East Elementary in Long Beach to stay open, school board president says
East Elementary School in Long Beach will remain open "at least for the forseeable future," board president Sam Pinto said Monday evening. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
A Long Beach elementary school facing possible closure will remain open "at least for the foreseeable future," school board president Sam Pinto said at a board meeting attended by dozens opposed to the cost-cutting proposal.
Closing East Elementary School had been cast by the district as a way to save an estimated $3 million in operating costs, Newsday reported. District officials feared a loss in state aid last year. Although that loss did not occur, funding concerns, and the closure discussions, remained.
Pinto told parents and others opposed to shuttering the Neptune Boulevard school there are no current plans to close it.
"My position is for as long as I’m here under the current circumstances, for the foreseeable future, I do not want to see East school repurposed," Pinto said to much applause at the Monday evening board meeting.
Board vice president Alexis Pace and trustees Nora Bellsey and Anne Conway all said the elementary school should remain open. The five-member board did not vote on the plan Monday evening.
Trustee Dennis Ryan said closing the school would make fiscal sense because he was "not so sure it’s wise to pour money" into a nearly-100-year-old building.
"I would be more apt to vote for a bond to build a new school," he added.
The class sizes at East Elementary run from 13 to 19 students, and some classrooms have two full-time teachers, Ryan said, adding "this model isn’t sustainable."
Over the past two decades, the number of students in the district's four elementary schools has dropped by 750, according to Superintendent Jennifer Gallagher.
Ryan said he didn't believe it was "healthy for a kid to be in a class of 13 or 14 kids ... I think kids need maybe 60 or 70 kids in a building of other third and fourth graders ... so that there are more kids to serve as a reference group for our children in those schools. It makes it easier for teachers to do grouping and to make plans and keep the curriculum on par among the various buildings."
Newsday previously reported that school officials in West Babylon are mulling shuttering one of the district's five elementary schools, Forest Avenue.
Decisions regarding Forest Avenue Elementary School could be made at the board of education meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening.
