The village of Mineola School District’s proposed lease of the Cross Street School to Solomon Schechter Day School of Glen Cove continues to be the source of a heated debate among local residents who have voiced their opinions in both letters to the editor and user comments to articles online at islandnow.net.
One of the central figures in recent discussions is John O’Kelly, a former East Williston School District Board member who does not live in Williston Park or within the Mineola School District. O’Kelly has written two letters to the editor in the Williston Times in the past three weeks highly critical of the plan and Mineola School Superintendent Michael Nagler.
Nagler and residents both online and off have questioned both the information O’Kelly is presenting in his letters and his motives for writing them. In several cases, St. Aidan’s School, which is located on Willis Avenue, across the street from the Cross Street School in Williston Park, has been drawn into the discussion.
“If there is anyone out there from St. Aidans who does not consider O’Kelly their leader, please make it known,” demanded an online respondent under the username URbrats “Because in your silence, O’Kelly is emerging as your leader.”
Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler also asked for O’Kelly’s reasoning.
“What is you interest and motivation in this lease,” Nagler stated on a comment section at islandnow.net, in response to O’Kelly’s most recent letter to the editor.
A comment from “Lifetime Resident” asked, “What is your purpose for getting involved in this as a non-resident and non-taxpayer?”
O’Kelly, a vocal critic of East Williston School Superintendent of Schools Lorna Lewis who chose not to run for re-election last year, declined to comment on why he had gotten involved in the lease proposed by the Mineola School District.
“Do you take your direction from Nagler?” he asked in response to the question.
In a letter to the editor two weeks ago, O’Kelly said he obtained a copy of the proposed lease agreement between Mineola School district and Solomon Schechter Day School using a freedom of information request. In it there were a number of projects that would cost Mineola taxpayers more than they were taking in from rent revenues, according to O’Kelly. “In summary there is no net revenue to the district to be realized from the proposed lease.”
“It appears the Mineola School District will continue to be responsible for all the costs of maintaining the building and grounds,” O’Kelly said in one part of the letter.
Since the time of O’Kelly’s letter, the proposed lease with Solomon Schechter was restructured, according to Nagler.
“We have restructured the lease to specifically require the Solomon Schechter Day School to pay the exact amount of any and all work that goes out to bid once approved by the State Education Department,” Nagler said.
Nagler said Solomon Schechter Day School will pay dollar for dollar the work that needs to be done.
O’Kelly’s most recent letter to the editor did not address Nagler’s statement that Solomon Schechter Day School will now be responsible for any and all work that goes to bid. The letter also accused Nagler of “having something to hide” since Nagler’s reluctancy to provide a copy of the lease, specifically the part that lists all of the work required to be done at Solomon Schechter Day School.
“In my experience when someone stonewalls requests for documents, it’s because they have something to hide, and are aware of it,” O’Kelly said.
O’Kelly said that the lease should be withdrawn, and the taxpayers should vote out the trustees responsible for approving it and vote down the budget.
Nagler cited his belief that O’Kelly’ has a child who attends St. Aidan’s school, as one of the possible reasons for his involvement in the lease.
Mineola School board trustee John McGrath said in a post online and a phone conversation that he assumed O’Kelly is a member of St. Aidan’s Church, and that is why he has injected himself into this situation.
In response to questions about O’Kelly’s connection to St. Aidan’s, Monsignor James McDonald, who oversees St. Aidan’s Church, said “Monsignor McDonald speaks for Monsignor McDonald.” He asked that further questions be directed to the Archdiocese of Rockville Centre.
St. Aidan’s involvement in the opposition to the proposed lease of Cross Street School was raised shortly after a heated Village of Williston Park board meeting in which residents expressed concerns about traffic, safety and the use of the school’s ball fields by the Williston Park Little and CYO teams. The Mineola School District hired a consulting firm recommended by the Village of Williston Park to conduct a traffic study shortly after the meeting. In a move that surprised Mineola school officials, the Village of Williston Park announced last week that they hired a consultant to review Mineola’s traffic study.
Several residents complained that a flyer was inserted in a St. Aidan’s church bulletin calling for residents to attend the Williston Park meeting. The flyer said people needed to be aware that the Mineola School District was leasing the property to a private yeshiva, which Solomon Schechter is not.
At the time of the flyer, some officials expressed concern about an undertone of anti-Semitism in the opposition – an issued raised again in a letter to the editor last week by Jordan Goldstein, a former member of the Herricks School Board.
McDonald said at the time that the flyer had not been authorized by church officials.
In a post McGrath confirmed making, McGrath said that while he found “the tone of Mr. O’Kelly’s letter intemperate and perhaps uncalled for I certainly find it in keeping with the posts in other forums by supporters of the school district’s reconfiguration plan. I strongly object to all these type of posts as unproductive as well as damaging to the school district community as well as the community at large.”
McGrath, who has frequently clashed with Nagler on Mineola school policy, said that online posts that linked him with O’Kelly were incorrect.
“I assume his concerns are related to his affiliation with the St. Aidan’s school and Parish,” McGrath said. “As such he has every right to express his opinions on any matter concerning the surrounding community whether he’s a resident or not. My own position on reconfiguration long predated Mr. O’Kelly’s participation in the discussion.”
The Mineola District Council of PTAs will present a Meet the Candidate on Monday, May 2 at 8 p.m. in the Mineola High School auditorium (10 Armstrong Road, Garden City Park).
Candidates running for Trustee of the Mineola Board of Education will be present to answer questions from the public.
