MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO

As a tight-knit junior high in FAR ROCKAWAY, New York, MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO instructs 235 students from grades 6 through 8, overseen by NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27. Enrollment runs roughly 56% leaner than the state mean of about 531.

NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27 comprises 63 schools with combined enrollment of 39,209 students; MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO is among them.

Demographically, MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO logs that 46% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups; the rest consists of 45% Black, 4% White. By comparison, Queens County as a whole is about 28% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school reports having 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 9.2:1. The state averages around 10.3:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 94% of students at MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Queens County runs at roughly 77%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 40.4%, the actual is 32.8%, a residual of -7.7 points.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Queens County put median household income runs about $86,136, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO is one of 392 public schools in Queens County (combined enrollment of about 268,205 students).

VILLAGE ACADEMY is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, MS 53 BRIAN PICCOLO comes 8th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 57.2%.

The school occupies a downtown site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 13%: 271 students in 2018 compared to 235 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share decreased from 51% to 45%. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 11.3:1 in 2018 to 9.2:1 today.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.