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Q&A
Discussion on school building accessibility and capital funding
1:10:31
·
74 sec
First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg addresses Council member Brooks-Powers' concerns about school building accessibility, outlining the Department of Education's efforts and challenges in making older buildings more accessible. The discussion highlights the need for additional capital funding to improve accessibility across the school system.
- Current capital plan includes $800 million for improving building accessibility
- Progress has been made, but more funding is needed due to the age of many school buildings
- Efforts are being made to ensure equitable distribution of accessibility improvements
- Council member Brooks-Powers expresses concerns about specific schools in her district lacking space for smaller classes
Daniel Weisberg
1:10:31
Yeah.
1:10:31
Yes.
1:10:31
So so the I don't have specific numbers, council member, for for your district.
1:10:38
Mhmm.
1:10:39
But, you know, this has been an ongoing effort, and funding is important to this effort.
1:10:49
The capital plan we have before us now has $800,000,000 invested in making buildings more accessible.
1:10:57
The last five year plan had, I believe, $750,000,000.
1:11:02
That has resulted in those numbers inching up.
1:11:05
So we have more buildings now that are fully accessible, more buildings that are partially accessible.
1:11:11
But we need to do more.
1:11:13
The average age of our building, I think, is something like 60 to 70 years old.
1:11:17
They were not built to be accessible.
1:11:19
The new buildings certainly are, but the older ones are not.
1:11:22
And so it takes quite a bit to retrofit all those buildings.
1:11:26
In doing the accessibility program, we absolutely target communities like on the Peninsula, Far Rockaway, etcetera, Central Brooklyn, to make sure the accessibility is equitable.
1:11:40
But we need we need to do more, and that frankly is gonna take more capital dollars to do that.