Mineola School Board Opts for Cluster Model

Three options. Three choices. One outcome. By definition this is as close to a "no-win" scenario as one can get. Faced with an endless cycle of ever-increasing costs, the Mineola board of education made the decision during their regular meeting Thursday night in the high school auditorium to reconfigure the District into a cluster model that will be put to voters in late October.

Finance committee representative Doug Schumacher gave a slideshow presentation on the three proposed options for reconfiguring the District and their associated costs and savings using projected numbers provided by the administration as to what staffing would be needed under each scenario. There were no assumptions made about receiving construction aid from the State.

The board voted three-to-two to accept option three with only trustees John McGrath and Irene Parrino voting against the measure.

Option three closes three schools: Meadow Drive, Hampton Street and Cross Street. Willis Avenue would have a pre-K through first grade model while Jackson Avenue would be home to grades two through four. The middle school would house grades five through seven and the high school would be an eight through 12 model. The Hampton Street School may be used for the district's central office, which currently resides on the second floor of Willis Avenue. This option requires the expansion of both Jackson and Willis Avenue.

The district would need to float a  $6.7 million bond to pay for construction. This option saves an initial $4.5 million but would require a three-year transition period with $42.491 million in estimated savings over 10 years. The committee also decreased the administration's assumed cost savings on the third option by 10-percent as it makes the most changes and takes the longest to complete.

The decision drew the ire of residents who feared for the loss of their neighborhood schools and that class sizes would increase. Nagler said that with the eighth grade moving to the high school, the number of classrooms would move from 48 to 32.

"Closing Meadow and Cross will leave no schools North of Jericho Turnpike," one man said.  "Closing Hampton will leave no schools in the Southeast corner of the district."

An overcrowding situation existed when the Cross Street School was first closed in 1982 resulting in overcrowding at the Meadow Drive School and requiring the construction of additional classrooms. Following years of requests from the community, Cross Street reopened in 1995.

"When Cross Street was closed, the then-superintendent opted to put children in Meadow although it had three less classrooms then Cross Street," Nagler said.  "Stating that Meadow was a better building – and it was newer – but he did not calculate that as soon as the children went to Meadow, there wasn't enough room; they went to a smaller school, therefore needed an extension built."

The bond will be put up for a vote on October 26, and is contingent upon the approval of the reconfigurement by the public. At the July 22 meeting the superintendent stated that if the cluster measure fails, the board could still pursue option two.