Auto Newsletter 9-06
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Office of the New York City Comptroller Office of Policy Management William C. Thompson, Jr.,Comptroller Growing Pains: Reforming Department of Education Capital Planning to Keep Pace with New York City’ s Residential Construction 1 Centre Street New York, NY 10007 (212) 669-3500 May 2008 www.comptroller.nyc.gov policy report 2 Contents Summary . 4 I. Issues in Planning and Implementing New Elementary and Middle School Capacity . .11 A. The 2005-09 Capital Plan. .11 B. How DOE and SCA decide where to build new capacity. .11 The City Planning and Grier projections. 11 How SCA applies the Grier projections . 12 C. Capital planning process shortcomings . 13 Grier Partnership enrollment projections can be misleading. .13 DOE/SCA process lacks transparency. 16 Blue Book capacity utilization is overstated. .17 Static five-year capital plans are used instead of rolling five-year capital plans . 19 Planning for new capacity is not nimble enough to respond quickly to changing local needs . .19 Planning flaws contribute to delays in building new capacity . 20 II. Neighborhoods Where Population Surge and/or Enrollment Growth is Not Matched By New Capacity . 22 Manhattan. 23 Greenwich Village. .23 Upper East Side . 24 Lincoln Square, Upper West Side . 25 Bronx . 27 Pelham Bay, Throgs Neck, Soundview-Castle Hill . 27 Brooklyn . 29 Brooklyn Heights, Downtown, DUMBO, part of Fort Greene. 29 Sunset Park . 31 Boerum Hill, Gowanus. 33 Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, Bensonhurst West . 34 Queens. 37 Flushing. 37 Long Island City, Hunters Point . 39 Staten Island . 42 III. Additional Neighborhood Analyses . 44 Manhattan. .44 Lower East Side, East Village . .44 Tribeca, Civic Center, Battery Park City. .45 Chinatown, Lower East Side. .46 Clinton, Chelsea . .46 Midtown-Midtown South, Murray Hill-Kips Bay, Turtle Bay-East Midtown. .47 East Harlem North-East Harlem South . .48 Central Harlem-South, Central Harlem North-Polo Grounds . .49 Washington Heights, Inwood . .50 April 2008 www.comptroller.nyc.gov policy report 3 Bronx . .52 Melrose South, Mott Haven North, Morrisania-Melrose (partial). .52 High Bridge, Mt. Eden, West Concourse, Morrisania (partial) . .53 Norwood, Van Cortlandt Village, Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Fordham. .55 Co-Op City, Baychester. Woodlawn, Wakefield, Eastchester. .57 West Farms, E Tremont, Crotona Park. 59 Brooklyn. .59 Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill . .59 Williamsburg, North Side-South Side, Greenpoint . .60 Park Slope . .61 Bedford, Stuyvesant Heights, Crown Heights North . .62 Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Crown Heights, Erasmus. .63 Canarsie, Rugby/Remsen Village, East Flatbush/Farragut . 64 East New York, Cypress Hills . .64 Bensonhurst East, Gravesend, Seagate/Coney Island, West Brighton, Brighton Beach, Homecrest, Midwood (part). .66 Canarsie, Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands, Manhattan Beach, Midwood, East Flatbush . 67 Ocean Hill-Brownsville. 69 Bushwick . 70 Queens. .71 Corona, Elmhurst, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Maspeth . .71 Douglaston, Little Neck, Floral Park, Auburndale, Bayside, Bellerose, Oakland Gardens, Fresh Meadows . .72 South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Far Rockaway, Edgemere. .74 South Jamaica, Jamaica Center, Briarwood, Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Rego Park . .77 Rosedale, Laurelton, Cambria Heights, Queens Village, Springfield Gardens, St. Albans, South Jamaica, Hollis . .78 Jackson Heights, Woodside . .80 IV. Recommendations . 81 Appendix A, Enrollment Projections, Capacity Utilization, Planned New Capacity by CSD. 84 Appendix B, Housing Recently Completed or Under Construction. 87 Appendix C, Supplementary Tables—School Capacity Utilization Rates for Selected Neighborhoods and CSDs . .. .91 William C. Thompson, Jr. Gayle M. Horwitz Danica Gallagher Comptroller First Deputy Comptroller Assistant Comptroller for Policy & Communications Glenn von Nostitz John Berman Joan Westmeyer Director, Office of Policy Analyst, Education Policy Liaison Policy Management Office of Policy Management Office of Policy Management April 2008 www.comptroller.nyc.gov policy report 4 Summary The capital planning process for public schools in New York City is broken. There are far too many neighborhoods with overcrowded schools and no hope of relief for at least several more years. This report assesses how the capital planning and construction process for New York City public elementary and middle schools is responding to neighborhood population changes. The New York City Department of Education (DOE) 2005-09 Capital Plan provides for 63,000 new seats in new school buildings or additions. According to DOE, these new seats are intended to alleviate overcrowding in hundreds of schools that currently operate above capacity; end the use of transportable classroom units (trailers); allow for mandated class size reduction in grades K-3; reduce the number of high schools with split sessions; and accommodate population growth. The Comptroller’s Office reviewed Department of City Planning neighborhood population projections for 2000 to 2010, DOE elementary and primary school enrollment projections by Community School District (CSD), and official DOE capacity utilization data by school and CSD in October 2006 (the most recent DOE.