A NEW SCHOOL MAY GROW IN ELMHURST

The Department of Education (DOE) is proposing to colocate a new middle school inside the Elmhurst Educational Campus for the next school year before it moves to another location nearby.

The Campus, housed at 45-10 94th St., currently is home to four high schools—the Civic Leadership Academy, Pan American International High School, VOYAGES Preparatory and Queens Transition Center, a District 75 school.

M.S. 311 is waiting for a new building at 97-11 44th Ave. to be completed in time for the 2015-16 school year. In the meantime, the DOE is proposing that the District 24 school hold classes inside the campus; 110-135 students would be enrolled in sixth-grade glasses in the 2013-14 school year. In the 2014-15 school year, the school would take 100-125 new sixth-graders in addition to the now-seventh-graders enrolled. By 2015, those students would move into the new building and have a full complement of grades. This process is commonly called incubation.

When the building reaches “full scale” in 2017, is it expected to hold about 800-825 M.S. 311 students, as well as a District 75 school of its own .

According to the DOE, the Elmhurst Campus is under-utilized. As of the current school year, the four schools have a combined enrollment of 1,116 students, while the building serves 1,482 students, yielding a “utilization rate” of 75 percent. Adding the M.S. 311 students would only increase the utilization rate to 86 to 96 percent, the agency claims.

By temporarily co-locating a new school inside the Campus, “the DOE seeks to alleviate overcrowding in the Corona/Elmhurst and take advantage of available capacity to serve students zoned to this area,” the DOE said in a statement.

A hearing on the plan will be held at the campus on Nov. 28 at 6 p.m.

The Educational Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposal can be found on the Department of Education’s website at http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/ PEP/ publicnotice/ 2012- 2013/Dec2012Proposals.htm. Copies of the EIS are also available in the main offices of any of the Elmhurst campus schools.

Written comments can be sent to D24Proposals@schools.nyc.gov; oral comments can be left at 1-212- 374-7621.

The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal at its Dec. 20 meeting at The High School of Fashion Industries in Manhattan.