Plan For A New Primary School In Bayside Opens For Public Comment

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Amid overcrowding in northeastern Queens’ public schools, Baysiders have a chance to give feedback on a new proposal that would bring a 572-seat primary school to the neighborhood.

The School Construction Authority (SCA) — which oversees the planning and building of the city’s public schools — is holding a public hearing about the proposed Bay Terrace school site at 7 p.m. on Monday June 28, during a Community Board 7 meeting.

The site in question is a vacant lot on the corner of Water’s Edge Drive and 24th Avenue — one of four locations in the district that the SCA is considering in order to meet the area’s growing demand for more primary school seats.

Community School District 25 covers a large swath of northeastern Queens, including parts of Bayside. By 2026 the district is expected to see a 41.5 percent increase in the number of students compared to those enrolled during the 2018-19 academic year, according to SCA data cited by the Queens Chronicle.

In order to accommodate this growing need, the city is looking to open another primary school in the district.

But, before the SCA signs a contract to buy the 44,000 square foot lot in Bay Terrace, the authority has to go through a public approval process.

While overcrowding is an issue that’s top-of-mind for many residents in northeast Queens, proposals for new schools have not always been met with enthusiasm.

In 2015, a proposal to build a new high school in Bayside was met with so much community opposition that the SCA eventually withdrew their plan.

Despite overcrowding in the district’s existing high schools — which were operating at an average of about 40 percent over capacity at the time, according to officials — Bayside residents strongly rejected the SCA proposal, citing a lack of community input.

The new Bay Terrace primary school proposal is already being met with similar murmurs of disapproval.

After the SCA filed a notice proposing the Bay Terrace school site, Richard Lee, a District 19 City Council candidate told the Queens Chronicle that “when the document came out was when the community heard it for the first time. There was no public discourse process for the community to get involved,” he said.

Although Lee told Patch that better-resourcing Bayside’s public schools — which are overcrowded by his own estimate — is a central part of his campaign platform, he thinks residents want to be more involved in the process.

Lee’s sentiment is in fact echoed by some locals, who expressed their dissatisfaction with the proposed Bay Terrace site in a neighborhood Facebook group.

“That’s going to be a nightmare for that block,” commented one on a post about the upcoming public hearing at the Community Board 7 meeting.

Another echoed that building a new school at the site could have a negative impact on “parking [and] pedestrian safety of kids.”

And these comments are just the beginning, since the public hearing on Monday will consist of a 40-minute segment for community feedback.

If you have thoughts on the proposed school site, join the Community Board 7 meeting on Monday night. The meeting agenda is here, and information about how to join the meeting can be found here.