Committees back site, with stips, after heated hearing on Nathan’s school
Tensions were high Wednesday night at a packed public hearing about the nearly 600-seat middle school slated for the old Nathan’s lot on 86th Street.
The meeting – held at P.S. 264 in Bay Ridge, a once-controversial site itself – pitted the audience (made up of mostly neighbors of the lot) against a pair of representatives from the School Construction Authority (SCA), who were there in conjunction with Community Board 10 to collect testimony to help guide the school’s design process.
District 20 – which encompasses Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and portions of Sunset Park and Boro Park – is among the city’s most overcrowded, with a shortfall of nearly 11,000 seats. That statistic, CB 10 Education Committee Chair Barbara Vellucci contended, more than justifies the need for another school in the board’s catchment area, which includes Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.