$18M Hempstead bond project up for vote

Hempstead school officials are asking voters to approve an $18.1-million bond project to renovate a closed elementary school so that all of the district's kindergartners can be educated under one roof.

The bond project, which will be voted on Tuesday, would not raise taxes.

The district would save $569,000 annually in rent it has been paying for use of the Early Childhood Center on Front Street and the Hagedorn Family Resource Center on Greenwich Street, school officials said. Hempstead has paid nearly $6 million in rent for those buildings since the mid-1990s.

The project would be funded by $12.8 million in state building aid, $4.9 million in state grants and $500,000 in district funds that voters approved for the project in May, district officials said. If approved, the former Prospect School on Peninsula Boulevard would open in September 2013.

The school was closed in August 2003, in part because it had structural problems and mold in its basement, and because it did not comply with federal requirements for the disabled.

Funds from the bond issue would pay for the school's renovation, which would include a multipurpose room to be used as a cafeteria and gymnasium. The project also calls for asbestos removal and improvements to the building's heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, electrical, mechanical, security and plumbing systems.

The renovated school would be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and would have an elevator as well as new windows, flooring, doors and playground equipment.

About 160 of the district's 500 kindergarten students are housed in portable classrooms at Marshall Elementary School. School officials said that if the bond project is approved, students no longer will have to brave snow and rain to get to those classrooms.

"I'm excited to see the children in a state-of-the-art facility," said school board member Gladys Rivera, adding that the students will be better served in an age-appropriate setting.