NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Eric Adams announced the opening of 24 new school buildings across the city on Wednesday during a press conference at a new school in the Bronx, just in time for the 2024-2025 school year.
“Our administration is committed to giving our children a first-class education, and a crucial part of a great education is having access to great facilities,” Adams said.
The expansion adds 11,010 new seats, the largest increase in K-12 school capacity since 2003.
The new buildings, located in four boroughs—nine in Brooklyn, eight in the Bronx, one in Manhattan, and six in Queens—boast state-of-the-art classrooms, technology, and flexible learning spaces. Features include science labs, art and music rooms, reading and speech resource centers, and gyms. Many of the new facilities also incorporate eco-friendly materials and green spaces.
Schools Chancellor David Banks joined Adams at the new facility on St. Ann’s Avenue in the Bronx, which includes modern science labs, special education classrooms, and music rooms.
Banks also announced that the city will take the 2024-2025 school year to study the use of phones in schools, however didn't mention a formal plan yet in place.
“We have close to 400 schools right now that already have a cell phone restriction plan in place,” Banks said.
The city’s 2025-2029 Capital Plan will provide funding for an additional 33,417 seats across the city, addressing long-standing concerns of overcrowding.
In the Bronx, where eight of the new school buildings are located, educators are already implementing cell phone management strategies. Alexis Orden, the principal of P.S. 487, shared her simple approach: “We were in elementary school, and now we’re going into a middle school. So it was just, you turn off your phone, you put it in your backpack. But there were never any phones out.”
Reflecting on the excitement of the students, Banks said, “I know the aha moments that those kids are going to have when they walk in for the first time and be overwhelmed by the newness of this building. It smells like it’s new, doesn’t it?”