Smithtown panel votes on school closure

A committee considering the closure of a Smithtown district school seems to favor shuttering Nesconset Elementary School, a district official said Monday.

In a preliminary vote last week, most members of the citizens advisory committee on instruction and housing chose to recommend closing Nesconset over Mills Pond Elementary in St. James, Smithtown director of curriculum Jennifer Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw, who co-chairs the committee, called the vote "an unofficial survey" of the group, which expects to take a final vote in January. The Smithtown school board expects to decide on a school closure in February.

Out of 23 people at the meeting, 16 voted to close Nesconset and six favored closing Mills Pond, Bradshaw said. One voted to close an unnamed school. The committee has 29 members.

"It did have a majority indicating that they are going to vote to close Nesconset," Bradshaw said, adding she expects next month's vote to have the same result. "The committee has pretty strong leanings."

The committee includes principals, teachers, parents and PTA members from all of the district's 15 schools, and community residents.

Mills Pond parent Noelle Ciminiello, who opposes closing the school, said it is too soon to say that the school will be spared. "You don't want to count the eggs before they hatch," she said. "Some people could still change their minds."

Nesconset PTA members declined to comment or could not be reached.

District officials have estimated that closing a school will save about $1 million annually in personnel expenses. In addition, enrollment in the district is expected to decline substantially in the next decade.

Bradshaw said Nesconset Elementary has fewer classrooms than Mills Pond. "If we're concerned about future growth, Mills Pond will be able to absorb future growth," Bradshaw said.

If Nesconset closes, "a good number" of Mills Pond's current students may be assigned to St. James Elementary next year, Bradshaw said. Students will be assigned to schools within "a reasonable proximity to where they live," she said.

Another unofficial vote last week showed the committee rejecting an elementary school grade-restructuring model known as the Princeton Plan, Bradshaw said. Only one committee member favored the plan, which would place children in grades 3-5 in different schools from students in kindergarten through second grade.