Construction will start on a new elementary school in Ozone Park, which will take the place of a catholic school that is there now.
The new school, Public School 316, will be on 90th Street and 101 Avenue and will hold about 416 seats.
According to Councilman Eric Ulrich (D-Ozone Park), the school will be for students in grades kindergarten through 6th grade and is expected to open in September 2014. The actual construction of the school, Ulrich said, will start in the next four to five months.
The school will replace the St Stanislaus Elementary school that currently is there. According to Ulrich, who spoke about the school at the Our Neighbors of Ozone Park civic meeting on April 3, said that the parish there had some debt and sold the property to allow the building of that school. He added that they got around $4 million for the land and the sale allowed them to pay off debt they owed to the diocese.
Ulrich said that this school will do a lot to alleviate the overcrowding at two other nearby Ozone Park elementary schools, P.S. 64, which is on 82nd Street and 101st Avenue and P.S. 65, which is on 99th Street near 103rd Avenue. He also said that this will meet the increasing education demands of the people in that area and should also drive up the property values in that neighborhood as well.
“We need a new school,” Ulrich said. “This will be a wonderful addition to the community.”
By Luis Gronda
