Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Timeline for opening new seats funded in the capital plan
5:29:21
ยท
115 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the realistic timeline for opening the 33,417 seats funded in the plan by the 2027-2028 school year when the class size law will be fully in effect. SCA President Nina Kubota and Deputy Chancellor Emma Vadehra provide details on the progress and challenges.
- SCA has cited 8 additional projects totaling 2,700 seats since the plan's adoption
- Five projects will open by the 2027-2028 school year, providing about 1,116 seats
- The law includes exemptions for spaces where SCA has identified sites but construction is still in process
Rita Joseph
5:29:21
So how many of the 33,417 seats funded in the plan would realistically be open by 2027 to 2028 school year when the class size law will fully be in effect?
Nina Kubota
5:29:34
So we're very happy to report that since the adoption of the plan, we've been able to cite eight additional projects totaling 2,700 seats.
5:29:43
However, as you know, typical capital projects can take an extended period of time.
5:29:49
Finding the site, the site acquisition process, the design, the bid and award, and then construction, which is typically three years.
5:29:57
So we're talking multiple years.
5:29:59
So we are exploring other delivery methods as we talked about a little bit earlier, but of the 33,417 funded seats, as I mentioned, we have identified sites for 10,596 sites, but for their five projects that will open by the twenty twenty seven-twenty eight school year for about eleven sixteen seats, but we're hopeful that we'll be able to open more with room conversion projects, and I do want to mention that we have 27,000 seats coming online from the 2020 2020 to 2024 capital plan.
Jolene Gunther-Doherty
5:30:41
Add something?
5:30:43
I would love to.
Emma Vadehra
5:30:45
Thank you.
5:30:46
I just wanted to say appreciate the question and appreciate Nina's response.
5:30:51
And the one other thing to remember about the law is that it does actually assume that bringing space online will take some time.
5:30:59
And so it has a particular exemption in the law for space where SCA has identified and we know where we're going to build to give the extra time needed to build that additional space.
5:31:09
And so there's some constraints on that exemption, but to the extent SCA has a site and it's in process, that is envisioned under the law as well.
Rita Joseph
5:31:16
So there's some cushion room until you meet the compliance.