No Shortage of Opinions at School Board Meeting
There was no shortage of opinions at Monday night’s Huntington School Board meeting as a crowd of about 1,000 residents turned out for a session that included all five Huntington Town Board members. Speaker-after-speaker weighed in on the issue of violence in Huntington Station, what town officials should do about it and how or if trustees should react to it by reorganizing on the elementary grade level.
Speakers offered a wide divergence of opinion, on whether to close or keep open Jack Abrams Intermediate School, if a sixth grade center should be established there while all fourth and fifth graders are sent to another school, whether the district should swap the building for Town Hall and how the issues of gangs, violence, criminal activity and community revitalization should be addressed.
There was plenty of passion in the crowd as residents heartily applauded speakers they agreed with. Numerous religious ministers in the area spoke about the need to confront and defeat those who would wreak havoc in Huntington Station and to aggressively work to insure the safety of all residents. Suffolk Police officials were also present at the meeting.
Supervisor Frank Petrone pledged to work “hand-in-hand” with the school district on mutual issues and to move forward with revitalizing Huntington Station.
Many residents addressed their comments to Mr. Petrone or the Town Board members collectively in often stark terms without pulling any punches. Emotion ran deep throughout the long evening. The seven district trustees listened attentively as residents aired out their opinions.
Some speakers said the town has dragged its feet for decades on redeveloping the area and demanded action to address housing and crime issues, cleaning up blighted properties and bringing new businesses into Huntington Station.
The large crowd in attendance came as no surprise to Huntington Superintendent John J. Finello. “Our residents feel strongly about their community and want their children to have a wonderful school experience,” he said. “They are fully engaged in their child’s education.”
Roger Smith, of Burton, Behrendt, Smith, an architectural and engineering firm hired by the Huntington School Board to conduct a spatial needs analysis study of Huntington Town Hall and how it could be converted back to use as a school, made a detailed presentation of his findings.
Mr. Smith displayed current floor plans and how offices and storage areas could be returned to educational uses. The current parking field would be reduced by half and a grassy area would be created along with an area for playground activities. The town clerk’s office would be returned to its former status as a kitchen and the tax receiver’s office would once again house the cafeteria.
Mr. Smith said his architectural team believes 36 classrooms could be created in Town Hall, which consists of two structures, the larger of which was used for decades as Huntington High School and later as R.L. Simpson Junior High School and the smaller of which was built in 1888 and used as the Main Street School through June 1952 and later became an annex for the high school and junior high school.
Some trustees peppered Mr. Smith with questions about various aspects of the Town Hall structure, what it would take to return it to school use and a rough estimate of how much such work would cost per square foot. Mr. Smith explained there are three different degrees of intensity of work involved, ranging from the relatively easy tasks of pulling up rugs, painting rooms and perhaps improving lighting to demolition and total reconstruction.
School Board President Bill Dwyer called a five minute recess at about 10:25 p.m. at which time he thanked Mr. Petrone and the four town council members for attending the session.
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