Mineola rejects school bond

Richard Tedesco

Mineola voters Tuesday soundly defeated a proposed $4.4 bond intended to help consolidate schools in the Mineola School District by expanding the Jackson Avenue School and eliminating two elementary schools.

The 1,074-to-708 defeat of the bond measure was the second proposal turned down by voters and triggers a so-called default plan under which two elementary schools will still be eliminated over the next two years. In late October, Mineola voters turned downed a $6.7 million bond proposal by a 4-1 ratio.

“The people spoke and we said we’re going to the default option,” said school board president Terence Hale. “We already voted on it.”

The school board reaffirmed its intention to go to that default option at a public meeting preceding the bond ballot in a 3-2 vote, with Hale, board vice president Christine Napolitano and board member William Hornberger voting in favor and board members John McGrath and Irene Parrino voting in opposition.

If the bond vote had succeeded, all students in grades 3 through 5 would have been located at Jackson Avenue, which required more space to accommodate them. The board’s default option for consolidation only requires additional space at the Hampton Street School, which will be one of two district schools to teach students in grades K through 2, along with the Meadow Drive School.

The default option also includes plans to move the fifth grade to the Mineola Middle School and the eighth grade to Mineola High School, which was opposed by many parents.

“The parents told us this was very important, so we gave them the opportunity to vote and this is it,” Napolitano said.

The board has approved the use of $1.7 million in the district’s capital reserve fund to make the improvements at Hampton Street, which will be included in the school budget for 2011-12. That figure could increase to $2.4 million based on upgrades to the library at the school proposed by Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler.

“The Hampton project will go on,” Nagler said.

While Nagler had favored the $6.7 million bond option, he acknowledged on Tuesday night that the first option was viewed as “too radical by many people.”

Nagler has emphasized over the past several months that any of the consolidation plans would result in significant savings for the school district. The school board initiated the process a year ago, voting to close two elementary schools because of declining school population in the district over the past several years. Based on an analysis produced by a voluntary finance committee of residents last summer, the default option would produce $5 million in savings over the next 20 years.

“There’s more than one way to do it,” Nagler said. “We gave the community two different times to vote on the configuration models. Tomorrow we go to the default option.”

Nagler is already proceeding with negotiations to lease the Cross Street School to a Solomon Schechter School next fall.

“We’re progressing nicely with the lease,” said Nagler. He added that he was confident of reaching an “amicable solution” with Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar over concerns he raised about parking space around Cross Street for the 25 buses that will be there daily.

The district plans to close the Willis Avenue School in the fall of 2012 for classroom use. Some space may be retained for district administration offices now located there. Since the $10 million bond used to build the school is not yet paid, the school district can only lease space in the school to a non-profit entity.

Nagler said his primary concern now is the lead time he has to “repurpose” six rooms in the high school for eighth graders from rooms that had been used for home economic rooms in the past to science rooms as the consolidation transition begins.

“The physical move in a short period of time will be the biggest challenge,” he said.

Napolitano expressed a feeling of relief at having concluded the process of enabling residents to express their preferences on the consolidation options.

“I’m glad it’s over because this has been such a hard process,” she said.

But it’s not necessarily over yet. The school budget vote will also be a referendum on the $1.7 million – or $2.4 million – capital improvement project for the Hampton Street School.

So if the budget fails to pass, the school board would be left in limbo, facing the prospect of other options to consider.

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