The Wednesday, Oct. 9 regular work session of the board of education, to be held at 7 p.m. in the Garden City High School cafeteria, will have representatives from Nassau BOCES discussing the Nov. 19 referendum to purchase a building at 71 Clinton Road in Garden City.

Last March Nassau BOCES urged county residents to give them the green light to buy the building but by a vote of 2,311 to 1,201, residents, who came out in full force, voted it down.

BOCES wanted to purchase the three-story office building, located in a commercial area near Roosevelt Field Mall, to house its programs and meeting rooms, which were once housed in the Nassau BOCES "Salisbury Center," a rented former elementary school in Westbury. The center's landlord, the East Meadow School District, needed the building back for its own use and never renewed the lease, which expired this past June 30.

If voters had approved the purchase, BOCES facilities costs would have been reduced - costs that are passed along to the county's 56 local school districts. (Each pays in proportion to its student enrollment.)

The results of the referendum may have been related to an exceptionally high turnout of Garden City voters and misinformation about the tax impact of the proposed purchase widely disseminated just weeks before the vote, BOCES officials said. When Nassau BOCES purchases a building it is taken off the local tax rolls as are other school district-owned properties.

Disappointed in the last vote, Dr. Jerry Shiveley, BOCES district superintendent, said, "If we had been given the go-ahead to purchase, we estimate that the county's school districts would have saved more than $7 million over the first ten years and $23 million or more after 20 years."

The savings would have resulted from the higher costs of rent payments for 71 Clinton Road as compared to debt service on the purchase of the building. "It was not our choice to move," Shiveley said.

"After a long and exhausting search in a tight real estate market, we were very pleased to find 71 Clinton - a suitable, centrally located building that we could lease with an option to buy," he added.

In recent years, Nassau BOCES has worked to minimize costs passed on to local school districts by pursuing a strategy of owning, rather than renting, facilities. "Since 2000, we have had access to funding through DASNY [Dormitory Authority of the State of New York]," Shiveley said, "and we are now seeking to buy buildings when it's appropriate - and when the purchase will provide long-term savings to our partner school districts."

The March 19 referendum was the third time in three years that Nassau BOCES had gone to voters for permission to make a purchase. BOCES will once again ask residents to approve the purchase at a Nov. 19 referendum. Time will be set aside at the board of education work session on Oct. 9 for public comments and questions.