Taking its next step toward consolidating elementary schools in the Mineola School District, the Mineola School Board unanimously approved an agreement in principle to lease the Cross Street School to the Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County at last week’s meeting.
Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler declined to disclose details of the prospective five-year lease of the Cross Street School, which will be the first of two elementary schools the district will successively shutter in the next two years. The lease could start in July, depending on the board’s approval of the rental agreement.
Nagler said there are ongoing negotiations about using the Cross Street sports fields.
“That’s probably the biggest stumbling block,” Nagler said, adding that the likely outcome would give the community access to the fields two days each week.
The Schechter school currently has a student population of 250 and is located in Glen Cove.
The private secular high school is proposing an expansion of the gym at Cross Street, creating a theater space, upgrading two science rooms and redoing the parking lot at Cross Street, according to Nagler, who said the rental agreement gives the tenant responsibility for paying utilities.
“Barring anything you tell me now that’s going to be unacceptable to them, this is what we’re going to do,” Nagler said.
In response to a question from board member John McGrath, Nagler said the lease rate would be less than $10 per square foot.
School board vice president Christine Napolitano said either party should have an option to cancel the lease after two years. She said that stipulation would enable the district to take the building back “for whatever reason.”
McGrath raised a question about bus traffic at the school, with 25 buses required to transport the students, who come from disparate communities in Nassau and Queens Counties.
“If you don’t foresee a high school of 250 kids at Cross Street, vote ‘no’,” Nagler said.
The board gave Nagler a green light to continue negotiations with Schechter
A pro forma amendment of the resolution requiring the school board to declare that there was no need to review proposed changes to the Hampton Street School under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, prompted a reaction from board member Irene Parrino, who said she opposes taking the $2.1 million to expand the school from the capital reserve.
“I think the capital reserve should be paid with a bond, not from the budget,” she said.
The SEQRA resolution passed 3-2, with McGrath and Parrino opposing it.
Additional improvements at Hampton Street will include a new library, computer center, art classroom, music classroom, Academic Intervention Services classrooom and a speech classroom.
