1- Make it easier and faster to build schools
There are many districts in New York City where the funding is in the DOE Capital Plan but no school seats are sited, which demonstrates a failure to build seats in neighborhoods even when we have the resources. We need to do better.
Pilot an RFP process for finding sites for new school construction.
To get assistance in finding new opportunities for school construction, SCA could pilot a new Request for Proposals (RFP) process that allows developers to present the agency with opportunities to build new schools with a specific funding constraint dictated in the RFP
Advocate for SCA to receive Design-Build authorization from New York State.
Design-build has proven to expedite construction timelines and result in cost savings. The State should authorize SCA to use the design-build process for school construction projects.
Expand use of eminent domain, particularly in high-need districts.
In Community School Districts with the most overcrowded schools that also have limited vacant sites that are suitable for new school construction, SCA should more often use aggressive measures like eminent domain to build schools.
Convene a school design working group to consider school design flexibility.
SCA and DOE should convene a School Design Working Group to consider additional flexibility for design requirements for building schools on a small or irregular lot or in a mixed-use or affordable development. This working group could work under the direction of SCA’s school design staff, and would consist of experts in architecture, construction, and education.
Establish zoning incentives to encourage school construction in high-need districts.
Special zoning districts could be established to encourage school construction in areas of the City with the highest need. Any change to the Zoning Resolution would require public review and a vote by the City Council. These zoning incentives would be meant to encourage developers to incorporate public schools into their development plans. The provisions of each zoning district should be tailored to the specific challenges in that school district.
Continue to use the Education Construction Fund (ECF) model where appropriate.
The ECF model has been used successfully in a variety of projects, and it is an excellent way to leverage the private market to raise funding for new schools and achieve multiple policy goals, including building new affordable housing.
Lease school buildings in large-scale affordable housing projects.
SCA is a “credit tenant” (a tenant with the financial security worthy of being rated as an investment grade by any of the major credit agencies), which means a firm early commitment from SCA to lease space is very useful in helping a developer to secure financing.
Improve the site identification process.
In order to bolster the SCA’s efforts, the administration should form a mayoral-level team to review city real estate transactions and deals to identify opportunities for SCA. The Economic Development Corporation, HPD, DCAS, and DCP should be key participants. Additionally, given competing demands on City-owned or leased space, DCAS should alert DOE and SCA if a City-owned or leased property of adequate size for a school becomes available, so that DOE and SCA can consider that site for creating additional capacity.
Support or build consensus for proposed school facilities.
When SCA is proposing a new school where need is significant, public officials should make every effort to support the construction of new schools. While local input can improve the final design and ensure the school will be integrated into the surrounding neighborhood, public officials should support the siting and creation of new schools where SCA and DOE have demonstrated a need for new school seats.
2- Accurately describe the problem
There are legitimate concerns about the integrity of the data used by SCA to develop the identified need for each capital plan. Listed below are several recommendations for each of the data sources used for the capital planning process.
Include confidence intervals in enrollment projections.
SCA’s demographers should incorporate confidence intervals into their projections to allow the public to see what range of student populations SCA is considering when deciding where new school construction will be funded.
Implement Blue Book Working Group (BBWG) recommendations that have not yet been implemented, particularly regarding class size.
The BBWG made a series of recommendations that have been partly implemented, but some of the most important recommendations were not adopted. SCA and DOE should update their target capacity class sizes to meet approved class size goals for the City under the State’s Contract for Excellence.
Develop a housing projection model.
DOB permits do not accurately reflect the number of housing units that will be built in 10 years. SCA, in conjunction with other relevant city agencies, should develop a housing projection model that creates more realistic estimates for housing construction beyond the immediate future.
Create neighborhood-based Projected Public School Ratios (PPSRs) using up-to-date Census data.
SCA should use the most current information available to develop more neighborhood-based PPSRs. The updated PPSRs should consider the number of bedrooms in housing units and other relevant factors that play a role in determining the likelihood of a household to generate children that will attend public school.
Extend the school capacity planning horizon.
The DOE Capital Plan should project seat need for a rolling, 10-year period and clearly indicate how new capacity projects completed during any plan period change the identified seat need. This would allow DOE to plan to actually meet that need in the long-term, rather than continually projecting an unachievable seat need in fixed, five-year increments.
3- Give the public and decision makers the information they need
Below are recommendations for the information that should be released in order to enhance transparency and create additional public trust in the school planning process. Making this information public would allow for an informed dialogue between community members, education policy experts, the Council, and the administration on the best way to identify where new school seat construction is needed.
Provide all data related to the identified seat need in machine-readable format at the level of planning (i.e. subdistrict level).
The subdistrict boundaries are the most important geographies for decisions by the City related to school planning. For transparency in the school planning process, the data used in the school planning process should be aggregated at the subdistrict level to ensure the public has full confidence in the way the City allocates resources related to school planning and construction.
Provide substantive information on the adjustments SCA makes to the raw seat need that results in the identified seat need.
DOE/SCA use strategies other than constructing new schools to accommodate projected student enrollment. These adjustments are likely sensible measures to take that are much more cost-efficient than building new schools. For the public to have confidence in the identified need in the Capital Plan, DOE/SCA should list what strategies are being utilized to address overcrowding before requesting funding for new school construction.
Clarify how race is incorporated into enrollment projections.
The demographers hired by SCA to project future student enrollment conduct their analysis using undisclosed algorithms to project student enrollment by race. In some cases, these enrollment projections vary dramatically by race. Projecting declining enrollments for Hispanic and Black students may deny neighborhoods that are predominately Hispanic and Black adequate school facilities in the future.
Include the planning process for pre-K seats in the Capital Plan.
DOE/SCA have no published plan for how accommodated this new program in current facilities or new planned construction. As the pre-K program continues to expand in DOE facilities, the DOE/SCA should publish their method for streamlining the pre-K program into the Capital Plan.
Improve communication with the public about potential new school sites.
When SCA receives a recommendation for a potential school site from the public, SCA should provide a meaningful response that includes detailed criteria for site selection. This would encourage the public to continue to submit potential school sites.
4- Increase use of other approaches to reduce overcrowding and foster diversity
While there are many cases where capital investment in new school construction is the only remedy, DOE interventions allow for less expensive and more flexible potential solutions to capacity needs. As the City begins to earnestly address issues of segregation in NYC public schools, the recommendations in this section can be used to address issues related to overcrowding and segregation in tandem.
The School Diversity Advisory Group should consider school capacity and utilization as part of its larger diversity plan
As part of its “Equity and Excellence for All: Diversity in New York City Public Schools” plan released in June 2017, DOE has created a School Diversity Advisory Group tasked with reviewing policies and practices and making recommendations to the Mayor and Chancellor for changes to increase diversity in DOE schools. As part of its work, the School Diversity Advisory Group should consider school capacity and utilization as part of its larger diversity plan.
Create specific school plans to alleviate overcrowding in high-need districts.
For consistently and extremely overcrowded schools in the highest need districts (as defined in the case study section of this report), DOE should publicly release a strategic plan to alleviate the overcrowding. This may include planned capacity construction in the area, but should also incorporate any non-construction strategies, as discussed in this report, as well as policies such as capping enrollment.
Adjust CSD boundaries and school zone lines to reduce overcrowding.
The CSDs with localized overcrowding are best suited for a comprehensive school rezoning effort by DOE. Although this process is often very political, solving localized overcrowding by means other than new school construction can allow SCA to build more schools in areas where no other options are available.
Expand use of special programs to attract students to underutilized facilities and ensure equity of access.
Even without undertaking a formal school rezoning, DOE can promote better utilization of existing DOE facility capacity through improving accessibility and offering attractive academic programming. By addressing the shortage of barrier-free programs and expanding programs such as dual language, career and technical education (CTE), progressive education models, and gifted and talented (G&T) programs, DOE can attract students to underutilized schools.
5- Explore new funding strategies
A full implementation of Recommendations 2 and 3—increasing transparency in the planning process and improving the methodology of this process—would instill confidence in the accuracy of this needs assessment. After implementation of these recommendations, the administration and the Council can work together to determine the amount of funding needed to create additional capacity and a realistic but ambitious timeline in which to fully fund required school construction. In the interim, the recommendations below can help address current funding shortfalls for SCA’s Capital Plan.
Explore opportunities to raise funding through impact fees from new development.
As NYC’s real estate industry regains strength, the City should explore the feasibility of using impact fees for new developments in order for those developments to contribute their share of the costs that are a result of new students generated from their respective residential units.
Revise CEQR to lower thresholds for impacts to public schools and allow mitigation via payment into a school construction fund.
The Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination should work with DOE, SCA, and the City Council to revise the CEQR guidelines in order to reduce these thresholds for significant adverse impacts to public school facilities. Additionally, impacts from development should be able to be mitigated by paying into a fund for new school construction, which would help SCA build more schools.
