June 25, 2015!

Ross J. Holden, Esq.!

Vice President and General Counsel!
NYC School Construction Authority!
30-30 Thomson Avenue!
Long Island City, New York 11101!

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via sites@nycsca.org!
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Dear Mr. Holden:!
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I am writing to submit comments on plans by the School Construction Authority (SCA) to

construct an elementary/intermediate school in the building identified as B15 in the Pacific Park
(ne Atlantic Yards) mixed-use development plan, located on the east side of 6th Avenue
between Pacific and Dean streets.!

In the notice of the public hearing held by Community Board 8 (CB8) and Community Education
Council 13 (CEC13), the school is described as containing 616 seats. However, the SCA's
Fiscal Year 2015-2019 Five Year Capital Plan lists 1,090 funded seats in Community School
District 13 (CSD13), 333 of which are under construction as I.S. 611 in Dumbo, resulting in a net
new capacity figure of 757 for the district, potentially the size of the school planned as part of
building B15.!

Community Board 2 is pleased Forest City Ratner Companies included a school in its
development plans. Construction of elementary and intermediate schools at Pacific Park has
been a Capital Budget priority of the community board since Fiscal Year 2008.!

The community board is concerned that one school is not sufficient to meet the need resulting
from the new residents of Pacific Park, which is planned to have 14 residential buildings
containing 6,430 apartments; 4,500 rental units and 1,930 condominiums. Using the standard
factor of 0.29 to estimate the student population at full build-out, 1,865 school-age residents will
live at Pacific Park, two-and-a-half or three times the seats currently under consideration.!

The chair of the community board's education committee attended the CB8/CEC13 public
hearing and took note of two topics that were raised repeatedly by the speakers who testified.
The first issue is the question of whether or not this siteacross the street from the
16,000-19,000 seat Barclays Center arena, near significant additional new construction and less
than a block away from a fire station and police precinctis suitable for a school.!

Mr. Kendrick Ou, SCA director of real estate services, reportedly responded, "We've done our
assessment; we believe the conditions are manageable." However, Mr. Ou also stated that no
other sites have been considered. I note that building B13, on Block 1129 (bounded by
Vanderbilt Avenue, Dean Street, Carlton Avenue and Pacific Street), has the same construction
timetable as B15 but is further from the arena, the major thoroughfares, and the public safety
facilities. Community Board 2 encourages the SCA to consider this building as an alternative
site for a school. The community board wholeheartedly concurs with the decision to build a
school earlier rather than later, to provide seats for the first families to move to Pacific Park.!

Should B15 remain the principle site under consideration for a school, some of the conditions
that need to be managed are noise, safe entry and egress, safe routes to and from the school,
and safe loading and unloading of buses.!

Since the current plans do not include outdoor recreation space, the proposed school must
consider the need for active design; a full size gym, sufficient recess space, and rooms for gross
motor skill development.!

The second topic that was raised repeatedly was the need for a new intermediate school. The
decision on whether the school be designed for elementary or middle school students, or both,
should be deferred in order to respond to the needs at the time the school opens. The building
plan should include design elements for a wide range of ages; i.e.: toilets in early childhood
rooms, a standard size gymnasium, a science lab and an art studio.!

As is being done in response to the overcrowding at P.S. 8, a range of concurrent solutions

should be considered and implemented by the Department of Education and the SCA. These
include strategies to make the existing CSD13 intermediate schools more attractive to parents
and exploration of a more porous boundary between districts 13 and 15.!

I would be remiss if I did not mention the disappointment of Community Board 2 that a
commensurate effort is not being made to construct a school in Downtown Brooklyn. According
to the current construction timetable for Pacific Park, approximately 2,800 apartments will have
been built there by the time a school might open in B15. Since Downtown Brooklyn was
rezoned in 2004, 5,000 units of housing have already been built and at least another 4,600 units
are under construction, with even more being planned. Despite this far greater and more urgent
need, a downtown school continues to be omitted from the five year capital plan.!

The community board's Executive Committee voted unanimously (9-0-0) on June 22, 2015 to
submit this letter as written. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.!

Sincerely,!
Shirley A. MCRae!

cc:

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Hon. Eric L. Adams!

Brooklyn Borough President!
Hon. Laurie Cumbo!
New York City Council!
Nizjoni Granville, Chairperson!
Community Board 8!
David Goldsmith, President!
Community Education Council 13!
Ashley Cotton, Senior Vice President!
Forest City Ratner Companies