School district bond vote set for Nov. 16

Officials seek to add arts wing, STEM labs and more

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School District 12 residents will be asked to vote on a $19.7 million bond proposition that would fund new facilities to accommodate its growing arts program and provide new resources for its expanding science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, curriculum.

An official presentation will be made to the community at the district’s Sept. 13 board meeting, and a community vote is scheduled for Nov. 16.

The proceeds from the bond, 40 percent of which is reimbursable by the state, would be used to construct a new arts wing on the south side of Malverne High School, which would be connected to the main building by a breezeway. The wing would house a small theater and a large music room.

“This would not only give us a place for music and performing art spaces, but it will free up some spaces for regular classrooms,” said Superintendent Dr. Jim Hunderfund. “We will be able to schedule the classrooms the way we need them for the future.”

Current music rooms would be converted into dedicated STEM space, with labs and classrooms for the 90 students enrolled in the program this fall. “Right now, we have our regular high school labs, and they’re spread out,” Hunderfund explained, adding that the rooms have been reconfigured with resources needed for the STEM program. “It used to be an old storage area that had other miscellaneous office spaces in it. That’s all been taken away.”

Hunderfund added that all the walls in the STEM rooms can be written on, as was the case in the Nassau BOCES’s Doshi STEM program when it was offered at the Long Island High School of the Arts. That program, now defunct, is one of the reasons the Malverne school district now has its own STEM program.

The district also hired Bruce Beck, a former Doshi STEM science teacher, to develop its STEM program. Beck will work in conjunction with Dr. Michael Cressy, the high school’s research teacher.

The bond would also fund another project: The baseball infield on the south side of the high school would be excavated and rebuilt, because it tends to flood often during rainstorms due to a drainage problem. Hunderfund said the area was built on a streambed.

Most of the bond — over $18 million of it — would be used to create and renovate the facilities at the high school. The rest would be earmarked for upgrading the cafeteria, as well as the electrical and ventilation systems in the district’s other schools, Hunderfund said.

“In the past 10 years, this board has really made an effort to prioritize its infrastructure and protect the community’s investment in its schools and students,” Board of Education President John Tulley said in a press release. “We need to keep that momentum going, and this bond will really take the curriculum we can offer our students to that next level and provide us with the facilities to match their growing potential.”

Hunderfund said it would take two to three years to complete the projects if the bond passes. H2M Architects was hired by the board to design the projects.