Yesterday, at a forum with NYC Department of Education officials at Queens Borough Hall, members of the Chinese community were disappointed to learn that a new plan to build more schools in Queens would not address the problem of overcrowding in Flushing's School District 26.

Department of Education representative Michael Nolan said the new schools slated to open include: Maspeth High School at 54-50 74th Avenue, which would serve School Districts 24 and 28; a 380-seat elementary school, serving District 27, P.S. 273; a combined middle- and high-school at 91-30 Metropolitan Avenue, serving District 28; and a 540-seat elementary school in District 30, P.S. 280. Maspeth High School will open in 2012; P.S. 273 and 280 will open in 2010.

However, the plan does not address the highly publicized issue of overcrowding in three Flushing high schools with high concentrations of Chinese students.

NYC Comptroller [elect] John Liu, who attended the meeting, asked Nolan if the Department of Education had a comprehensive plan to solve the Flushing overcrowding issue. Nolan responded that their current plan includes only the aforementioned schools, and the Department would address Flushing's overcrowding in the future.

When asked by Community Board 11 representative Jerry Iannece if the DOE had a plan to solve overcrowding at Bayside's Francis Lewis High School, Benjamin Cardozo High School, and Bayside High School, Nolan said that the Department has already begun discussing the issue, but that a solution is not likely in the short term.

Nolan added that eight Queens high schools are not performing up to standard according to recent statistics and may have to be closed down. However, to our knowledge, none of these are schools with large Chinese populations.