Queens Metropolitan High School (QMHS) is a public high school in Forest Hills in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. It is generally referred to simply as "QMHS," "Metro", or just "'Queens Metro" by the students. It is on the south side of

Metropolitan Avenue Metropolitan Avenue is a major east-west street in Queens and northern Brooklyn, New York City. Its western end is at the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the eastern end at Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The avenue was construct ...

in the Metropolitan Avenue Educational Campus at 91-30 Metropolitan Avenue, between a former

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...

branch and 69th Avenue. A zoned school, the site is at the southern edge of Forest Hills, about from Forest Hills High School, is a block from the southern perimeter of

Rego Park Rego Park is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. Rego Park is bordered to the north by Elmhurst and Corona, to the east and south by Forest Hills, and to the west by Middle Village. Rego Park's boundaries include Queens ...

and two blocks east of the eastern edge of

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

. In addition to those neighborhoods, the school serves the neighborhoods of

Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...

, Elmhurst,

Maspeth Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside to the north; Sunnyside t ...

, Middle Village,

Ridgewood Ridgewood may refer to: Geography Australia *Ridgewood, Western Australia Canada * Ridgewood, Ontario *Ridgewood, Edmonton, Alberta United Kingdom *Ridgewood, East Sussex United States *Ridgewood Heights, California * Ridgewood, Illinois *Ridge ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, and

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. With a student body of over 1,000. Queens Metropolitan High School is a college preparatory school. Queens Metropolitan High School was awarded the 2018 silver medal from the US News. These schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and how well they prepare students for college. This school has also been rated as one of the best schools by Niche 2018. According to Niche: * Queens Metropolitan High School is ranked #93 out of the 1,383 most diverse public schools in New York. * Queens Metropolitan High School is ranked #119 among the 1,212 schools with the best public-school teachers. *96% of students are proficient in Math and Reading.

Campus

Queens Metropolitan High School is housed in the Metropolitan Educational Campus, located on the south side of

just east of

Woodhaven Boulevard Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard (formerly Jamaica Bay Boulevard) are two parts of a major boulevard in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Queens. Woodhaven Boulevard runs roughly north–south in the central p ...

. This block, which it shares with a shopping center, was formerly an industrial superblock. The campus is built between the currently inactive

Rockaway Beach Branch The Rockaway Beach Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York City, United States. The line left the Main Line at Whitepot Junction in Rego Park heading south via Ozone Park and across Jamaica B ...

and freight-only

Montauk Branch The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east. How ...

of the

, on the site where tracks from the Montauk Branch formerly curved north onto the Rockaway Branch towards the

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

, and adjacent to the former Parkside station. The original plans called for the building to accommodate two primary or middle schools and two 500-seat high schools, adding over 2,000 Queens public school seats in total. As constructed, the campus added 1,911 seats. QMHS shares the building space with Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School, a grade 6 to 12 school. The campus also hosted the new

Maspeth High School Maspeth High School is a public high school in Elmhurst, Queens. The school opened in September 2013 with 273 students at the Metropolitan Avenue Campus in Forest Hills, Queens and serves primarily students from NYC District 24 in Northern Queens. ...

, until environmental safety issues at that site allowed the formal opening of that school in 2012. There are two entrances: the well known one on Metropolitan Avenue, and the lesser known one behind the school near Union Turnpike. Each school has its own facilities, including classrooms, libraries, and cafeterias. QHMS has two cafeterias (Red and Blue) and two gyms. The campus' auditorium is shared with MELS (Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School).

History

The campus was officially proposed in 2005, although proposals had been in the works for nearly two decades. The campus was proposed to alleviate overcrowding in several area schools, particularly Forest Hills High School, and due to the lack of high school facilities in the Glendale, Ridgewood, and Maspeth areas of School District 24. Construction was planned to begin in the summer of 2005, with the facility opening in time for the fall of 2010. Construction began in 2006, and the building was completed prior to the 2010–2011 academic year. In September of that year, Queens Metropolitan High School (which had not been named prior to 2010) opened its doors to 350 students, with plans to eventually reach a 1,000 student body. In 2014, the school had a four-year graduation rate of 89%, and high quality review ratings.

References

External links

School WebsiteNew York City School Construction Authority Environmental Impact Statement
{{authority control Public high schools in Queens, New York Forest Hills, Queens