Smithtown board votes tonight on closing school

The Smithtown school board is expected to vote tonight on whether to close Nesconset Elementary School.

The meeting is set to begin at 8 p.m. at the district’s offices on 26 New York Ave. in Smithtown.

District officials say they must close a school due to rising costs and declining enrollment. Shuttering Nesconset is expected to save roughly $1 million annually.

A committee of residents and school officials last month recommended closing Nesconset — one of the district’s nine elementary schools — among several other cost-saving measures. Nesconset is the district’s smallest school.

If Nesconset is closed, most of its students would move in September to Mills Pond Elementary School in St. James; special education students are expected to attend Mount Pleasant Elementary in Smithtown.

Other cost-control measures recommended by the committee include moving staff out of district offices and into vacant space in school buildings; renting out the closed elementary school and district offices; and selling vacant parcels owned by the district.

The board is not planning to act on those recommendations tonight, board president Gladys Waldron said.

Above: Nesconset Elementary School