When New York City public school students return to classrooms this week, quite a few will enter through the doors of new buildings.
The city has officially opened 24 new school buildings in time for the first day of classes on Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference outside P.S. 487 in the Bronx on Wednesday.
The new buildings will house 11,010 new K-12 seats for public school students, marking the most new K-12 seats opened by the city’s School Construction Authority in one year since 2003, Adams said.
“This builds on nearly 23,000 seats already added during our administration," he said. “This means that we can close all but 24 of those outdated trailer classrooms from our schools. That is our mission —to close them all — and we are closer and closer to getting there."
Four of the city’s five boroughs are home to the new school buildings, with nine in Brooklyn, eight in the Bronx, one in Manhattan and six in Queens. A full list of the buildings and their locations is below:
Brooklyn
- Public School 413 Joanne Seminara School of Law and Medicine
- Public School 253 Addition
- Middle School 407 School of Technology, Arts, and Research
- Public School 321 Annex
- Public School 464
- Pacific Park Campus
- Public School 313 The Detective Wenjian Liu School of Civics and Entrepreneurship
- District 13 STEM Center
- Khalil Gibran International Academy High School
The Bronx
- Public School 195/196 Addition
- Public School 87 Addition
- Public school 108 Philp J. Abinanti Addition
- Public School 138 Samuel Randall Addition
- The Aurelia Greene Educational Campus
- Academy for Personal Leadership and Excellence Elementary
- Leaders of Excellence, Advocacy and Discovery
- Public School 163 The Arthur A. Schomburg Educational Campus
Manhattan
Queens
- Public School 32 Addition
- Public School 41 Addition
- Public School 96 Addition
- The Paul Vallone Community Campus Addition
- Public School 174 Addition
- Public school 85 Annex
In a press release, City Hall said the new buildings feature “modern classrooms, advanced technology, and versatile learning spaces to ensure that they meet the diverse needs of New York City's student population,” including spaces like:
- Reading and speech resource rooms
- Art and Music classrooms
- Science lab and prep rooms
- Special education classrooms
- Libraries
- Gymnasiums and auditoriums
At Wednesday’s press conference, Schools Chancellor David Banks spoke about the effect a new building can have on a student’s outlook.
“When I was a principal for 11 years, I opened two new schools, and I know what it means to walk into a brand new building. And I know the ‘Aha’ moments that those kids are going to have when they walk in for the first time and be overwhelmed by the newness of this building,” Banks said. “It smells like it’s new, doesn’t it?”
“It says to the kids, and it says to the parents, and it says to the broader community that we care,” he added. “And that you are important to us, and we’re going to make sure that we’re delivering for you.”
Adams’ 2025-2029 Capital Plan has budgeted funding for an additional 33,417 seats, City Hall said in the release.