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School building at PS 2 to be expanded, modular unit to be removed

Constantinides makes announcement by modular building

Oct. 20, 2017 By Christian Murray

The beaten up modular building that covers part of the school yard at PS 2 in East Elmhurst will be removed, replaced by a permanent addition that will be made to the main school building.

Councilman Costa Constantinides and other elected officials held a press conference at the 75-10 21st Avenue school this morning and announced that an addition will be made to the main building that will cater to the 120 students who are currently taught in a modular building that is on the school yard.

“Our students deserve a permanent educational space that’s indoors, rather than in modular buildings or trailers,” Constantinides said. “The addition will provide adequate space for all the school’s students.”

The modular building, which was meant to be a temporary fix to school overcrowding, has pocked the school yard for more than two decades. Twenty percent of the 600 students at the school are taught in it.

School officials said that modular buildings separate students from their peers making it difficult for them to feel a sense of unity with their school mates. They also reduce the size of the school yard.

The School Construction Authority aims to complete the addition by 2020, with the project about to go into the one-year design phase. Once construction starts, the modular building will be removed and the students will be taught in the main school building for the duration of the project.

The amount that will spent on the addition as well as the number of children it will serve has yet to be determined.