Queens Borough President Donovan Richards visited his alma mater, PS 136, the Roy Wilkins School, in St. Albans on Monday to announce $43.7 million in funding for schools across the World\u2019s Borough. He was joined by city Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, PS 136 Principal Jamel Johnson and school superintendents and administrators from across the borough.<\/p>\n
The allocation will help fund 74 different projects across 59 Queens schools in all 14 Queens community districts, according to the Borough President\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Of the $43.7 million allocated this fiscal year by Richards, $3.45 million is earmarked toward a trio of what the borough president said were badly needed improvement projects at PS 136, including holistic renovations of the school\u2019s playground, auditorium and gymnasium.<\/p>\n
At the press conference, Richards told a story of visiting the school and being approached with the words, \u201cI\u2019m tired of getting cuts on the playground.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that as a student, he received a permanent scar after playing football on that very playground.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, deliberate disinvestment has left our kids mentally and physically scarred,\u201d Richards said. \u201cI carry those scars myself. But those days are done.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told the packed auditorium, \u201cYou deserve to have what other ZIP codes around this city and Manhattan have. You will be treated no differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sixteen different education-related projects received at least $1 million in funding from the Borough President\u2019s Office. Among the allocations are:<\/p>\n
\u2022 $3.79 million for playing field renovations at Jamaica Educational Campus;<\/p>\n
\u2022 $3 million for auditorium and cafeteria upgrades at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village;<\/p>\n
\u2022 $2 million for gym upgrades at JHS 226, the Virgil Grissom School, in South Ozone Park;<\/p>\n
\u2022 $2 million for upgrades to the culinary classroom at August Martin High School in Jamaica;<\/p>\n
\u2022 $1.6 million for outdoor courtyard renovations at John Adams High School; and<\/p>\n
\u2022 $1.5 million for a full playground renovation at PS 118, the Lorraine Hansberry School, in St. Albans.<\/p>\n
The investment in education is Richards\u2019 largest single-year allocation toward any genre of city service or institution, his office said, besting the previous record of $31.8 million for Queens schools in fiscal year 2024.<\/p>\n
Overall, Richards has allocated more than $122 million in capital funding toward schools since taking office in December 2020, his office said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis investment, spread across 59 schools, is about the future of our kids, our families and our communities,\u201d Richards said. \u201cIt tells our students that we believe in them and our teachers that their sacrifices don\u2019t go unseen. It tells entire communities that they matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards visited his alma mater, PS 136, the Roy Wilkins School, in St. Albans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[26677,67,609,9,24,63,26678,122,124,123,26679,13055,1236],"class_list":{"0":"post-47044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-bp-donovan-richards","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-ps-136","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news","18":"tag-roy-wilkins-school","19":"tag-school-funding","20":"tag-st-albans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47044","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=47044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}