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Queens’ only specialized high school may soon get its long-awaited new home — and another selective Queens high school vying for the same building has secured funding for a new space of its own, officials said.
The city’s Panel for Educational Policy is expected to vote Feb. 25 on a proposal to relocate Queens High School for the Sciences to a bigger building in Jamaica’s District 28, a move that students have been waiting for since the high school’s opening 24 years ago.
Queens High School for the Sciences, often referred to as QHSS, is housed across 14 classrooms on the second floor of York College’s Jamaica campus and is over capacity by roughly 130 students.
The new school building at 165-15 88th St. is less than a mile away from the York campus, and would allow QHSS to expand from roughly 500 students up to 700 by the 2029-30 school year, according to Department of Education projections in the Jan. 9 relocation proposal.
HBCU Early College Prep was also eyeing the 88th Street building but has since come up with plans for a site of their own, said Greg Faulkner, chair of the Panel for Educational Policy, who was briefed on plans by Education Department officials.
“I don’t foresee obstacles at the vote meeting,” Faulkner said, “and with this new announcement of HBCU’s plans, I expect the proposal will pass. It’s a win-win.”
A relocation promised two decades ago
The Queens High School for the Sciences is one of eight schools in New York City that admit students based solely on Specialized High School Admissions Test scores.
If approved, QHSS students would move to the new school building in the fall, sharing the facility with up to 100 students at P.S. 438, a newly opened high school in District 75 serving students with complex disabilities.
Students at QHSS say relocating to a larger facility would help the school address a range of overcrowding issues: large classes, limited access to shared spaces like libraries, and lack of dedicated science laboratories and art rooms.
“As the No. 1 high school in the state, they should be able to offer a range of sports teams, clubs, and extracurriculars that other specialized schools have,” said Shirley Aubin, the Queens borough president’s appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy, referring to the school’s U.S. News and World reporting ranking within New York State.
Aubin said QHSS has been waiting for their own building since opening their doors in 2002.
“I remember being drawn to QHSS; it was just a few minutes away from where I lived. I was ready to commit until I learned that it had no building,” Stuyvesant High School freshman Saadat Azam told The Cardinal Chronicles, the student newspaper at QHSS, in November.
Despite its limited facilities, 11,809 New York City students listed QHSS on their Specialized High School application, and just 148 students received offers, according to the Education Department.
Vinny Dong, a sophomore at QHSS who has commented at three panel meetings in the past year, said sharing the York College campus created pressing academic and quality of life issues for his school.
QHSS students receive pre-made lunches prepared off-site and, instead of a cafeteria, have two microwaves located in a basement room. The shared gym, which is located two blocks off-campus, can only be accessed by QHSS students between 8:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., according to the Cardinal.
“We serve 514 students and we have a grand total of one floor. Our gym is two blocks away across a very active road. I almost got run over, by the way,” Dong said at the November panel meeting.
HBCU Prep to announce relocation funding
HBCU Early College Prep, a selective Queens high school that offers college credits and an associate degree upon graduation, opened its doors to its inaugural class of ninth graders last fall.
Students begin synchronous college courses in 11th grade, thanks to its partnership with Delaware State University, a historically Black college.
The school serves local Queens students, reserving up to 40% of its seats for District 29 residents, 40% for those from District 27 and 28, and the remaining 10% of seats for other Queens residents. The program aims to provide Southeast Queens residents with an alternative to specialized high schools, the bulk of which are located outside of these districts.
HBCU Prep admits applicants based on their seventh grade GPAs, a writing assessment, and a video.
The school had also asked to move into the new building on 88th Street, but overcrowding isn’t a concern in their current facility shared with I.S. 238 and P.S. 9 Walter Reed School. According to Department of Education enrollment projections, the building HBCU occupies will reach 80% capacity by the 2029 school year.
Officials at the Education Department’s Office of District Planning told Faulkner that HBCU Prep is expected to announce that budget funds have been set aside for the school’s own relocation, though the timeline and building site have not yet been determined.
Faulkner said he originally advocated for HBCU Prep to relocate to the new building, but after touring the cramped QHSS campus at York College, he saw that the high school’s facilities are “bursting at the seams” and “are not sufficient to allow QHSS to grow.”
HBCU Prep is expected to make an official announcement about their relocation plans at the Feb. 25 vote, Faulkner said. Information about the hearing and live streaming can be found here.
Lizzie Walsh is a Data Fellow at Chalkbeat New York, reporting NYC local news and data-driven stories across Chalkbeat’s bureaus. Contact her at ewalsh@chalkbeat.org.
