Billy Joel pledges help for L.I.H.S. for the Arts

Effect on campus-sharing STEM Institute is still unclear

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Nassau BOCES announced at its meeting last week that rock icon Billy Joel would pledge $1 million from The Joel Foundation to help save the Long Island High School for the Arts in Syosset, which has been threatened with closure over the past year due to dwindling enrollment.

It’s not exactly clear, however, what kind of impact the money would have on the Doshi STEM Institute, which shares the campus with LIHSA and is also under threat of closure. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.

“The STEM students will benefit to a certain extent because they’re on the same campus as LIHSA, and the fixed operating costs will be picked up a little bit more by LIHSA,” explained Dr. Robert Dillon, superintendent of Nassau BOCES. “BOCES can only help programs that districts want,” Dillon added, alluding to the low enrollment of the STEM program.

A spokeswoman for Joel said that the money would be granted only if BOCES pledged to keep LIHSA open for another three years.

The high school’s — and the STEM Institute’s — financial difficulties are of concern to Malverne and other Nassau County parents who have children already in the STEM program, or would like to send them there in the future. For over a year, many BOCES parents have been complaining that both schools have low enrollment numbers because few parents know they exist, and are unaware that students from any district can attend them.

It’s a problem Malvernite Jeanne D’Esposito is working to change. “I get nothing but positive reactions from parents,” said D’Esposito, who has been contacting many Nassau schools about the STEM program. “Parents either say, ‘I didn’t know this program existed,’ or have been told by their school districts that ‘we don’t send.’”

Another major reason why both programs have low enrollment, administrators and parents say, is because many school districts are unable or unwilling to help pay for them. The Malverne school district currently pays $9,000 per student for the STEM program, 71.7 percent of which is reimbursed by Nassau BOCES a year later.

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