BOE Split on Plan to Close South Ocean Middle School

may close at the end of the school year, as a split Patchogue-Medford Board of Education is reviewing the potential savings and impacts shuttering the school would have on the district. 

The board began discussing the possibility of closing one or more schools , when a recent study conducted by Western Suffolk BOCES on the district's demographics and facilities showed that all three middle schools are operating at 50 percent capacity or lower, with those figures expected to drop even further through 2020. 

Donna Jones, assistant superintendent of business, presented the initial findings of the potential impacts at Tuesday’s Board of Education workshop.

If South Ocean closed, students at the school would be split in half and sent to Oregon and middle schools.

If the board were to approve the plan to close South Ocean, the district is estimated to see a net savings of $634,431 in its first year, and an additional $329,833 in its second year, Jones said.

"We factored all of the various savings, but also all of the things that are necessary in order to accomodate the move, such as moving libraries, moving costs associated with staff and printing," she said.

Other impacts discussed include possible larger class sizes, less students being able to participate in interscholastic athletic programs, the addition of two buses for 240 students and lunch periods that would have to begin at 9 a.m.

The South Ocean building itself would have its first floor of windows boarded up, be gated to minimize graffiti and vandalism and have security on duty at night, Jones said.

The building would then potentially be available for leasing to generate income, as board trustee William Lavelle stated in December that had previously been interested in renting the building.

During the meeting, Lavelle spoke highly of the plan, stating that the potential savings could restore programs.

“Unlike other schools that are at the end of their rope and are forced to do things quickly...we don't want to be in that situation,” Lavelle said. “So now we are looking at a project where we can save 20 times that over the same period of time and that's the way we should be looking at it.”

Trustee Thomas Donofrio, however, did not mince words when expressing his opposition to closing a school. 

“This is a bad idea," said Donofrio, who was not pleased that the board hadn't come to a consensus on forming a community committee in December to consider how to save the district money. "If this district is put to the point...I hope that we have to put this on the shelf, so in case we have to use this and we are put to dire straits then it's something we have to do."

Regarding the committee, trustee Brett Houdek explained that the vote for a committee at the December business meeting was a 3-3 split, that was then tabled with an understanding that the board would direct the superintendent to allow planning to take place as a board directed activity. Houdek said that previous attempts to even start looking into a plan over the past three years were continuously tabled.

“I wanted a committee," Houdek said, "but nobody wanted to vote on it when we had all the board members present."

Houdek said the plan is still to see if closing a school can be shelved, but that the nature of it being a two-year plan requires it to be looked into now.

“You could only do this when you have the funds, you can't do it the following year when you don't have the funds, because then you are cutting teachers to provide a monetary savings in the following outlying year,” he said.

“Then when we see what the final budget is...that number will say we can push it and put it on the shelf as I said for one more year,” Houdek added.

Both Houdek and Lavelle said that the process is aimed so the board doesn't have to lay off more teachers.

With a new two-percent tax increase cap taking effect for the next budget cycle, school districts across Long Island are under the same pressure to cut costs and several have already voted to close schools. West Islip school officials recently to shutter two elementary schools next year.

When asked his opinion on closing a school, Pat-Med Superintendent Michael Locantore said that his opinion from the beginning hasn't changed, which he said in December was that he couldn't recommend closing a school without more data.

“I am not going to propose to do it unless the plan is, yes that it has community involvement, it is absolutely to serve the children," Locantore said Tuesday, "and that we don't disservice them in any way, and I don't just mean academically but I have to look at the whole."

Other board members said they are also still looking at the data before making a decision.

Jones said that a presentation on the impact of possibly closing two schools will be made at a future date.

The next Board of Education Budget Workshop will take place Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in South Ocean Middle School.

Browse the photo gallery for the slides from the impact presentation.