A rally at 75 Morton St. in support of locating a new middle school in the currently state-owned building will be held Thurs., Sept. 24, starting at 4:15 p.m. The Public School Parent Advocacy Committee and Community Board 2 say the middle school is sorely needed to ease overcrowding in the neighborhood’s schools, where middle schools are now reportedly filled with up to 35 students per class. Confirmed speakers at the rally are Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Assemblymember Deborah Glick.
The building at 75 Morton St. even has a full-size gym, which could be home to a school basketball team, the advocates note. And the building’s “parking lot” would be an ideal play yard for a school, they add.
“There seems to be a confluence of political will, a desire on the part of the Department of Education to make it work, and certainly the needs of the community to get this done,” said Irene Kaufman, of P.S.P.A.C. “The goal is to make it clear to Albany and the governor that this is urgently needed. The people of the city of New York also pay state taxes and should have a right to benefit from this building — after all, we have helped pay for it!”
