Mineola ed board okays school lease

Richard Tedesco

The Mineola Board of Education unanimously authorized newly elected board President Will Hornberger at its Thursday night workshop to execute a five-year lease with the Harbor Day Care Center for use of the Willis Avenue School.

The lease, which is a step toward the next phase of the school district’s reorganization plan, allows the Harbor Day Care Center to use up to 14 classrooms on the first floor of the Willis Avenue School and ends the use of that building as an educational facility in the district. The Mineola School District will continue to maintain its offices on the second floor of the Willis Avenue building.

In the fall, the Meadow Drive and Hampton Street Schools will house students in grades pre-K through 2 as all third and fourth graders move to the Jackson Avenue School. Willis Avenue had housed grades pre-K through 1 through the end of the 2011-12 school year.

Hornberger called Harbor Day Care a “well-respected” company.

The board’s endorsement of the lease followed its unanimous election of Hornberger to succeed Christine Napolitano as board president. 

During the reorganization segment of the meeting, Terence Hale was unanimously elected as board vice president, the post Hornberger previously held, and Artie Barnett was sworn in as a board trustee after winning election in May.

All four board members have been advocates of the school district reorganization that included plans to lease the Willis Avenue building, which residents had clearly indicated was the least popular district building. 

“This was a tricky lease to negotiate because it wasn’t certain how much space we were going to use and air conditioning is expensive,” said Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler.

“I think it’s going to be a wonderful opportunity,” Nagler said.

Nagler said the district expected to realize a profit of $100,000 in the first year of the lease and said the district was certain of covering its costs of maintaining the building in the second year of the deal.

Hornberger said the board was limited to leasing the Willis Avenue building to a non-profit organization since the bond used to construct it had not yet been paid off.

“I think the building is going to be a wonderful addition to the reorganization,” said school board Trustee Christine Napolitano.

Nagler said Harbor Day Care did not intend to “shuttle” children from its other day care centers to Mineola. Harbor Day Care currently maintains six day-care centers with approximately 800 children around Nassau County.

“This has been quite a journey,” said Jill Rooney, executive director of Harbor Day Care.

Rooney said Harbor Day Care has fielded “many” inquiries about its services at Willis Avenue from local residents and had commitments to fill one of the rooms for infants. Rooney said the day care firm will charge $300 for children attending half-day sessions at the new facility. 

The facility will employ 40 people as caretakers for more than 200 children, Rooney said. She said her company is working with Capital One Bank to finance a program to help female military veterans to get back into the work force through jobs at Harbor Day Care.

She said the school district is still reserving five classrooms in the Willis Avenue building, pending a decision on whether it will conduct pre-K or universal pre-K classes there.

Rooney said the five-year lease is based on an escalating scale, set at $180,000 for eight classrooms in the second year. She said Harbor Day Care has discussed the prospect of eventually using the second floor of the facility with Nagler.

“He’s very easy to work with,” she said, “and whatever the needs are, he’s willing to talk about it.”

She said the facility will open at 6:45 a.m. each day, and possibly earlier if workers at nearby Winthrop-University Hospital need to drop off their children earlier. 

“The essence of day care is to meet the community’s needs,” she said.

Tom Rooney, Harbor Day Care director of marketing, said the company is also interested in creating a community center for adults in the Willis Avenue building.

“We’d like to create an educational program for adults here,” he said.

He said Harbor Day Care isn’t seeking to supplant functions of the Mineola Community Center, but is rather looking to provide services not otherwise available, including classes on infant care and obesity prevention.

Rooney said the company is currently awaiting a license from the state office of  children and family services to start offering services by September. That license will permit Harbor Day Care to provide services from 12 weeks  to 12 years old.

In other developments:

* Nagler reported the 10-member committee reviewing plans for a bus loop at Jackson Avenue has not reached a consensus on plans to correct a potentially dangerous situation of children crossing Jackson Avenue to board school buses at dismissal time.

“I don’t think we’re anywhere near a resolution of this,” Nagler said.

He said four committee members attending the most recent meeting liked a plan that  would make space for buses to park on Saville Avenue at dismissal time. A sidewalk would be constructed to enable safe boarding of the buses on the east side of Saville, across from Chaminade High School.

That would be a $300,000 solution, according to Nagler, who said planned improvements to the Meadow Drive School library would also cost $300,000.

“It’s not cheap and it’s not perfect,” Nagler said of plan.

The board agreed with his suggestion that they review all options the committee has considered at the next school board meeting on July 11.

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