It’s the school of hard knocks — and sharp elbows.
Francis Lewis HS in Queens will be the city’s most overcrowded when classes start Wednesday — cramming an astounding 4,700 kids into facilities designed for only 2,572, barely half as many.
The school’s efforts to accommodate the crowds border on the comical, but critics aren’t laughing.
Hundreds will crowd into eight trailers in the schoolyard and “half-classrooms” — large rooms divided in two by thin wallboard.
A lack of gym space will force some pupils to play handball in a hallway, and most others to take gym outside, even in winter. In inclement weather, they’ll sit in an auditorium.
Kids navigate packed hallways they liken to rush hour at Grand Central Terminal.
The school day will be an abnormally long 11 hours, broken into five sessions that will have some students arriving at 7:15 a.m. and others leaving at 6:10 p.m. This year, administrators had to add a 13th period; many schools have nine.
The only school in the city with more students, Brooklyn Tech, has 10 periods in its much larger building.
Some students will get their “lunch” period at 9 a.m, and several with long commutes will have to get up at 4 a.m. to make first-period classes.
Kids will sit on window sills in some rooms without an adequate number of seats.
Some students can’t join school sports teams because their late schedules conflict with team schedules, and some who do sometimes start at 7 a.m. and end at 9 p.m
“We are definitely a victim of our own success,” said teacher and union rep Arthur Goldstein. “And it’s going to kill us.”
In 2007-08, the last time the Department of Education released over-capacity stats, the A-rated school was the most crowded in the city with 4,400 students. That number crept up last year and is expected to top 4,700 this year.
Incredibly, Jamaica HS, a mere two miles away, is 400 students under capacity.
At Francis Lewis, which boasts an 82 percent four-year graduation rate, more than 13,000 kids applied for admission last year.
“The city doesn’t want to say no to the parents,” Goldstein said, referring to an application process that has kids rank their top 12 preferences for high schools. “It wants to place students where they want to go, because we really are a great school. But this is a cancer. We will reach a breaking point. Eventually, it will affect the quality of the education.
“Can’t the DOE build other good schools?”
Senior Alicja Pawelec, 17, said she “really loves going there,” but admitted the overcrowding can be “overwhelming.”
The Glendale resident gets up at 5 a.m. to take three buses to reach the Fresh Meadows school. Volleyball practice keeps her there until after 7 p.m.
Of her 9 a.m. “lunch” period, she said, “That’s like breakfast, that’s not lunch. It’s really silly.”
Teachers described their crowded classes — often filled to the union contractual maximum of 34 students — as “frustrating.”
“You can’t give the kids the attention that you want,” said gym teacher Perry Dortch.
Francis Lewis has a “zoned” program, meaning an unlimited number of local students are guaranteed seats. The DOE can cap non-zoned admissions, but the policy at Francis Lewis was unclear.
DOE spokesman Will Havemann admitted, “Francis Lewis is certainly too crowded,” adding that the city is building nearly 10,000 new high-school seats in Queens to fix just such problems.