Construction will begin next spring on a new four-story building on the PS/MS 95 campus. When completed, most of the building will serve as the new home of the Ampark Neighborhood School, which is now using a smaller building across the street.

In its second year now, Ampark contains kindergarten, first and second grade classes. It hopes to expand to a K-5 school in the next few years and bring its student population up to 300 students by the time the building is completed in 2010. (Representatives from Ampark could not be reached by press time.)

A group of PS/MS 95 parents recently met with Council Member Oliver Koppell, a former school board member, to discuss the new construction and express some of their concerns.

"People were concerned about the new construction," said Eleanor Edelstein, Koppell’s education specialist, who attended the meeting along with the councilman. "There was some misinformation going around."

Mostly, Edelstein said, parents wanted to know what PS/MS 95 would be getting out of the new building.

According to the city’s Department of Education (DOE), the building is still in the design stages, but the current plan is for Ampark to take up the first three floors and for PS/MS 95 to use the top floor. The building will be built right next to the PS/MS 95 structure on what is now the school’s side yard and play area. The school’s large rear play yard will be unaffected.

The fourth floor, PS/MS 95’s floor, will include two science labs and an art room, said a DOE spokesperson. There is also the possibility of a rooftop recreation area.

Serge Davis, who took over as principal of PS/MS 95 and found out about the upcoming construction in July, said the details of the building were still being ironed out with the School Construction Authority (SCA).

During talks with the SCA architects, Davis said, "It’s basically, ‘this can work for us, this can not.’" Much of the discussion has centered around how the two independent schools will interact and what spaces they will share, Davis said.

At the first Parents Association meeting of the year, the construction effort was brought up. Davis said he told the parents everything that he knew about the still-evolving project and they, in turn, expressed some concerns.

"There’s always going to be concerns," Davis said, without going into detail because he didn’t want to speak for the parents. (Members of the school’s Parents Association could not be reached by press time.)

After the meeting with Koppell, who told parents he would fight to get PS/MS 95 more benefits, Edelstein said, "To some degree [the parents] were reassured. There was a general feeling of relief."

Koppell’s office recently completed an overcrowding survey among schools in his district and Edelstein said the 1,365-student PS/MS 95 is one of the schools cramped for space. (The school houses a handful of second grade classes in a nearby annex building.)

"To what degree this will alleviate this overcrowding wasn’t clear," Edelstein said. "But at least they will have some benefits."

While the new building won’t bring any new classrooms for his school, Davis said his school and the community will ultimately benefit from it. Specifically, PS/MS 95 will receive a refurbished cafeteria out of the deal. Generally, though, Davis said new facilities will help both schools provide better educational opportunities in the community.

"From a leadership standpoint," Davis said, "if our job is to empower the community then this will help us do that."