BOCES to lease fewer school rooms

The Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services will lease less space than it has in the past from the East Meadow School District in the 2012-13 school year, Superintendent of Schools Louis DeAngelo announced at a school board meeting on Feb. 2.

Since 2007, BOCES has contracted with the district for space at the Bowling Green Elementary School and the W.T. Clarke middle and high schools to provide services for the hearing-impaired. But because of declining enrollment in BOCES, DeAngelo said, “They don’t wish to renew a significant portion of their lease.”

“It’s a different kind of enrollment,” Karen Ellis, the executive director for special education at Nassau BOCES, told the Herald on Tuesday, adding that medical advancements have changed hearing-impaired children’s lives. They are receiving cochlear implants at an earlier age, she said, which help them hear and speak sooner.

“In the old days, they used to segregate [hearing-impaired students] into different facilities,” Ellis explained. Now, instead of being separated from other students, the hearing-impaired are being integrated into regular classrooms.

According to a statement received by DeAngelo, BOCES plans to use fewer classrooms at the middle and high schools and to move out of Bowling Green altogether.

Ellis confirmed the organization’s plans, adding, “We’re going to have a presence.” She said that BOCES is using only one classroom at Bowling Green this year, and all hearing-impaired students at the school will engage in “itinerant learning” next year, in which hearing-impaired children learn along with other students and a specialized teacher assists in the process. “It’s really a good thing,” Ellis said.

DeAngelo said he is asking BOCES to uphold the original contract from 2007 that will expire in June, and to pay to clean the classrooms it no longer intends to use. “They must restore Bowling Green to what it was,” he said. “They must restore the places they’re no longer using over at Clarke to what they were.”

According to DeAngelo, BOCES was paying $32 per square foot, and wants to decrease the rate to $8 per square foot. He declined that offer, but added, “We’re more than happy to keep up the arrangement with decreased room allocation.” He also said he had contacted the school attorney, who helped write the original lease in 2007, to help with negotiations.

The district will lose about $150,000 because of the cutback by BOCES, DeAngelo said, adding, “We might want to consider possibly renting [to others] … but I think in these times, people aren’t necessarily out there looking, so we’ll keep all of those options open.”

The school board supported DeAngelo’s decision to continue negotiations with BOCES and to look for new renters.

Bowling Green Elementary and W.T. Clarke middle and high schools are listed as satellite leased facilities on the Nassau BOCES website. BOCES currently offers 16 satellite leased facilities throughout Nassau County. However, Ellis said, that is not a term she prefers, because “satellite” suggests that the students are separated when they are fully integrated in the schools, and participate in clubs and on sports teams as well.