School board votes to forge ahead with Jerusalem Ave. school sale

District will ask $12 million for building it has rented for 19 years

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The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District Board of Education voted unanimously last week to move forward with the sale of the 15.77-acre Jerusalem Avenue School building to the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Residents of Bellmore and Merrick will have the chance to vote on the proposal in December, and if OK'd by the voters, a referendum would then go before voters in all 55 Nassau School Districts in spring 2018, according to Superintendent John DeTommaso.

BOCES has been renting the North Bellmore building from the district for 19 years, and, according to DeTommaso, if the sale is not approved, might decide to discontinue their lease, causing a “significant loss of income” for the district.

The district recently had the building reappraised for commercial, residential and senior housing, with the appraised values ranging between $12.9 and $13 million. The district will be asking for $12 million, with it retaining control of the athletic field and track.

“As superintendent of schools, I believe that the board's decision to sell the building to BOCES is in the district and community's best interest,” DeTommaso said in a district-wide letter.

According to Detommaso, the $12 million payment, should the sale go through, would be put into a reserve fund that the Board of Education would use to reduce taxes.

Detomasso said that the impact would be positive, because the district would no longer be responsible for upkeep on the aging Jerusalem Avenue building, where, every time there is a boiler issue at the building, it's “basically a $50,000 job for the district.”

“It needs a ton of work … We've just basically been maintaining it since 1987, without putting any real money into it,” he said, in an interview in March.

The football field and track would remain under the district's control, if the sale were to go forward, and the district would also continue to have access to restrooms, parking areas and the gymnasium during special athletic and outdoor events. For different groups that use the gymnasium and field for events, Detommaso said that the only change would be that paperwork would be filed through BOCES, and not the district.

The board will provide more information on the sale, and hold another community forum in advance of the vote this fall, DeTommaso said.