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QUESTION
How will New York City Public Schools meet class size benchmarks with reduced funding?
2:03:19
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The NYC School Construction Authority details plans to meet class size benchmarks despite a $2 billion reduction in new capacity funding compared to the previous capital plan.
- The current capital plan funds approximately 27,000 seats; an estimated 23,000 more are planned in the next capital plan with a budget of about $4.1 billion.
- Complete compliance with class size benchmarks would require about 80,000 seats, but the funding covers only a quarter of the need.
- Alternatives to construction are being considered for class size compliance, including constant communication with OMB for additional funding and site evaluations for potential new schools.
- Dan Weisberg expresses concerns over allocating too much capital funding to class size reduction, potentially neglecting necessary upgrades for existing buildings.
- Council Member Joseph highlights the importance of ongoing investments in educational programs and facilities, questioning specific project rollovers into the new capital plan.
Rita C. Joseph
2:03:19
How does New York City Public School, SCA plan to meet classized benchmarks given in the FY 25 to 29 capital plan has $2,000,000,000 less for new capacity in class size compliance than FY 20 to 24 capital plan?
Nina Kubota
2:03:34
So that's a good question.
2:03:37
And I think I've stated this a number of times.
2:03:40
So we do have about 27,000 seats that are in process right now.
2:03:45
So that's what's funded in the current capital plan.
2:03:49
In the next capital plan, we have about $4,100,000,000, which we estimate could build about 23,000 seats.
2:03:58
So again, for full compliance with no other solutions other than to build new seats, to be in compliance, we probably need about 80,000 seats.
2:04:09
So it's funded at about a quarter of what we need.
2:04:14
Again, but that's based on just building seats for every seat that's needed.
2:04:21
And and I and I think you're hearing today that there are many things that are under consideration.
2:04:26
There are many things that I think could be solutions.
2:04:30
Like construction is not the only solution to class size compliance.
2:04:35
That said, we are in constant communication with OMB, and we've stated to them We consider this a down payment.
2:04:42
We will come back to you more.
2:04:44
We talk to the budget director as early as late as last week, and he said, come back to me.
2:04:50
Yes, we have a funding, we have a ceiling, a debt ceiling limitation, but come back to us.
2:04:58
Let's talk rarely about what the real need is.
2:05:01
And I did want to say, which I neglected to say before, is while we're doing these smaller sort of low hanging fruit, we're also looking at you know, as many districts as we can, not just not just the ones that need hundreds of of of classrooms, but all all districts where we can.
2:05:18
We do have our brokers out looking for.
2:05:20
And when we do find sites and we do sort of our due diligence, we're bringing it back to the working group.
2:05:26
You know, with with the New York Public School Working Group where it says, would this site be useful?
2:05:33
That is still go that is underway right now.
2:05:35
We we meet weekly actually, two times a week to discuss these issues.
2:05:39
So we're not waiting.
2:05:41
We're we're we're we're going full steam ahead.
Dan Weisberg
2:05:43
Jeff, I'll just say one thing about the capital side because, you know, I know you don't necessarily wanna emphasize trade offs, but this this is something that I'm very passionate about the the the chancellor's very passionate about.
2:05:57
If you're using these dollars that that president Kubota is talking about, to address class size.
2:06:03
And again, we we agree that we do need a direct dollars towards that.
2:06:07
I don't I definitely don't have to tell you there are buildings that need upgrades, not additional classrooms.
2:06:14
And so one of the things that we did that I'm very proud of that under the chancellor's leadership is we invested $10,000,000 in in district 23 because this was a traditionally underserved district that had had issues in buildings.
2:06:28
Again, as Nina says, our average building is seventy plus years old.
2:06:33
The kids in Brownsville deserve top quality environments when they go to school.
2:06:38
And so we we found the money to invest in Doctor Kirkland's district to take care of a list of community driven projects to make sure that the kids were getting a a good gym for it.
2:06:48
The kids were getting a good outdoor play space with benches and so forth.
2:06:52
The things that say to kids and families, we see you, we care about you.
2:06:57
And one of my concerns is if we're directing too much of capital funding into class size reduction.
2:07:03
Again, we need to make a major investment there, but too much, then we're not gonna have the as many dollars, to make sure that kids who are going in buildings that don't need class size reduction, but they need the bathrooms to be overhauled.
2:07:17
They need the the play space to be overhauled to be less dollars for that.
2:07:20
So that's one of the things, again, we're gonna have to work through together to make sure we're not going too far in one direction.
Rita C. Joseph
2:07:27
Those investments should have been going ongoing a long time ago.
2:07:31
So I don't understand why Brownsville was left behind into in these deluxe potato buildings.
2:07:36
I visit your school buildings, and they know I yell a lot.
2:07:40
And but one of its things you said earlier, I wanna talk back real quick.
2:07:43
I know reading is a priority for the chancellor, a priority for everyone across the city, but also making sure students are in the building and having those safety nets that I that I talked about, that those dollars, the community schools all school very important because I can have the best reading program.
2:07:58
But if they're not showing it up in district 23 in Mister Kirkland School, the reading program is gonna sit here and collect dust.
2:08:05
So we gotta make sure that we keep those safety net programs around to make sure students all come into school.
2:08:11
And we know community schools serve the whole family, not just a child.
2:08:14
But always my approach is the whole child.
2:08:16
We're educating the whole child, and that includes families.
2:08:19
So we gotta continue to make those historic investments into young people.
2:08:23
And my council member Steven, she would agree.
2:08:25
We fight every day for young people every day all day.
2:08:28
So it's about investing in them as well.
2:08:30
Capital plan.