Last week the Island Trees Board of Education passed a resolution authorizing the rental of the Geneva N. Gallow and the Stephen E. Karopczyc schools to BOCES in the 2000-2001 school year, for a 10 year period.

In March the board passed a resolution terminating a lease with the South Shore Christian School for these same buildings to allow more space and to bring in more revenue for the district.

Although BOCES will be using less room than the South Shore Christian School was, pending finalization this new lease will bring in approximately $100,000 more a year in revenue for the Island Trees School District.

BOCES, who did not comment on the lease, plans to use the buildings for their special education preschool program. They will also be renting one room in the J. Fred Sparke Elementary School.

When asked by a resident if the lease with BOCES would have the same clause that the lease with South Shore Christian did, allowing the district to terminate the lease with a year's notice, Superintendent Richard Segerdahl explained that a clause like this was not possible for this lease. In the lease with BOCES, it would be BOCES who would be responsible for any renovations as well as the maintenance of the properties. In order to bring in their program BOCES will have to do a lot of renovating and updating of the buildings and they would not want to put that investment in if there were a chance that they would be asked to leave in a year, explained Segerdahl.

Whereas South Shore Christian used all of the Gallow and Karopczyc schools, except for the portion that is used by the Island Trees Public Library, which will remain where it is, BOCES will only be using a portion of the first floor of Gallow, leaving the second floor and part of the first floor available for the Island Trees School District's use.

When asked last month, when this plan was originally brought up, if the district was concerned about the governor's proposal to cut BOCES and eventually eliminate BOCES aid, Segerdahl answered, "Mrs. Safrey [school board trustee] was just up in Albany lobbying our assemblypeople and Senator Hannon and the sense that she brought back to us, and I've talked to people, is that they do not feel that the governor's effort to reduce support for BOCES will come to fruition." He added that there are many districts on Long Island, and especially upstate New York, that depend on BOCES and that those districts are putting a lot of pressure on the legislators not to cut BOCES aid.

Assemblyman Marc Herbst, when asked if entering into this lease would be risky for Island Trees, responded, "I think BOCES will continue to be funded." He explained that because of the high increases in previous years, the amount of aid will probably level off but that BOCES will most likely continue to be funded. Both the State Assembly and the State Senate rejected the governor's proposal to cut the aid. According to Herbst, without the Assembly and Senate's Support of this proposal it will not go through. He concluded, "Both the Assembly and the Senate resolutions restore all funding to current levels. There's no cuts in either and there's no recommendation to make any changes in the existing funding formulas."

When asked what the district would do if, although it is unlikely, the governor's proposal to cut BOCES aid were to go through in the future Segerdahl responded, "We'll deal with that situation if it happens." At the school board meeting he pointed out that right now there is a shortage of available space such as these buildings so if BOCES were not able to pay the rent the district would most likely be able to find another tenant.

As for right now the district is very pleased with the planned lease with BOCES and feel that their special education preschool program will go very nicely with the district's preschool which will also be located in Gallow. Previously part of the district's preschool program was located in the middle school but because of space limitations in the middle school and convenience the whole program will now be run out of the one building. BOCES will also have additional resources in their preschool program that the Island Trees School District will be able to make use of such as psychologists and social workers.

The three keys to this lease, Segerdahl stated, are, "The district will be receiving $100,000 more revenue than it had been receiving; the district will retain more rooms for its own use should we want to go to all day kindergarten or for additional programs in the district; they will maintain and improve the physical plant in both buildings." Segerdahl stated that he believes this is a win-win situation for the taxpayers of Island Trees.