Is there a need for a new school on the Lower East Side? According to the Department of Education, the answer is “no.” During the summer, members of District 1’s Community Education Council asked Community Board 3 to make an elementary school a priority on SPURA, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. David Quart of the NYC Economic Development Corp. reported back to CB3 at last month’s SPURA task force meeting:
Today Community District 1 schools have some capacity, have some available seats. Community District 2 schools are, for the most part, at capacity. We did some preliminary analysis, we spoke with the School Construction Authority (SCA) and looking at projections, the numbers don’t pan out that the numbers themselves justify a need for a school in this area. It’s not only taking into account what’s happening with existing schools but also demographic trends and even with the addition of the Seward Park site would not trigger the need for a new school. That said, the SCA, Department of Education updates their numbers every year. That could change. But currently the SCA does not have money in its budget for a new school in this area. So what I can say as far as the community planning process, as you think about a school, consider the context, the framework in which people work in as far as trade-offs.
The 7-acre SPURA site is mostly in District 2, although a small portion of it is in District 1. Quart said a typical 500-seat elemnetary school would cost about $60 million. City planners have said there’s room on the SPURA site for things the community wants (such as affordable housing, community facilities, etc). But at the same time, they have indicated, there needs to be enough “trade-offs,” revenue producing elements (market rate housing, retail tenants) to pay for those “community benefits.”
During the meeting, CB3 member Harvey Epstein said, as a parent, he knows there’s a need for new neighborhood schools. He suggested the school issue be kept “on the table” throughout the ongoing negotiations. District 2 schools have been plagued by a serious overcrowding crisis for the past several years.
