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New Area Public School Proposal Is Alive & Well
Nevertheless, City Councilman Charles Barron, whose district includes the site on the east side of East 107th Street between Flatlands Avenue and Avenue J, said the SCA has withdrawn its initial application and could likely resubmit it under the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, the city's public approval process. Barron said he would reconvene a meeting with officials from the SCA and other interested parties, including local activists and the city’s Department Housing, Preservation and Development, to determine the best solution for the community. Barron told the Canarsie Courier yesterday that Community School District 18 needs another school so he is hopeful a suitable agreement can be reached for either the original site, an unoccupied building that previously housed the Canarsie Jewish Center and its yeshiva, or an alternative location at a long vacant lot on East 105th Street and Flatlands Avenue. “The location for any new school is contingent upon approval from the City Council,” Barron said. Therefore, he suggested the SCA withdraw its initial proposal for the yeshiva site until he gathers more input. Community Board 18 District Man-ager Dorothy Turano told the Courier on Tuesday that Barron’s office informed her last Friday the SCA had reconsidered its plan to build a new primary/intermediate school — grades K through 8 — on East 107th Street, and believed the bid was dead. “With information and data research-ed and collected by my office that we provided to Councilman Barron, he convinced the SCA the proposed site was unacceptable to the community,” Turano said in the telephone interview. “He obviously presented the SCA with a persuasive argument,” Turano added. However, Keith Kalb, a Department of Education spokesperson, told the Courier yesterday that the plan announced last December is “still in place” and the SCA is going through the “standard approval process,” which includes approval from the City Council. Barron asserted that any Council approval would likely be based on his position, which, right now, is “to get a new school for the community.” Once he evaluates input from the community and others on the preferred site, Barron said he would let the SCA know. Turano questioned the purchase of the property after learning of the SCA’s Notice of Filing late last year. Subsequently, she quickly added discussion of the issue to the agenda of CB 18’s regularly scheduled December meeting where members rejected it. The SCA had previously said the new school is scheduled for occupancy in September 2008, if the approval process remains on schedule. Turano believes that the best alternative for a new school site would be the long city-owned lot at East 105th Street. That site is still being considered for construction of permanent housing for low-income residents by Common Ground, a not-for-profit organization that provides permanent housing for formerly homeless individuals. A Common Ground spokesperson said yesterday that a final decision on the property should come before the end of the year, which will be more than 18 months after the proposal was announced followed by moderate opposition from community residents.
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