New schools open in Queens this week, but overcrowding problems remain

Even with three new schools coming to Queens this year, some parts of the borough struggle with severe overcrowding. New York City Department of Education/Flickr

By Ryan Schwach

Three new schools are set to welcome Western Queens students this week – but local education advocates say they’ll only make a marginal difference in addressing overcrowding in the borough’s schools.

On Thursday, new students will enter the Academy of Cultural Excellence, which will be built in the Court Square area of Long Island City; West Q elementary school in Woodside; and the Queens Academy for Innovative Learning, a District 75 school in Astoria.

The Queens schools account for all but two of the new schools opening across the city on Thursday.

All three will welcome a few hundred Queens students in communities in dire need of school space. But while education leaders celebrated the new seats, they also warned that the new schools will do little to solve long-standing problems with overcrowding in the fast-growing neighborhoods in the borough or help the neighborhoods meet new class-size mandates, which require schools to cap the size of their classrooms by 2030.

Some of the schools in the communities receiving a new school this year are already at 140 percent capacity, according to Matt Crescio, the president of the local Community Education Council for District 24, where West Q will open.

“There are areas in our district…where they will never ever meet class-size mandates,” Crescio said. “There are areas so densely populated, there's no area to build schools.”

The situation is similar in District 26, which encompasses all of Astoria and Long Island City, the fastest-growing neighborhood in New York City.

A 2025 report from the state comptroller’s office found that five of the 12 schools serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade in LIC were overcrowded, and two others were at 90 percent capacity.

Queens schools will have a little extra time to meet class-size laws along with the rest of the city after the city and state agreed to a delay in the law’s implementation as part of efforts to close the budget gap earlier this year.

Originally, the state needed to meet the mandate by the end of the 2027-28 school year, with all classes being capped at 20 to 25 students, depending on grade level. Now, schools have until the end of 2030 to hit the target.

However, the difficulties remain for the busiest neighborhoods in Queens.

“We have had some classes where there are 30 kids in a class in second grade,” Whitney Toussiant, the co-president of the CEC for District 30, said.

Beyond the Academy of Cultural Excellence’s opening in Long Island City, Toussaint said the CEC has been pushing to get the city to complete several other school projects in Hunters Point.

In addition, around 1,300 new school seats were promised as part of the city’s OneLIC rezoning plan, which was passed by the City Council last year. Toussaint said she hopes the neighborhood plan will lead to more elementary schools in the area.

“We are just hopeful,” she said.

Both ACE and West Q fall into Councilmember Julie Won’s district. She celebrated the new schools, but wants the city to go further.

“Three schools are not enough,” she said. “Western Queens is projected to add nearly 40,000 new residents over the next decade from the OneLIC Neighborhood Plan alone, and the School Construction Authority still has site acquisitions pending that require City Council approval. I will advance those approvals, and I will keep pushing the administration to match the pace of housing growth with the pace of school investment. Queens still doesn't have what we deserve, and I will continue to do everything in my power to get families what we're owed. "

“Every seat matters in a district where classrooms have been over capacity for too long,” she added.

Queens State Senator John Liu, the longtime chair of the State Senate’s Education Committee who got the class size law over the finish line in 2022, told the Eagle in a statement that officials are committed to meeting the law’s requirements.

“Senator Liu understands that alleviating overcrowding in our classrooms is a generational change for the better, and as with all generational changes there will be naysayers,” said the statement. “Thankfully we are at a moment in time when the mayor and the chancellor have articulated a firm commitment to and formulated a coherent plan to reduce NYC class sizes.”

The lawmaker said that the three new schools, and additions at other schools in the borough, like at JHS216 in Fresh Meadows, will help the borough meet the class-size mandate by the deadline.

“The thousands of new school seats being added for the new school year beginning this week, including the new addition at JHS216, is only the beginning of a multi-year plan that will at long last bring NYC class sizes in line with state and national norms, ensuring a sound basic education for all schoolkids,” Liu said.

While the new schools won’t solve Queens’ overcrowding issues, both CEC leaders are excited to welcome students into the new buildings.

Pre-K through fifth grade students at the new Academy of Cultural Excellence will begin their school year at an incubation site closer to Queensbridge and Dutch Kills while the permanent site at Court Square nears completion. The permanent school building will open at the start of the school year next September, bringing 547 school seats to Long Island City.

“It is great that this school is opening now because we are in dire need of elementary school seats in this neighborhood,” said Toussaint. “We've all seen the development. All these buildings are coming up. Families are moving to the neighborhood, and families are now staying in the neighborhood.”

The West Q elementary school will welcome 451 students on Thursday in Woodside. It’ll be the first new D24 school in 15 years.

Crescio described its opening as the clearing of a “huge hurdle.”

“This project has taken over eight years,” he said. “With the extra capacity of 451 seats, this helps us meet the needs of our district, especially in that area where enrollment is increasing, and our schools are overcrowded.”

The Woodside school will also serve students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The city also announced in May that a District 75 school, the Queens Academy for Innovative Learning, will open in Astoria and serve students with disabilities in grades six through 12.

“Innovation, excellence and art are woven into the fabric of this city — they define what it means to be a New Yorker,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani in May. “It’s time our schools reflect that reality. Our students deserve the best. This fall, we’ll deliver it with five new public schools that serve students of all ages, expand access for students with disabilities and put the arts at the center of education.”

The city’s Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment for this story.