Town Board Meeting Expected to Draw Hundreds
A large contingent of Huntington School District parents and students is expected to attend the Huntington Town Board meeting on Tuesday, April 13 at 7 p.m. Members of the group say they will express their views on the violence that has been a concern for many years in the Huntington Station area near Jack Abrams Intermediate School.
The public session will be held in the Town Hall meeting room at 100 Main Street. Residents can speak about any issue during by filling out a form as they enter the meeting room.
“Parents have said for several weeks they plan to attend the next town board meeting and will seek answers and solutions to what has become a very upsetting situation,” Superintendent John J. Finello said.
Parents have packed recent Huntington School Board meetings, demanding action following a spate of violent incidents in the community. The district has been exploring a range of alternatives to Jack Abrams School.
Several weeks ago a large group of community members staged a daytime march on town hall to demand action from town officials. Council members Susan Berland, Glenda Jackson and Mark Mayoka emerged and addressed the rally, which included dozens of students.
Some community members have called for swapping town hall with the district for Jack Abrams School. Under this scenario, the town would renovate the school and establish a new town hall there. The district would reconvert town hall back to use as a school.
The district operated several schools on the site of the current town hall for nearly 200 years. The Huntington Academy was constructed in 1794. It was a college preparatory school that charged tuition. Fifty leading citizens of the town gave monies to build the school, which featured a liberal arts based education. The building measured about 40-by-24 feet. It was closed in 1856-57 to make way for a new structure.
The Huntington Union School, as the high school was then known, opened in 1857 and housed grades 1-12. It was one of the first high schools in the state to offer a free secondary education. The school, located on the same site as Huntington Academy, was a wooden structure that featured an elevated first floor with a partially above ground lower level, which was later used to provide space for kindergarten and additional primary classrooms. Over the years, as the town grew and public education became more popular, the building became crowded.
The Main Street School was built in 1888 adjacent to the wooden Union School structure. Two separate additions were later constructed, enlarging the structure. The school housed students ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade. The building still stands today as the smaller of two structures comprising town hall. The brick building served as a grammar school until Village Green School was constructed in 1952. Main Street School was then renovated and became an annex of Huntington High School.
A new Huntington High School was constructed in 1909 after the old building was demolished. The three story modern brick structure housed grades 9-12. An addition was constructed in 1927. The school closed in November1958 after the current high school opened on the corner of Oakwood and McKay Roads. Following extensive renovations the old high school building reopened as R.L. Simpson Junior High School in September 1961, housing grades 7-9 until it closed in June 1976. The building was later sold to the Town of Huntington for $1 for use as town hall.
The call to swap town hall for Jack Abrams School has drawn interest from several members of the Huntington School Board. “It is something we have discussed internally,” Mr. Finello acknowledged before adding that several other alternatives are also being investigated.
The Huntington Town Board will meet for the remainder of the year according to the following schedule:
• Tuesday, May 4th - 2 p.m.
• Monday, May 17th - 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, June 8th - 7 p.m.
• Thursday, July 1st - 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, August 3rd - 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, September 7th - 2 p.m.
• Tuesday, September 21st - 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 5th - 6 p.m.
• Thursday, November 4th -7 p.m.
• Tuesday, December 14th - 7 p.m.
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