Mineola School Board Approves Solomon Schechter Lease

Residents of the Mineola School District in Williston Park will be getting a new neighbor in September as a lease with the was finally approved.

The 5 year lease was passed unanimously at the recent meeting of the Mineola Board of Education Wednesday night at the . The leasing of the school solidifies a which included closing the , and moving the children to the other schools in the district.

The rental of the property did not come without controversy as numerous Williston Park residents have flooded past board meetings , the and the amount of money the district is receiving in rental compensation. After Williston Park residents complained and concerns were raised by the village board, a to study the ramifications of having Solomon Schechter occupy the building.

Harold Lutz, director of transportation for VHB engineering, reviewed the results of the study Wednesday night, comparing the amount of vehicles currently at Cross Street to those projected at Solomon Schechter if it were to occupy the building and finding it would generate “virtually the same amount of vehicles,” pointing out that only “the vehicle mix will change and that will change somewhat significantly,” having busses in the area instead of cars.

Lutz made the comparison that there are between 45 and 50 vehicles at the site today as opposed to about 37 vehicles projected to be at Solomon Schechter: eight to 10 smaller buses in front of the school, one full size bus and 27 “mini buses” in the lot off Meagher Place, which Lutz referred to as a staging area.

“They park just like cars,” rabbi Lev Herrnson, the head of the school, said of the mini buses. Drawings of the bus arrangement show the smaller buses circling the lot around the parked cars and another group lined up in front of the building on Cross Street.

Due to the proximity of St. Aidan’s, a 20 minute offset would be in effect between the two schools’ start and dismissal times, which would be in force throughout the term of the lease.

“We’d like to try to keep that traffic as separate as possible so that you don’t overwhelm the community with traffic,” Lutz said. “There’s that 15 minutes where its just a hornet’s nest of activity and then its quiet again until the end of the day.”

Solomon Schechter would begin the day at 7:40 a.m., 20 minutes earlier than their current start of 8 a.m. The intended end time Monday through Thursday would be 3:26 p.m. rather than 3:46 p.m. Herrnson said that the school hasn’t decided on Friday dismissal times. Leading up to Easter and Passover the school dismisses at 1:46 p.m. which does not pose a conflict.

“While this change represents a hardship for us... we’re making this modification because we understand that this is important to ensure people’s safety,” Herrnson said. “We want to allay any concerns about traffic... and we want to demonstrate that we want to be really good neighbors.”

While the rabbi said the school was “pleased” to adopt the recommendations, he appeared to balk at the idea of moving start time to 7:30 a.m., saying they have already made “significant concessions” at “the hardship of our own community.”

As part of the recommendations in the report, the school would have a phased dismissal in two waves five to 10 minutes apart “so that you don’t have a large influx of busses all hitting the streets at the same time to overwhelm traffic,” Lutz said. He pointed out that he was more apt to making an easier operational change rather than a permanent change in infrastructure such as altering road signs, curbs, etc. Bus drivers would also be encouraged to adhere to two patterns of traffic at arrival and dismissal times.

According to Herrnson, the two-part dismissal is consistent with current practice in Glen Cove where all buses currently stage at one time and are released in two separate waves.

In order to accommodate the longer line of buses on Cross Street the report is calling for an additional 100 ft. of traffic restrictions in front of the school. The current restriction runs from Meagher Place to the middle of the school building. The new restrictions would have to be approved by the Williston Park Village Board and could be done on a temporary basis for arrival and dismissal times.

Lutz said the number of buses at the site could decrease as districts consolidate runs after the move. “All it comes down to (is) where are the kids coming from and how many are coming from a particular spot,” Mineola Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said.

In the case of Solomon Schechter student drivers, the report recommended that a separate dedicated lot should be secured, but since no such lot has been located at this time, Herrnson said that all students would be taking the bus in the 2011-12 school year and not allowed to drive.

“Until we have an answer to this, we do not want to in any way give you any pause or concern,” he said, explaining that enforcement would be through the school security guards who would note if a student arrived via bus or walked up either being dropped off “or parked their car where they’re not supposed to.”

The four page report issued by the firm is preliminary with a final report complete with technical specifications as well as all findings, data, specifics, vehicle count sheets, etc. from observations conducted during the month of April issued within a “matter of weeks” Lutz said. Williston Park has hired engineer Wayne Muller to do an oversight review of the traffic study and also sent a list of 18 questions about the report generated from a meeting the previous Monday.

“I’m satisfied that the board did its due diligence with respect to obtaining a traffic study, I’m satisfied that the traffic study indicates that it will not be unsafe to lease the building to Solomon Schechter,” Mineola Board of Ed Trustee John McGrath said, suggesting the district might want to conduct a dry run of busses, adding that in his view such an act was not necessary to sign the lease.

Dr. Nagler said the district may employ VHB again in the fall for a reevaluation to see if any modifications would be made to traffic patterns.

While the school district will monitor the situation during the first weeks of classes, Herrnson asked for three before any reevaluation took place to allow students and staff to settle into routines. He added the school would make “every effort to assist Mineola in any situation that may arise... and make adjustments to operations when possible and when reasonable.”