City Gains Record Number Of School Seats For New Academic Year

By: Lindsey Christ

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In anticipation of the school year ahead, the mayor and schools chancellor announced Wednesday a record number of new seats available across the city, as part of an attempt to ease overcrowding. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

About 17,000 thousand students will walk into brand new classrooms next week, and city officials say it is the most new space the School Construction Authority has ever opened in a single year since it was created in 1988.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said he could not be happier.

"There are colleagues of mine, they don't see 30 buildings in the course of a lifetime, and we are seeing that basically this year in New York City," said Klein.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the construction at the new Mott Haven Educational Campus Wednesday. It is the largest single project funded by the city's $13 billion school capital plan. The building covers nine acres of land, cost $250 million and will house 2,300 students in five different schools.

Bloomberg said it is the largest public school project in modern memory.

"Before we began construction here, this site, which had at one time been used as a commuter rail yard, had been vacant for close to 50 years," said Bloomberg. "So this striking new campus really symbolizes the revival of the South Bronx."

The school includes a state-of-the-art, 600-seat performing arts center and a regulation-size football field includes lighting and scoreboard facilities.

Although Mott Haven is the largest, it's hardly the only new building this year. Other major sites include Eagle Academy High School in the Bronx, PS/IS 276 in Manhattan, Cypress Hills Community School in Brooklyn, the New York Harbor School on Governors Island, and the Metropolitan Educational Campus, Gateways to Health Sciences Secondary School in Queens.

Construction at the Bronx campus was delayed over concerns that the site had high levels of toxins, and the city spent tens of thousands of dollars to address the problem.

On Wednesday, officials and community groups came together to say the campus is safe and almost ready for classes to be begin.

Despite all the new seats, though, schools are still overcrowded in many neighborhoods. A report by the Independent Budget Office last month found half of high school students attended overcrowded schools last year. That is down 15 percent, thanks to the capital plan construction, but is still an ongoing problem.