On Monday, April 24, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined Governor George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and other elected officials at the signing into law of legislation providing $13 billion for the five-year School Capital Construction Plan.

Standing in a garage on 35th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues that will be demolished to make way for the new Sunset Park High School, officials hailed the capital plan, which will create 66,000 new classroom seats for New York City schoolchildren over the next five years. Community leaders and local residents have been advocating for more than 30 years for a new school to alleviate chronic overcrowding in surrounding communities. Sunset Park High School, along with 13 other schools in Brooklyn, will be built with the newly released capital funds.

“The construction of a new high school for Sunset Park and other New York communities represents more than an overdue political achievement,” said Borough President Markowitz. “If we want to maintain our status as the greatest city and state in America, if we want families not just to move here, but to stay here, if we want residents to be confident about their city’s future, and we want businesses willing to invest in that future, we have no other choice than the one we have made today — and that is to make our public education system the best it can possibly be, and to ensure that our children are given the chance to achieve the zenith of their potential.”

Borough President Markowitz’s longstanding commitment to increasing education funding for Brooklyn students was recognized by several officials at today’s signing. Construction of Sunset Park High School is set for July 2006, with completion expected for the beginning of the 2009-10 school year. On seeing the model of the 1,650-seat school for the first time, Borough President Markowitz remarked, “It’s almost enough to make you want to go back to high school.”