Hempstead voters OK $18.1M bond project

Hempstead voters Tuesday approved an $18.1-million bond project to renovate a long-shuttered elementary school so that its kindergarten students can be educated in one building.

The measure passed overwhelmingly, with 780 yes and 153 no votes, said Assistant Superintendent Robert Geras.

"The board of education and superintendent thank the community for supporting our children," Geras said after the vote.

The vote will allow the district to save $569,000 annually in rent for the use of the Early Childhood Center on Front Street and the Hagedorn Family Resource Center on Greenwich Street.

The project will be paid for by $12.8 million in state building aid, $4.9 million in state grants and $500,000 in district funds.

Administrators say the former Prospect School on Peninsula Boulevard is slated to open in September 2013. It was closed in August 2003 because of structural and other problems.

The building contains asbestos and does not meet federal rules for disabled access. The bond vote will allow for improvements to its heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, electrical, mechanical, security and plumbing systems. The renovated school also will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

About 160 of the district's 500 kindergartners now are educated in portable classrooms at Marshall Elementary School.

District officials have said the bond will allow all kindergarten students to be housed in a more age-appropriate setting.