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June 9, 2016 By Jackie Strawbridge
A severely overcrowded Corona school will finally say goodbye to the so-called temporary classrooms it has been using since the 1990s.
Plans to build an addition at P.S. 19, which were announced in February 2015, are underway and the six trailers that hold 500 kindergarteners and first graders are set to be demolished in July, according to a Department of Education spokesperson. P.S. 19 is located at 98-02 Roosevelt Ave.
A contract for construction of the new addition is out for bid. The addition is slated for occupancy in September 2018, the spokesperson said.
“It’s been an uphill battle,” State Sen. Jose Peralta, who has been involved in the push for an addition here since the Bloomberg administration, said. “I’m ecstatic that this is actually moving,”
During construction of the addition, the 500 displaced students will be taught at the newly constructed Q315, about a five minute walk away on 43rd Avenue, according to Peralta. The school is currently phasing grades in, so there is extra space, Peralta said.
“It’s a win-win for everyone,” he said.
P.S. 19 is at nearly 170 percent capacity with 2,000 students, according to Borough President Melinda Katz’s announcement of the new addition last year. Though the exterior trailers were intended as a temporary fix, they have remained on-site for decades.
Funding for the new addition comes from a $4.5 billion pot set aside for new school construction in the School Construction Authority’s 2015-2019 Capital Plan.
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