Several East Reading Avenue residents walked out of Councilmember Frank Morano's office when he told them he would back the school going up across the street from their one and two family homes. He said so himself, out loud, at the March 18 landmarks subcommittee hearing. The fight is over a roughly 754-seat pre-K through 8th grade school the New York City School Construction Authority wants to build on a 2.2-acre vacant lot in Great Kills, block 5474, lots 12 through 29, bounded by Abingdon, Armstrong, and East Reading Avenues.
Morano walked every public school in his district before deciding, and what he saw was overcrowding, classrooms stretched past capacity, with the new class size mandate about to demand even more room. Community Education Council 31's elementary schools ran at 112 percent of target capacity in 2023-2024. He framed the choice bluntly: under current zoning this vacant lot will not stay vacant, and in a city of yes environment the realistic alternative could be dense housing or a battery storage facility next to the homes. A 754-seat school relieving PS-32, PS-42, PS-53, and IS-2, he argued, is the better neighbor.
The residents are not sold. Their concerns, traffic, parking, safety, flooding, and ice, are real, Morano said, and he pressed Andrea Bender, the SCA's vice president of external affairs, on whether the school had to be this big at 760 students and 98 faculty. Bender held the line: the CEQR analysis found no traffic impact, parking dropping only about 6 percent, native soils and historic fill with no contamination blocking construction, and the site is the largest one available for acquisition nearby. She would not commit the entrance location to the community, reserving that for the architects once SCA closes on the property, but said she would carry residents' input back to the design team.
No members of the public testified at the hearing itself, and the subcommittee laid the item over with no vote. The CB3 hearing was held last May, the CEC hearing last June. If SCA gets approval to acquire the land, the school is anticipated to open in 2031, with 31 classrooms, 10 District 75 rooms, and two play yards. Morano's parting hope: that the worst future problem on East Reading Avenue is finding a parking spot for a graduation.