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Number of new school seats in two-year period marks record high

September marked the opening of the public school system in New York City, which included 23 new school buildings with more than 13,000 seats. The new construction, along with 18 new school buildings opened last year, brought the most ever new school classroom seats online in a two-year period since the School Construction Authority was created in 1988.

For the decade ending in 2012, the Department of Education is on track to construct more than 110,000 new school seats across the city, with more than 82,000 seats already completed -- 28,323 in Queens, 19,394 in Brooklyn, 19,268 in the Bronx, 9,434 in Manhattan and 5,619 in Staten Island.

The list of new schools that opened last month include the 1,650-seat Sunset Park High School at 153 35th Street in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn; and the 998-seat Frank Sinatra School of the Arts high school at 35-12 35th Avenue in Astoria, which moved from its temporary location in Long Island City, where it was founded in 2001.

Michael Stoler is a columnist for The Real Deal and host of real estate programs "The Stoler Report" and "Building New York" on CUNY TV and on WEGTV in East Hampton. His radio show, "The Michael Stoler Real Estate Report," airs on 1010 WINS on Saturdays and Sundays. Stoler is a director at Madison Realty Capital as well as an adjunct professor at NYU Real Estate Institute, and a former contributing editor and columnist for the New York Sun.