Trustees Discuss Jack Abrams School
Trustees participated in a wide-ranging discussion about Jack Abrams School during Monday night's meeting of the Huntington School Board. Trustees voted 4-3 on July 19 to reconfigure the district's elementary grade levels and move students out of the building.
School Board President Bill Dwyer said he hasn't regretted his vote to remove students. He repeatedly said the district did not create the problems that led to his decision and expressed his belief that September 2011 would be too soon to return students to the building and pointing to the following September as a more realistic date.
Mr. Dwyer indicated he wants to give the town and county time to take concrete actions to various issues in the Huntington Station area. "Right now we hear a lot of talk," he said. "But, that's all it is; talk." It appeared the three other trustees who cast votes to reconfigure the district – Richard McGrath, Elizabeth Black and John P. Paci III, had not changed their minds either.
After Mr. Dwyer spoke, trustees took turns expressing their thoughts. At various points the discussion touched on establishing a Suffolk Police sub-station in the area of Lowndes Avenue, making that thoroughfare a one-way street, cracking down on illegal housing, eliminating crime, soliciting public opinion on whether classes should resume in the building, obtaining accurate crime statistics for the area, wondering how a decision to reopen the building would be made, establishing a sixth grade center there at some future point and the impact of moving students out of the building on the other elementary schools in the district.
The three trustees who voted against the reconfiguration – Kim Brown, Christine Bene and Emily Rogan, showed no indication their positions had changed, and instead they spoke strongly about wanting to see students back in the building's classrooms.
The trustees asked one another some hard-hitting questions and several made impassioned statements. Some questions were left unanswered. It was agreed that there will be future discussions on the topic as developments warrant.
Mr. Dwyer said he is personally committed to seeing students return to the building one day. He indicated he will not support any long-range facilities plan that does not include utilizing Jack Abrams School in some manner.
When trustees had finished their discussion, Mr. Dwyer invited the public to offer their opinions for the next 30 minutes and many speakers headed to the microphone.