Huntington officials set to study school, Town Hall swap

After dozens of angry parents and residents vented their concerns over a spate of violence near a Huntington Station intermediate school, the Huntington Town Board was set to vote Tuesday night on a measure to study switching places with the campus.

The feasibility study would begin immediately and cost $7,000, said Town Supervisor Frank Petrone.

The violence near Jack Abrams Intermediate School, which included a shooting during school hours last month, has upset parents and school officials and has driven a wedge into the district about how to address the issue.

During the public-comments portion of the meeting, Vera Ehlers, of Huntington Station, told the board the community around the school has deteriorated since she's moved there.

"When I first moved here I thought it was a great place to live and raise children," said Ehlers, whose daughter attends the school. "But slowly, I've watched it die."

Last month as the Huntington School Board sorted through relocation options for students, parents suggested it consider a swap.

"If the school board picks this as an option, the town has to be ready to respond," said Petrone, co-sponsor of the resolution with Mark Cuthbertson. "The main goal is ridding the Station of crime, and if the district is able to move here, we have to have an idea. It's a dollars-and-cents thing."

Town board members Susan Berland and Mark Mayoka have both said they would support such a move.

Proponents of the switch believe placing the 520 students in the Town Hall building, a former school, would remove children from harm's way while helping to spur revitalization efforts in Huntington Station by having a government building there.

Opponents say such a move could be cost prohibitive and take years if approved by the state Education Department.

At a meeting Monday night, the school board approved spending $1,500 to allow the district's architect to assess the cost of transforming the Town Hall building back to a school.

At Monday's meeting, the school board also decided to look into at least two districtwide redistribution plans that would make the Jack Abrams school a sixth-grade center and shuffle students in the lower grades.

The board continues to consider other options for relocating students, including leasing a building from the Commack school district, installing modular classrooms at other district schools, moving into the former Touro law school building at 300 Nassau Rd., and having a split-day session at the district's other intermediate school, Woodhull.