Housing Committee Weighs Elementary School Building Closing Options

The Smithtown Central School District Housing Committee held a meeting Thursday night regarding the possible closing of an elementary school building and the affect a closing would have on the schools within the district.

At the start of the meeting the committee stated that the presentation was designed to begin to answer the questions raised by the community as well as the school board.

The committee presented three hypothetical school closing options – Nesconset Elementary, Branch Brook Elementary and Dogwood Elementary – as well as the disbursement of children between the elementary schools from the closed school, the possible impact closing a building would have on students moving up to middle and high school and the estimated savings of closing a building.

Other information provided consisted of the average expenses of the three buildings proposed to close, the estimated savings of one of the buildings were closed, the amount of "underutilized" classrooms in all of the buildings total and more.

Both current and projected future enrollment of the schools was heavily discussed, as well as future possible local property developments that could affect future enrollment and the schools they would affect. This data, presented in the PowerPoint presentation was provided by Peter Hans of the Smithtown Planning Board, included the Gyrodone Property – which would affect Mills Pond Elementary, Hamlet at Saint James – which would affect Nesconset Elementary, Country Woods – which would affect Nesconset Elementary, Nottingham Acres – which would affect Tackan Elementary, Story Brook Meadows – which would affect Tackan Elementary and Roseland/Millennium – which would affect Accompsett Elementary.

After the data, statistics and hypothetical situations were presented, members of the board stated what was presented wasn't enough to make a decision and requested more data to be presented. This included a definition of what the committee considers "underutilized," projected class sizes, the accommodations for current and future special needs students, the capacity of each building without the use of any portables and situations where moving up patters wouldn't be affected by a building being closed. 

The date for the next Housing Committee meeting will be determined at the next Board of Education meeting on January 6, 2011.