Construction Starts On 180-Seat Astoria School Addition

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Construction has started on a 180-seat permanent addition to P.S. 2 in Astoria, expected to open in time for the 2021-2022 school year.

The three-story, $29 million building will be air-conditioned and fully accessible, according to the School Construction Authority.

It will include an art room, music room, exercise room and offices in addition to nine classrooms.

The addition, first announced in 2017, will replace a set of "temporary" classrooms that have stuck around at the elementary school for more than two decades.

That so-called "modular building" has housed roughly 120 of the school's 600 students, DNAinfo reported when plans for the addition were announced.

Officials celebrated the start of construction with a ground-breaking ceremony Thursday.

"The era of temporary classrooms in western Queens is finally ending," City Council Member Costa Constantinides said in a statement. "Every student deserves to learn in a constructive, stable environment, which is exactly what we’re providing with this new school addition."

P.S. 2 is getting a new addition #SeenIn13 and with it a renewed commitment to nurture space that is conducive to raising the leaders of tomorrow. Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/jffE7C9lSD
— Jessica Ramos (@jessicaramos) October 10, 2019

The School Construction Authority is roughly $2 billion to add thousands of seats to Queens schools by 2020 and remove the borough's temporary classroom units, or TSUs.

Queens' elementary schools are particularly crowded, housing around 116 percent of the capacity they are designed to hold, Borough President Melinda Katz has said.