EDITORIAL: Huntington Station needs the Abrams school

Students carried signs saying, "Keep Education in the Station." But their pleas were ignored when school board members narrowly voted on July 19 to close the Jack Abrams School in Huntington Station, after yet another neighborhood shooting led many parents to yet again insist that their children be assigned to other schools.

These concerns are the latest manifestation of 40 years of controversy over an urban renewal project that remade - and many contend, destroyed - neighborhoods surrounding Huntington's railroad station. The commercial district was leveled, and the downtown area eradicated; in its place came a sea of commuter parking lots.

The neighborhood has deteriorated over the years, and since March has experienced four shootings and a stabbing, some linked to gang rivalries. Most recently, in early July, a 16-year-old girl was shot on the street outside the school at 1:25 a.m.

Built in 1969, the school played a key role in the controversial urban renewal project. It replaced an elementary school that had served Huntington Station since 1911, and in 2008 was named for Jack Abrams, a revered teacher and administrator. Across from the school, two public housing projects - Gateway Gardens and Whitman Village - also remade the landscape. Their construction led to decades of litigation questioning whether the town's policy of limiting multifamily housing to Huntington Station was racially discriminatory.

Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, agreed that it was, ordering the town to build affordable housing in largely white areas. Litigation continues over the town's failure to do so, most recently involving development in Melville.

Racial isolation also has a long history in Huntington schools. Forty years ago, state education commissioners attacked what was called de facto segregation, ordering that school districts with racially isolated schools achieve racial balance. Huntington responded positively, and has continued to seek to maintain racial diversity throughout its schools.

Given all this history, it's no wonder that disputes over the safety of the neighborhoods around Abrams have so sharply divided the larger community.

Some residents, led by the Huntington NAACP, demand that the school be reopened or, if not, converted into a charter school. Huntington School Board President Bill Dwyer, who cast the deciding vote to close Abrams, says he had little choice, given the escalating fears of parents, many of whom live in affluent areas north of Main Street. Now the school board is considering using Abrams for school offices or, possibly, as an alternative high school.

So instead of having sixth-graders attend the Abrams school, as the board had decided in April, those students will now join fifth-graders at Woodhull Intermediate School. Students in kindergarten through fourth grade will attend the district's four primary schools.

The board's decision to close Abrams, while understandable, is regrettable. It raises larger concerns about whether the Town of Huntington is doing all it can to rebuild this long-troubled community, and whether Suffolk County is providing sufficient police protection.

The town can point to some recent successes in developing affordable housing near the railroad station, and to the successful revival of the Big H shopping center. The town also has issued a wide-ranging plan to renew the community through Huntington Station Action Coalition, and tracks its steady progress through its website.

But for months the town board has dragged its feet on a promising proposal by developer Avalon Bay Communities to invest $120 million in a transit-oriented housing development within walking distance of the railroad station. Most of the 490 units would be sold at market rates. This is an investment and vote of confidence that Huntington Station desperately needs. Approval of this housing will be a key test of whether the town is truly committed to stabilizing this area.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has assured Huntington parents that the county has committed to continuously police neighborhoods surrounding the Abrams school with more officers, foot patrols and anti-gang units, as necessary. The county, however, should also commit to maintaining a permanent police presence in Huntington Station, as Town Councilwoman Glenda Jackson has urged. Some years ago, Suffolk closed a police substation it had maintained at Pulaski Road and New York Avenue, arguing that patrol cars were more effective in deterring crime.

While there's logic to this argument, a visible and permanent police presence is badly needed in Huntington Station right now. There's a symbolic value in such a presence. It would not only help reassure residents that children can be safely educated if classes resume at Abrams - as we hope they will a year from now - but will also reassure new residents that the town will provide security for new homes in Huntington Station, especially for those Avalon Bay hopes to attract by promising a quick and safe walk to the railroad station.

Given decades of turmoil, it's no wonder that Huntington Station residents fear that if Abrams remains closed as a school, their community will again be abandoned. That's why saving "the Station" requires making the surrounding area safe for education. The future of Huntington Station depends on it. hN