QUEENS — Work is set to get underway on an addition at a Forest Hills elementary school, a step meant to alleviate overcrowding in the district, officials said.
The $61 million addition at P.S 303 at 108-55 69th Ave. will bring 484 new seats to the area, according to the Department of Education.
The site where the new addition will be built has already been fenced off and prep work could begin as early as next week, with excavation scheduled to begin in early 2017, according to sources and Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz’s office.
Currently, the school, The Academy for Excellence Through the Arts, has about 195 students enrolled in pre-K through third grade, according to its website.
The DOE said that the agency will work with P.S. 303 to determine which grades will utilize the new space, which is scheduled to open in September 2019, the agency said.
According to the PTA at the school, "the school will be expanding to add grades 4 and 5 and to add two additional classes to existing grades Pre-K through 3."
In April, the School Construction Authority also applied to create additional space within the existing school building by converting kitchen, cafeteria and fuel storage room into two classrooms, the agency said.
A new lunchroom will be built in the new two-story addition.
Instruction will not be interrupted during construction and students will not need to relocate, according to Toya Holness, a spokeswoman for the DOE.
Plans for the new addition were presented in May last year, following the kindergarten crisis in the area, when dozens of Forest Hills families were told that there was not enough space for their children at their zoned schools — P.S. 144 and P.S. 196.
This year, 22 children were wait-listed at P.S. 196, compared to 52 students last year, the DOE said. P.S. 144 had no zoned waitlist this year, compared to 64 students wait-listed last year.
A 590-seat addition is also planned for P.S. 144 at 93-02 69th Ave., the DOE said Wednesday.
