Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today helped break ground on a Brooklyn Kindergarten-Grade 8 school that will be built in partnership with the City Council, the School Construction Authority (SCA), and the New York State Dormitory Authority (NYSDA). The Cypress Hills Community School, currently located on Linwood Street, will move to the nearby site of a leased facility at 2911 Atlantic Avenue. A portion of the leased facility will be renovated and the rest will be demolished to provide space for new construction of a four-story, 55,900 square-foot school building that will allow the school enrollment to grow from 250 to 333 students. The new facility will cost approximately $49 million. The SCA is funding $29 million of the total; $20 million will come from the City Council Speaker’s Initiative for School Construction and $500,000 from the NYSDA.
“The construction of Cypress Hills Community School is the result of a strong partnership between the Department of Education, the New York City Council, the New York State Dormitory Authority, and the Cypress Hills community,” Chancellor Klein said. “I’m gratified that we have been able to work together to bring to Brooklyn a beautiful new school that will serve its children in future generations.”
“This latest groundbreaking further demonstrates the responsiveness of the Department of Education’s five-year capital plan to community needs,” Deputy Chancellor of Finance and Administration Kathleen Grimm said. “It also demonstrates the SCA’s commitment to quality. Among its many amenities, the new school will have a science room, a music room, and an art studio.”
In addition to specialty rooms, the school will have a 3,400-square-foot multi-purpose room, a 1,064-square-foot library, a community room, a medical office, a cafeteria, and a 3,970-square-foot school yard. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2009. The new building was designed by Pratt Planning and Architectural Collaborative and the contractor is AMCC Corp.
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Contact: David Cantor / Marge Feinberg (212) 374-5141