Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley shocked the crowd at the last Juniper Park Civic Association general membership meeting by vowing to vote in favor of the proposed 1,100-seat public high school at 54-44 74th Street with the only stipulation being that it be zoned for local students.

The facts that the school will be themed (with the theme not yet known), public transportation to the site is limited and currently overburdened, there is no parking for the staff and there are already 2 other schools serving 3,000 students within 4 blocks of the proposed site apparently do not bother the councilwoman.

Using the lines “District 24 needs thousands of high school seats,” “The community board voted 3-1 in favor of the school,” “I've been in talks with the Department of Education to make PS58 and IS73 locally zoned K-8 schools” and “I have not changed my position” as well as questioning where members of the audience sent their kids to school, she seemed to be representing someone other than the people of the community who came to the meeting. By a show of hands, attendees were unanimously against the building of the school at the 74th Street location.

Crowley neglected to mention in her little speech that the community board only voted yes if the following conditions were met:

– a non−themed, comprehensive education curriculum
– top priority seating for students in the PS 58 catchment area, then to District 24 students in the ZIP codes 11373, 11378, 11379 and 11385, then to students in all of District 24 and finally to students in all of Queens.
– school arrival and dismissal times that do not coincide with those of the other nearby public schools
– teacher parking, which is not included by design at any of the city’s public schools

A deal is obviously being made behind the scenes between the councilwoman and the mayor's office and Maspeth is going to end up getting the short end of the stick as usual.

Call Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley at 718-366-3900 and tell her to vote NO on the proposed Maspeth high school. Also remind her that we as a community voted her in and can just as easily vote her out.

Below are renderings of the proposed 1100-seat themed high school:

Corner view

Main entrance

Layout