P.S. 144 School Addition Lauded In Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Elected officials celebrated the opening of an addition to P.S. 144 this school year with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday.

The Forest Hills elementary school's addition can accommodate 590 students and is fully air-conditioned, according to the city's School Construction Authority.

The new, $52 million building features a kitchen and student cafeteria, a science resource room, an administrative suite and two district special education classrooms, officials said.

It opened in time for the 2019-2020 school year.

"This addition to P.S. 144 is a great boon to the Forest Hills community and to the school’s 934 students," Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said. "This 590-seat addition is a state-of-the-art center of learning and development that has eased student overcrowding."

Celebrating the new addition at PS 144 which will accommodate an additional 590 students. Thank you to my colleagues who advocated relentlessly for this @QueensBPKatz @SenJoeAddabbo @CMKoslowitz @QueensCB6 District Manager Frank Gulluscio, and SCA President Lorraine Grillo pic.twitter.com/wYAQ13QEpy
— Assemblyman Hevesi (@AndrewHevesi) December 19, 2019

P.S. 144's addition is part of a $1.9 billion effort to add thousands of seats to Queens' notoriously overcrowded public schools by 2020.