School Board Discusses Space Options
At a meeting attended by hundreds of parents concerned about violence in the Huntington Station area, Huntington School Board members asked district officials to continue exploring various facility space options as an alternative to the existing Jack Abrams Intermediate School.
The meeting, held in the Jack Abrams School auditorium, drew a crowd of more than 400 and nearly two dozen speakers offered their opinions to trustees. “This is a community that cares deeply about its schools,” Superintendent John J. Finello said.
A district delegation consisting of Mr. Finello, School Board President Bill Dwyer and trustee Richard McGrath expects to meet with town officials within the next two weeks to discuss the possibility of swapping town hall for Jack Abrams School.
The district erected several different school buildings on the current town hall site between 1797 and 1976 when it sold the land and two structures to the town for $1.
The larger of the two buildings that make up town hall was built during 1907/08 and used as a high school through November 1958. The smaller structure on the site was built in 1897/98 and was originally the Main Street Elementary School before eventually serving as the high school annex in later years.
After the district purchased a 30 acre tract of land carved out of the once magnificent H. Bellas Hess estate and erected a new high school building on the corner of Oakwood and McKay Roads, the high school building on Main Street was closed and then renovated before reopening in September 1961 as Robert L. Simpson Junior High School.
The district closed that school in June 1976 and shuttered the building before selling it to the town for $1. The first time the sale to the town was put to residents the proposition was voted down. It was approved on the second try after the community became convinced it would cost a small fortune to clean up the asbestos believed to be located throughout the school.
In recent weeks, district officials have been holding discussions on a range of space options, from reacquiring town hall or the former Village Green School or Robert K. Toaz Junior High School buildings to expanding the size of other elementary buildings, bringing in modular classrooms, establishing split sessions at Woodhull Intermediate School, leasing space at Coindre Hall or the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception or even utilizing a closed school building in a nearby district.
Several options were quickly dropped as impractical or even impossible to implement. In the end trustees were united; whether the Jack Abrams School site becomes the new location of town hall or continues to operate as a school, the violence must be stopped.
“We are continuing to explore our options and will be meeting soon with the town to further discuss not only the building issue but the matter of violence in Huntington Station,” Mr. Finello said.
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