On Friday, elected officials and members of the city Department of Education (DOE) and the School Construction Agency gathered at the future location of what's expected to be one of the most environmentally friendly educational sites in the country, and the first of its type in the Northeast.
The kindergarten through grade-five school, with a capacity for 444 students, will be at the intersection of Bloomingdale and Woodrow roads.
It will house five pre-K/kindergarten classrooms, 13 standard classrooms and five more classrooms for special-needs students. Music, art, science facilities, a "gymatorium," kitchen, cafeteria, vegetable garden, greenhouse and bike energy room will also be on site, as will four sustainability teaching nodes within the building that will focus on sun, wind, earth and water attributes.
The high-tech, 3.5-acre school will generate energy from the sun through photovoltaic panels. Geo-exchange pumps will be located on the site to heat and cool water that will be used for the HVAC systems. A wind turbine will serve to demonstrate to students how wind can generate energy.
Called a net-zero energy school, power used at PS 62 will equal the energy it produces. It also will have extra insulation and high-performance windows, to prevent heat or air conditioning from escaping.
"This will be, in my view, the most technologically advanced school in the country," said City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore). "We're proud to have it here on Staten Island."
The South Shore councilman said the community needs additional school seats: "We're bursting at the seams."
DOE Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm thanked Ignizio and Borough President James Molinaro, who also attended.
"This is really not just a groundbreaking, literally, but also a groundbreaking in terms of New York City schools. This school is going to generate its own energy. It's going to be a wonderful example of a green building that really is for the 21st century," said Ms. Grimm.
She noted it will be in the vanguard of energy conservation, not just to save money but to save power, and constitute a laboratory for teaching children how important it is to save energy, and how to do it.
District Superintendent Erminia Claudio said magic will happen in the area.
"Not only is it going to be a wonderful experience for our Staten Island children, but all over the country, people are going to be watching this school," she said, adding it will be one of Staten Island's premier educational hubs.
However, since the school was announced in January of 2011, residents nearby haven't embraced it. Some homeowners have put their houses up for sale. They say it's going to ruin their neighborhood. Others questioned why it was necessary when another elementary school, PS 56, is just a block away on Woodrow.
State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) questioned the location of the school, especially since a large plot of land is available in Charleston.
"This one really befuddles me," he said, adding the site is just a stone's throw away. "We could build a high school, a K-8, and a school for special needs there."
Lanza called positioning PS 62 where it is a waste of taxpayer dollars when a property is already available down the road.
"It's another school with no space for dismissal," he said. "I'm beside myself on this. It bothers me. There's a lack of vision, planning and maybe more."
PS 62's planning process included the city having to purchase a house on Bloomingdale. The house was knocked down at the end of last week. Lanza also called that a waste of taxpayer dollars.
"This one just strains the imagination about what possibly went into the decision process to make this happen," he added, calling it bad for students, teachers and parents.
Meanwhile, Ignizio fully supports the location and said not only will PS 62's presence be extremely helpful, but the site Lanza is referring to will be important down the road.
Several years ago, Ignizio thought a school a block from PS 56 was unnecessary, but as time elapsed, he said it had to be done. He once said the site would be perfect for a library. That's no longer the case, he said, citing traffic studies.
PS 62's design includes a separate street away from nearby homeowners that enables traffic – pickups, drop-offs – to flow through the property, not on neighboring Crabtree Avenue and Woodrow.
"This will provide capacity relief in 2015 to a walk-up population where people live, and their kids can walk to school," he said.