NYC gets 24 new schools; why activists say it's not nearly enough

JACKSON HEIGHTS, Queens (PIX11) -- On the eve of the first day of school in New York City, the city showed off some of its two dozen new schools as part of its claim that it is meeting state requirements for smaller class sizes. However, some small class size advocates are not only skeptical that the city is meeting requirements now, they also doubt that it can meet its benchmarks in the school years ahead.

For its part, the city's teachers' union on Wednesday highlighted a school that it said can serve as a template for class size compliance. Whether or not its example can be replicated across the 1,800 schools in the city remains an open question.

Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks led other officials, as well as administrators, teachers, and some families in a ribbon cutting at P.S. 487 in the Bronx on Wednesday morning.

The school is one of 24 that the city is opening this school year, and in the process is creating 11,000 new classroom seats.

The need for the addition is real, in order to shrink class sizes citywide. That's because the state now requires classes in the city to be as small as they are Upstate.

Specifically, in kindergarten through third grade, state law now requires that there be no more than 20 students per class. In Grades 4 to 8, there can be only up to 23 students per class. In ninth to 12th grade, the limit is 25 students per class.

Under a state law passed in 2022, those numbers have to be met by 40 percent of all New York City schools this academic year. By next school year, 60 percent of schools have to be in compliance. The percentage rises to 80 percent the following year, and by the 2027-2028 academic year, all schools are required to be in compliance.

At Wednesday's ribbon-cutting, Chancellor Banks admitted that the rising compliance requirements will not be easy.

"We're in good shape for this year," he said, "and we've got a lot of work to do for the successive years."

Banks said that the city's two dozen new school buildings and 11,000 more seats help it to reach compliance goals for this school year.

Leonie Haimson, the executive director of the non-profit education watchdog group Class Size Matters, has a different take.

"It's great that we're getting 11,000 this year, but it's not enough," she said in an interview.

"I've gotten lots of emails from teachers saying they have classes of 30 or more this year," she said.

It's possible that those anecdotes are from teachers in classrooms in the 60% that are not required to be in compliance at this point. However, going forward, said Haimson, increasing class size compliance may be daunting "without a radically more aggressive capital plan, and a plan to shift enrollment from overcrowded schools to less crowded schools nearby," she said.

The chancellor, in his comments on Wednesday, agreed that after this school year, it's a potentially tough road ahead for class size compliance.

"You will need 10,000 to 12,000 more teachers, where there's a national teacher shortage," Banks said. "So the question becomes do you lower your standards to get more teachers, or how much more innovative can you get?"

At I.S. 145 in Jackson Heights on Wednesday, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew led an event that highlighted that school's efforts to comply with class size regulations.

With some elected officials, administrators, teachers, and families behind him, the teachers' union president praised the intermediate school. He said that its leaders engaged in a long process of figuring out the school community's needs when it comes to class sizes. Mulgrew said that it's worked.

"They first had conversations with all of the parents about what it would mean to lower the class sizes, and they've done that," he said. "And the entire sixth grade this year will be in compliance with the law." The people in attendance applauded.

Still, that's only one grade at one school in a city with 1,800 schools. Both the chancellor and small class size advocates agree that the road forward will be difficult. However, said the union president and others at the school that got it right, it can at least serve as a start for what needs to happen.