STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Elementary students jumped from their auditorium seats and filled the aisles and stage Thursday morning performing \u201cUnder the Sea\u201d from The Little Mermaid for Borough President Vito Fossella. It was a joyful reminder that PS 45 desperately needs a working auditorium.<\/p>\n
Fossella delivered the news the elementary school in West Brighton had been waiting for: The school will receive funding to renovate its auditorium, ending a decade-long struggle with a broken sound system.<\/p>\n
Children and faculty erupted in cheers at the announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur auditorium is the heart of our school,\u201d Principal Nicole Vega said. \u201cThis is the space where our students find their voices, step into the spotlight and discover confidence they didn\u2019t know they had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vega thanked Fossella for securing the funding and became emotional during her remarks. She said the school has requested money for the repairs annually since the system failed about a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Before the announcement, Fossella addressed the students directly about what their school should mean to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a committed principal who wants what\u2019s best for you, and you have great teachers who want nothing but the best for you,\u201d Fossella said. \u201cAll they can do is give you a great opportunity. And it\u2019s up to you to take advantage of that opportunity and to grow, to be the best person you can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vega said she wants the school to eventually become an arts school for the borough, something Staten Island currently doesn\u2019t have. Fossella said that\u2019s his goal, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to cost about $650,000 and take probably about a year and a half to scope it out, design and then construction,\u201d Fossella said. \u201cHopefully, the second and third graders here will get to enjoy it, and hopefully another couple of generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s no detailed plan yet, Fossella said he and Vega will collaborate with the Department of Education to maximize what the budget can accomplish. The focus will be on lighting and sound fixes.<\/p>\n
The broken sound system has created painful moments for the school community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 10 or 12 years ago we got a new auditorium,\u201d Vega said, noting problems began about a year later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sound went out during the finale of one of our performances. They had to do the finale a cappella,\u201d Vega said. \u201cIt was heartbreaking to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, the school has relied on a makeshift Bluetooth speaker that often fails.<\/p>\n
The auditorium renovation is deeply personal for Vega. She\u2019s worked at PS45 for 21 years and her own children were students at the school, but her connection goes back even further. She attended the school as a child and even participated in the drama club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played Martha Washington in the fourth grade, and I was an antelope another year,\u201d Vega said. \u201cSo it\u2019s close to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Elementary students jumped from their auditorium seats and filled the aisles and stage Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-126173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}