Scholars’ Academy in Rockaway Park will receive a little more than $1.75 million in federal funding to help pay for repairs made to the school that was devastated during Superstorm Sandy. File photo
Two Rockaway schools, Scholars’ Academy and the Bay School, are among three institutions slated to receive a little more than $5.85 million in federal funds to help reimburse the facilities for repairs made following Superstorm Sandy, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said Tuesday.
The John C. Thompson School in Staten Island will also receive a portion of the funding.
“Our city’s schools were some of the hardest-hit places during Hurricane Sandy, and some of them are still putting the pieces back together,” Schumer said in a prepared statement. “This money will go a long way in helping these schools in their ongoing effort to get back to normal and do what they do best – educate our children.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will funnel $5,855,251 from its coffers to the New York City School Construction Authority, which will then dispense the funds to the three schools – Scholars in Rockaway Park, the Bay School in Far Rockaway, and John C. Thompson in Dongan Hills, Staten Island.
“These schools in Queens and Staten Island that suffered damage from Superstorm Sandy can’t be left on their own,” Gillibrand said in a prepared statement. “This federal investment will give our schools the tools they need to rebuild and return to normalcy as quickly as possible.”
The award provides $1,756,487 for Scholars’ Academy, which was devastated during Sandy. The storm flooded the school with four feet of water, and more than 60 percent of the students – as well as 30 percent of the staff – were left homeless following the disaster. For months, the students trekked to temporary classroom space in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood. The funds for Scholars’ which will go toward reimbursing the cost of asbestos abatement and remediation, rental and installation of temporary power generators, temporary boilers, and fuel oil tanks.
The award also provides $2,976,721 for the Bay School, also known as PS 105, which will be used for reimbursing the cost of an oil-spill cleanup caused by punctured boiler tanks, as well as the cost to rent and install temporary generators, boilers, and fuel oil tanks.
“A lot of schools were forced to utilize other budget items to make repairs caused by Sandy,” Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway) said. “This money will help refill the coffers and ensure no services or programs have to be cut in order to recover.”
The funding is expected to reimburse 90 percent of the post-Sandy costs the SCA undertook at each of the three schools.
A number of other Queens schools have received FEMA funding to help with Sandy repairs, including about $1.86 million for PS 207 in Howard Beach and Beach Channel High School in Rockaway.
By Anna Gustafson
