UPPER EAST SIDE — Officials at the Isidor and Ida Straus school, P.S. 198, on Third Avenue are working to bring the mid-century school up to date.
Students started the school year on Wednesday with a newly renovated auditorium and will soon have quicker Internet access, a new climate control system and next year, an upgraded cafeteria, according to school officials.
Family members waiting outside of the school on Wednesday afternoon were pleased to know the updates are on the way.
"They're absolutely needed," said Yasmine Kocar who was picking up her son from his first day in third grade. "The school looks pretty good as is, but it could use changes."
The building, which was built in 1959, is used by P.S. 198 and shared with students from P.S. 77, the Lower Lab School.
Next summer, the cafeteria will be renovated too, according to the school's August newsletter, written by Principal Nancy Cabrero. This year, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer earmarked $250,000 in city funding for the project.
"The cafeteria definitely needs it," said Diane Gross, a grandmother of a first grader at the school. "There is no air conditioning in there ... and on a day like today ..."
She added that the last time she was in the school she noticed that the cafeteria tables were "so old."
The school will also finally have a new boiler system by January 2016, according to the NYC School Construction Authority. The $3.9 million project began in August 2014, according to Jason Fink, a spokesman for the the city's Department of Education.
Once that is done, the school's windows will be replaced and its exterior will be painted, Cabrero said.
Students will also be able to surf the web quicker once the school's Wi-Fi network is upgraded this fall, Cabrero said. Schools are eligible for technology upgrades every six years, according to Fink.
Cabrero did not return a request for comment on Wednesday.
For now, students will take advantage of the facility's auditorium, which received a fresh coat of paint, ceiling fans and seats that don't squeak over the summer, according to Cabrero's newsletter.