at last night’s school powwow, the middle school at PS78 is probably a goner. Yeah, I heard there was some talk about building another school and keeping the current one intact, but these things don’t just pop up over night.
Anyway, it’s kind of interesting to conjure how they’re going to sunset the middle school. Since they are not going to do a hard close, will they halt moving kids past 5th grade and keep a stranded 8th grade at some point? That’d be kinda weird, no? Oh well, such is collateral damage. Just don’t bet the apartment ranch on another school coming to Hunters Point anytime soon, the odds are a lot slimmer than those for American Pharoah to win the Preakness.
Eugene says
May 5, 2015 at 5:25 pmI’m confused. Does this mean we will have an elementary school and a high school, but no middle school?
Drmoi says
May 5, 2015 at 5:38 pmNo we will have a zoned middle school. We have to keep letting the powers that be know that 78 needs to continue to be a zoned prek-8. The community fought very hard for that. The only long term solution is a new school!
Anonymous says
May 5, 2015 at 5:37 pmThey should truncate the high school and make it a zoned middle school.
mike says
May 6, 2015 at 6:56 ami agree with above poster and i do not even have kids
most children in the neighborhood are well under high school age
turn that school into a middle school on center
gives the developers more time to build another high school
Anonymous says
May 6, 2015 at 8:19 amAbsolutely agree. Jimmy Van Bramer, if you are listening, this seems to be the only practical/realistic solution to the impending crisis.
Anonymous says
May 6, 2015 at 8:19 amThe middle school is a goner only if we let it happen. The parents of the 50 children that were left out of kindergarten got active and made sure that new classes were created for their kids. Now we all have to get together and make sure that Pre-K thru 8th is hear to stay. The Hunters Point South Master Plan can be modified with enough political pressure to make room for at least two more schools. Another option is to create incentives for developers of large projects to include a school. The same tax or up zoning incentives given for low income housing should be offered to a developer to build a school. The crazy thing is that in the meeting it was stated by officials that money was not the issue because the DOE has plenty of it, so I guess the issue is ineptitude.