Mayor Bill de Blasio describes the City’s plan to reopen schools on November 29, 2020. Image Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Elementary schools will reopen December 7th but middle and high schools will remain remote only for the foreseeable future. On November 29, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza announced a plan to reopen New York City public schools for in-person learning after temporarily shutting schools on November 19th after the City’s COVID-19 positivity rates exceeded three percent.  (more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio and DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza announce the City’s preliminary plan to reopen schools at a socially distanced press conference on July 8, 2020. Image Credit: Mayoral Photography Office

The City’s plan offers three basic models schools can base their scheduling on to rotate students between in-person and remote learning. On July 8, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza announced the City’s preliminary plan to reopen public schools in September. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have physically been closed since mid-March and operated remotely for the remainder of the school year. The “blended learning” approach will allow for students to rotate in groups to have both in-person and remote instruction every week. (more…)

Image credit: School Construction Authority.

The report requested school space studies as a part of ULURP among other recommendations.  In response to this article, on September 23, 2019, the School Construction Authority contacted Cityland to respond to Bronx Borough President Rubin Diaz Jr.’s recommendations. (more…)

Image credit: School Construction Authority.

City Council’s new legislation seeks to combat overcrowded New York City Schools through new efficient methods in choosing new school building projects. On September 12, 2018, the City Council announced it will require the School Construction Authority to disclose how it evaluates the location and time frame of new schools being built. City Council Member Ben Kallos authored the measure, Introduction 729, in response to overcrowding in New York City public elementary and middle schools and the City’s plans to build fewer school seats. This legislation intends to make the Department of Education and the School Construction Authority more transparent in their decisions, and create accountability. (more…)

Rendering of 600 East 156th, designed by Curtis + Ginsberg Architects.

The City Planning Commission approved the construction of 175 new affordable units and a new charter school in the Melrose neighborhood of the Bronx. On April 5, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on an application from 600 Associates, LLC, an affiliate of the nonprofit developer Phipps Houses. The applicant proposed changing the zoning of the lot in question from manufacturing to residential, and proposed designating the lot as a Mandatory Housing Inclusionary area. The rezoning and designation would facilitate the construction of a twelve-story mixed-use building containing a charter school and 175 units of affordable housing. (more…)