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School’s out
Local parents angry
after youngster goes
missing from school
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Call it the school of hard
knocks.
A pair of local parents
blasted honchos at a Gravesend
elementary school after
their 5-year-old son wandered
two miles away from
the learning house and was
missing for an hour earlier
this month, according to
ABC7 .
The boy’s disappearance
was a harrowing experience
for his parents, his mother
told the news channel.
“I don’t want no one sic
suffer what I suffer that day,”
said Casilda Mesa.
Five-year-old Juan Francisco
Reynoso Mesa exited Coney
Island Prep Elementary
School — which is housed
inside IS 281 on 24th Avenue
between Bath and Cropsey
avenues — through a door
without an alarm at around
4:10 p.m. on April 3, when
the school’s bus broke down
and staffers called students’
parents to pick them up,
according to ABC7.
Mesa’s father, Julio Reynoso,
arrived at the school
shortly after 4 p.m., but became
alarmed after his son
had not come to the main
lobby after 15 minutes, ABC7
reported.
The school’s safety agent
then told staffers that he
didn’t know how to check the
security cameras or which
alarm would have gone off
had the boy left, prompting
administrators to begin frantically
searching the area, according
to ABC7, which added
that both the school’s director
of operations and Mesa’s
mother called 911.
A good Samaritan found
AN ICY FUTURE
City seeks proposals to rebuild Coney Island ice rink
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Call it breaking the ice.
The city is seeking proposals
from developers to demolish
and rebuild a beloved Coney
Island ice rink.
The Economic Development
Corporation — a quasigovernmental
agency tasked
with growing the city’s economy
— last month released
the request for proposals to
tear down and redevelop a
new public ice-skating rink at
the site of the Abe Stark Sports
Center, on the Riegelmann
Boardwalk between W. 19th
and W. 20th streets.
Plans for the property must
include a National Hockey
League regulation-sized rink
— which is about a third of the
size of a football fi eld — along
with viewing areas, locker
rooms, and skate rentals, according
to the request for proposals,
which also stated that
development plans must create
at least 30 permanent jobs.
The document adds that
honchos will give preference
to plans that propose additional
uses of the site — such
as “complimentary sporting
facilities, community space,
entertainment, retail and dining”
— and address climaterelated
concerns like sealevel
rise and storm surge by
including “energy-effi cient
features.”
The city has $42 million in
capital funding allocated to
pay for the project, but “proposals
that minimize the need
for city capital are strongly
preferred,” according to the
request for proposals.
Proposals are due June 7
Unfulfi lled promise
Coney Island Councilman Mark Treyger blasted honchos at the New York City Housing Authority for
failing to fulfi ll their promise to carry out repairs to the neighborhood’s Surfside Community Center
after it was damaged in Superstorm Sandy. Read the full story at BrooklynPaper.com
John McCarten/NYC Council
Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12
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