Residents Question Cross Street School Lease

Residents of the Mineola school district who live near the in Williston Park flooded the monthly meeting of the board of education at the last Wednesday over a yet-to-be-signed lease agreement with a private school they say will generate a large amount of bus traffic on their narrow streets.

At issue is a stipulation in the , a private Jewish school based in Glen Cove, which says “subject to final design” that “no fewer” than 53 buses of various sizes will be at the Cross Street School building during the start of school and dismissal time.

Mineola school superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said he will not know about the exact number of buses coming until school begins. “Solomon Schechter gets students from all over the island that individual school districts send,” he said, pointing out that districts have the option to send either small or large buses.

“Most of the time districts will cobble the runs together to fill a bus,” Nagler said, giving a scenario where a district might send a large bus with many students going to and one student to Solomon Schechter so “one big bus for one student could happen.”

Students can also arrive via chartered vans from areas that do not provide bussing. Nagler said he had planned for eight large buses and 19 small buses or vans to fit in the school parking lot, which will be expended over to where the basketball courts are currently located. Solomon Schechter is a grade six through 12 school, but Nagler said that “95 percent of the students arrive on buses and vans,” because they are not local, with the remainder driving to school.

There would be 78 parking spots in the new parking lot configuration and “we will have in the lease that those are the spots to use,” Nagler said. There is also a cap on the number of students enrolled at the building at 300. According to Dr. Nagler, the private school has a “steady” population of 250.

Residents are also troubled about the number of buses because of the proximity of St. Aidan’s, which dismisses at an earlier time than Solomon Schechter.

“Buses arrive and they stay there waiting for dismissal, they’re not just coming and dropping off,” Williston Park deputy mayor Teresa Thomann said.

Dr. Nagler said that plans to dismiss similar to their current building located in Glen Cove on Cedar Swamp Road. Their dismissal plan for Cross Street involves stopping all traffic on Hillside Avenue and to dismiss all buses within 10 minutes.

Concerns have also been raised about the quality of life Williston Park residents would be asked to endure for the amount of rental revenue returned. The school district has intended to rent the building as part of its in order to help offset future tax increases.

“This proposal, at best... equals a $225,000 credit to the district,” John O’Kelly, a resident of East Williston and former member of the East Williston Board of Education said. O’Kelly had obtained a copy of a version of the lease through a FOIL request, which he said he was “denied” for a month. 

“That isn’t the final lease,” Dr. Nagler said, explaining that the significant savings was the closing of the school to reduce staff and expenses. “The real money savings in it is in the staff reductions. This is an additional revenue we’re generating for our school by leasing the property.”

Nagler also accused O’Kelly of sending out “an inflammatory e-mail” in which O’Kelly made “accusations that I took upon myself to respond to.”

As part of the agreement with Solomon Schechter, $100,000 is said to cover the demolition of the gymnasium/ cafeteria and resurfacing of the floor as well as patching, sealing and restriping of the parking lot.

Nagler said the final amount of the renovation work depends on the estimates he has from two different companies and he also has an additional $75,000 cushion if it were to be more “and still make $225,000 profit.”

While believing that the rental of the school was a good idea, Williston Park resident Umberto Mignardi said that the community has expressed concern because there have been three accidents on Winthrop Avenue this year.

“Is that worth the $255 or 270,000? I would say it’s not. Clearly people want to know that there is no danger that our tax money is going to somehow get lost in some kind of fiasco,” Mignardi said, asking for the correct numbers from the lease reasoning that residents wish to know “is this enough to offset the impact for the residents in Williston Park?”

Nagler stated that “the numbers you have are accurate,” but emphasized that the contract with Solomon Schechter is still being negotiated. “I didn’t want the number to go out because for a certain period of time, if I’m still negotiating, I don’t want to tip my hand about what the number is,” he said.

As part of the lease, Solomon Schechter would be paying for utility costs, which are estimated at about $55,000 per year, bringing the total amount of income to the district to $325,000.

“We’re offsetting that with the work that we’re doing for the gym,” Nagler said, going into detail about the lease. “A lot of that work’s already done. They want a guarantee that it’s there and operational. We’re talking about installing science rooms, which we have a plumber on staff that will do that.”

The superintendent acknowledged that the current “hiccups” in negotiations are over the use of the Cross Street fields.

“I’m being very adamant about how we get the community to use the fields,” Nagler said. “It’s holding up the whole signing of the lease because I’m not bending on giving time for the little league in particular to get on the fields and play ball.”

Mignardi also asked if accommodations could be made because the CYO sports use the fields as well.