At the end of every school day at Solomon Schechter School on the Upper East Side, a maintenance employee takes every desk out of some of the classrooms and sets up for Hebrew school. A few hours later, he moves every desk back inside.
That won’t be the case much longer, as the K-8 private Jewish school is almost ready for a mid-year move across town to a brand-new facility. But with new classrooms have come significant delays.
Its new location at 805 Columbus Avenue means the school will join Whole Foods, T.J. Maxx, and Petco in the new Columbus Square development on Columbus Avenue between West 97th and 100th streets.
As the 28-month project draws to a close, “We’re subject to the rest of the building before we can get our certificate of occupancy,” said Uri Cohen, Solomon Schechter’s director of development.
Despite an initial projected opening date of mid-October, the school is now hoping to relocate in early December.
“People are anxiously awaiting the move,” Cohen said. “The details of the plan won’t be finalized until we have a move-in date, which we very much hope we’ll have in the next couple of weeks.”
For the past 14 years, the school has shared space rent-free with two synagogues at East 86th and 87th streets, but that situation hasn’t been ideal for school administrators.
“That space is designed for synagogue use,” Cohen said. “It doesn’t feel like a school, doesn’t look like a school, or feel like our own space.”
The new location at 805 Columbus Avenue will unite both campuses and offer greater classroom space—13,000 square feet above a ground floor of retail space and below residential units.
Since the school will be fitting in the larger development, “Our space is being finished at the same time as the infrastructure in the rest of the space is being finished,” Cohen said.
Luis Naranjo, an on-site construction worker, said that his company’s electrical work was scheduled to be completed in mid-November.
A spokesperson for the Columbus Square development declined to comment on the status of construction or the school’s move-in date.
Since construction on the five-building Columbus Square project is ongoing, students and parents will undoubtedly be subject to some surrounding scaffolding, dust, and noise.
Solomon Schechter won’t be the only school nearby—the Mandell School, another private school, has been open in the building next to 805 since September, and PS 163 is located around the corner on 97th Street.
The development has been the object of some local controversy, with PS 163 parents saying that the Columbus Square location would lead to severe overcrowding in the school.
But at least one local parent said that the physical aspects of the surrounding construction are no longer a problem.
“I think they’ll [families] just adjust. I think over time, after it’s done, it’s going to finish and when the construction’s completed I think people will just adjust to it,” said Natasha Sarkar, parent of a kindergarten student at PS 163.
This year, “It’s been entertaining for the kids to see a bunch of construction,” she added.
As for the consequences of locating a school within a construction site, Cohen said the school was unconcerned.
“We’re very happy to be in that neighborhood, it’s very up-and-coming. There are other schools on the block with us, there will be kids and families everywhere, and the stores that are coming and are in already are just wonderful. So we’ll put up with a little inconvenience for that.”
Sarah Darville contributed reporting.
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