Former Cross Street School gets new tenant

The Mineola school board unanimously approved the lease Thursday night of its Cross Street School to a private school, over the objections of Williston Park residents concerned about additional traffic clogging their streets.

The Mineola district, which plans to close the elementary school because of declining enrollment, will lease it to Solomon Schechter Middle School/High School.

At the board meeting, Williston Park residents, some of whom have children who attend neighboring St. Aidan School, urged the district to wait until a draft traffic report was finalized or a "dry run" testing the impact on local streets was held. The traffic study found that while the new school would have more buses, mostly mini-buses, than cars that currently drop off and pick up students, the total number of vehicles would "be no greater."

But two board members said they were "satisfied" with the traffic study.

Solomon Schechter, a Conservative Jewish school with about 260 students, is relocating from Glen Cove. Under the five-year lease, the school will pay an average of $265,000 a year in rent for the first three years.