The Mineola School Board’s plan to lease the Cross Street School to the Solomon Schecter Day school has sparked a heated local debate over traffic congestion, public safety, access to school playing fields used by the CYO and little league teams and alternate plans, while raising questions for some of ethnic bias.
The Mineola school district has been discussed the possibility of leasing the Cross Street school to Solomon Schecter since December as part of the district’s efforts to save money through school consolidation.
The idea of the Village of Williston Park buying the school, which is located in Williston Park, had been discussed earlier. But public opposition had not been voiced until a March 21 meeting of Williston Park Village Board.
At the meeting, residents voiced objections to every aspect of the plan. They expressed anxiety about the increased bus traffic to transport 250 or more students and anger at losing the ball fields for CYO and little league. More than one resident said the village should buy Cross Street and make it a community center.
Prior to the meeting, a flyer titled “Rally for Williston Park…We Come First” was placed inside the church bulletin in St. Aidan Church and distributed to some parishioners at Sunday morning mass before the Monday night meeting.
The flyer was presented as an information sheet that raised a number of objections and concerns about the lease plan.
Presented as a series of “Did you know…” questions, the first inaccurately asked “Did you know that Mineola Schools Superintendent Michael Nagler will be leasing the Cross Street School to a private Yeshiva?” Solomon Schecter is a Conservative Jewish school, not a Yeshiva.
Another question said the playing fields at Cross Street would be “semi-exclusive and unavailable to our local children and CYO programs.” The flyer also put the number of buses at 53, while Schechter representatives say there will be 36 buses, mostly mini-buses.
St. Aidan pastor Rev. James McDonald said the flyers weren’t sanctioned by the chuch and ordered the flyers to be removed as soon as he was made aware of them.
“Nobody may put flyers in the church without my specific approval. Nobody,” McDonald said. He declined to comment on the contents of the flyer.
Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said he was aware of the flyer being distributed at St. Aidan and condemned the practice.
“I think it was very inappropriate,” Ehrbar said, declining any further comment.
In a column submitted to the Williston Times this week Ehrbar said he had been “disturbed by the tone of comments made by some. I’m surprised with the outcry of those who don’t live in either the village or Mineola School District but are looking for either or both to spend taxpayers dollars.”
Several people who asked not to be identified said they were concerned that there was an element of anti-Semitism among the objections being raised in the debate.
“I believe if Chaminade was opening a building there, there wouldn’t be a problem,” said one official, referring to the parochial high school located in Mineola.
In one of the 65 comments posted to the Williston Times article about last week’s meeting on Blank Slate Media’s “TheIslandNow.com: Web site, one contributor wrote, “Limited intelligence usually breeds bigotry. You can call the opposition to this lease anything you want. The traffic can be managed, the fields can be compromised on. You just don’t want the Jews coming to your town.”
Mineola School Board Vice President Christine Napolitano acknowledged there is an issue about the Cross Street lease to the Solomon Schechter of Glen Cove that remains unarticulated in public.
“There is an elephant in the room. But in my heart, I hope that’s not a big part of it,” Napolitano said.
Speaking at the highly charged Williston Park meeting, Rabbi Lev Herrnson offered an olive branch to residents, saying, “If we come here – and we’re going to come here – we want to be good neighbors and we want to be good friends. We want to talk things out.”Control of the playing fields is obviously a big part of it. And one group of residents from Williston Park is poised to make a proposal to the Mineola School Board about the Cross Street School this week, according to a source.
Ehrbar dismissed the idea of the village negotiating any kind of deal for the property in his Williston Times column this week.
“The building is not for sale and for the village to attempt to obtain the property through legal maneuvers would be extremely costly without guarantee of success. To lease this facility would, once again be expensive for the Village. For the village to involve large sums of money in a leased property that could be returned to Mineola, if their enrollment changes, makes no sense,” Ehrbar wrote
But Williston Park Deputy Mayor Teresa Thomann said after Monday night’s meeting that the village wanted time to explore ” some options,” adding, on the lease to the Schechter school that “it’s not a done deal and there’s time for alternate concepts to suit everyone’s needs.”
Napolitano questioned the timing of the Williston board’s sudden interest.
“I was somewhat surprised. This is something they have known about. If they wanted to make an offer, why didn’t they?” Napolitano said.
Napolitano disagreed with the Williston Park board’s assertion at the meeting that it has the right to review the site plan for the Schechter School since the lease would entail a change of use. Napolitano said the Mineola School Board’s counsel has advised the school board that Williston Park did not have a right to review the plan.
She also said that many residents are focused on their own discomfort about the situation without regard for the protracted process the Mineola School District has been through in sorting out its school consolidation plan, which motivated the district to lease the 30,000-square-foot facilty located off Willis Avenue in Wiliston Park.
“Every student in this [school] district has been impacted and every parent. We know what pain is and we acknowledge it. When I hear a group of residents talking about their pain without acknowledging the pain in the school district, I have a problem with it,” she said.
Nagler said he couldn’t understand assertions from residents who complained they were left in the dark about plans for Cross Street.
“It’s not secret. I haven’t kept a secret. I have said that I was going to use the building as a revenue source. I don’t know why it’s such a surprise,” Nagler said.
He said he was also upset about rampant misunderstandings about the costs involved.
The Mineola School District will net $1.1 million over the projected five years of the Schechter lease, above all routine maintenance costs it anticipates. The tenant will pay the costs of utilities and insurance. Utilities, including water, electric and gas/oil are estimated at $56,000 annually, according to the lease agreement.
The lease is valued at $277,500 in the first year and $285,000 in the second year, with Schechter required to pick up additional costs, including installation of a new full-length basketball court. In the third year, the rate goes to $232,000 with 3 percent increases in the succeeding two years of the lease.
Nagler discounts an analysis from self-styled community activist John O’Kelly, a former member of the East Williston school board who projects that the school district’s expenses would be almost equal to the money it received from Solomon Schecter.
Umberto Magnardi, a community activist who Ehrbar threatened to eject from the meeting Monday night, said people are wary about the impact of the Schechter lease.
“I don’t think people are sold for the repercussions. The issue is a matter of impact for the traffic and a way to determine the safety for the kids attending school nearby,” said Magnardi, adding that he doesn’t think a traffic study can resolve the issue.
Nagler hopes the traffic study, now being undertaken by the Mineola School District, will satisfy Williston Park’s concerns.
“What we’re trying to do, without conceding that they have control, is to comply with their ordinance. We’re just trying to be good neighbors and do this at our expense,” Nagler said.
Magnardi said making the playing fields accessible is a key factor in enabling to Schechter fit in.
“It does seem like a perfect fit for them. But the question is the impact for the community,” he said.
Magnardi dismissed the possibility that ethnic bias was playing a part in the objections to leasing Cross Street School to Solomon Schechter.
But he said he doesn’t doubt “those kind of people are out there.” He added that he thought Schechter supporters were raising the issue.
“Personally, I view that as people who are in favor of the school being there. I think they’re trying to distract people from the real issues,” Magnardi said.
