Narrowing It Down: HUFSD BOE Votes to Explore Three Plans Further

As the Huntington School District urgently seeks solutions for its safety problems following two shootings near the Jack Abrams Intermediate School in two months, the Board of Education heard many suggestions and ideas from parents during the public session at its Monday, April 12 meeting.

Since the most recent shooting on March 11 during school hours, it has become clear that the community has split in to two groups.

One wants students moved out of the building and in to Town Hall at 100 Main Street or possibly in to the former Robert A. Toaz school at 300 Nassau Road while a more permanent solution is found. A second wants to stay put, while steps are taken to make the area safe and believes the district's building populations should be restructured.

Rebecca Sanin, who led a march on Town Hall several weeks ago made up of parents demanding officials provide safety in the neighborhood around the school, is in the second camp. She presented the Board with a petition Monday with 120 signatures of parents who live in the area around Abrams who support keeping the school open.

Specifically, she said, a solution might be placing grades K-2 in grades 3 through 5 in the primary school buildings and creating a universal sixth-grade center at  Abrams; or keep the primaries as they are, place fourth and fifth graders at Woodhull and, again, the sixth-grade center at Abrams. The common theme is the entire sixth-grade class being placed at Abrams, therefore making the safety of the area around the building a concern for the entire district.

This idea is similar to a plan that Board trustees Chris Bene, Kim Brown and Board Vice President Emily Rogan say they have supported in the past.

"If we bring the sixth grade here, it becomes an entire community problem," Bene said.

Board President Bill Dwyer noted that this would not solve the space problems at the primary schools but voted with Bene, Brown and Rogan to direct administrators to explore it further and to determine what the costs would be to expand the primary school buildings as needed. Trustees Rich McGrath, John Paci and Elizabeth Black voted against exploring that further.

Paci said that the board has a report from several years ago detailing just that. He told Rogan she should read it. She said that she had read the plan, but, because the plan was several years old, the costs most likely had changed. "That was in a different economy and that was a bells and whistles plan. What if we say, 'tell us what a no bells and whistles plan would cost'?"

Paci said he felt it was wrong to put children from all over the district in to a building where students are not safe. "If it's not safe for half the students, why put all of them there?"

Other parents railed at the decision to further investigate a plan including a sixth-grade center at Abrams, with one, Patrick Giles, stating he knew a member of the Board of Education had requested their child be transferred out of Abrams and in to Woodhull.

Giles said the board member in question should recuse himself or herself from votes related to where the Abrams students end up.

Board President Bill Dwyer said that the board was aware of the situation and said it has taken this issue to counsel and there are no problems with conflicts of interest.

"Let's keep the discussion to the topic of buildings," Dwyer said. "We have already consulted with counsel about this."

Another parent, Brian McDonald, said that, with this decision, the board was "putting students in to gang territory," and called the idea "f!*king bull*@$%!." Dwyer told him that it was no longer public commentary.

Administrators also gave reports on other options including moving into an available Commack School District building on Cedar Road, an open enrollment done by lottery and securing a lease with the Good News Church, which owns the Nassau Road facility. 

 The School Board also voted to approve a payment of $1,500 to have the district's architect, Roger Smith of Burton, Behrendt and Smith, do an initial walkthrough of Town Hall to provide an assessment of costs to retrofit and reconstruct the building to house students. Brown and Rogan voted no.

Parent Joe Corello asked the board and administrators what the emergency contingency plan was for Abrams. "What is the fire contingency plan? Because, believe me, there's a fire," he said.

Another parent, Donna Spinoso, agreed. "Should something happen to this building, what is the contingency plan? Instead of worrying about size and desks act like this is an emergency because it is."

Corello and Paci both mentioned the proposed Avalon Bay housing project on which the

Both suggested the community should think like a business and demand something in return for approval of this low-income housing, high density project.