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A Few Clouds West Hempstead committee hosts kick off meeting
Residents offer suggestions on using empty areas at Chestnut Street, Eagle Avenue schools
The Space Utilization Committee of the West Hempstead Board of Education — a group formed by school officials to gather public input on how the school district can use empty space at the Chestnut Street School, formerly home to the West Hempstead Public Library, and the Eagle Avenue School, which Nassau BOCES will be vacating in June 2013 — hosted its kick-off meeting last week.
More than 25 people attended the July 17 meeting, held in the West Hempstead High School video conference room, and offered a number of suggestions to school officials on how the school district could use its space in a way that benefits the West Hempstead community and students attending its schools.
The committee, which is chaired by Superintendent John Hogan, is composed of school officials, residents and community leaders. The goal, Hogan explained, is for the group to devise a plan to utilize the two properties that the district owns, and to present it to the Board of Education by late October.
“We’re not at a point where we’d be making recommendations, but it’s a significant amount of property to have available,” Hogan said. “These are serious matters. Our goal is to bring this to fruition by the end of October.”
Hogan told the Herald in May that the idea for forming a committee was solidified over the past few months, and a formal announcement was made in April.
The West Hempstead library moved to its current location, on Hempstead Avenue, during the 2007-08 school year, because it needed more space, Hogan said.
The Herald reported in February that declining enrollment is forcing Nassau BOCES to terminate its lease with the school district, and it will vacate the Eagle Avenue building it has occupied and used as a middle school for more than two decades. BOCES pays more than $500,000 in rent annually — income on which the district relies.
School officials said that both the Chestnut Street School, which has 9,783 square feet of vacant space, and the Eagle Avenue building, formerly known as Marion Delaney, which has 51,155 square feet, can generate future revenue for the district.
