Superintendent Dr. Harry Jaroslaw said a decision on what to do with the vacant and dilapidated Willis Avenue School will be a top priority for the Mineola Board of Education in the coming months.

"The board will absolutely come to a decision on the future of Willis Avenue sometime in the fall or winter," Jaroslaw said Friday. "We are very concerned about it and there are many options, but the one virtual certainty is it will not stay as it is."

These words come after years of talk about the abandoned school house, which is about 90 years old and in serious disrepair. During the spring semester, the school board had all but decided to sell the property to one of the several bidders who intended to build a senior citizen housing development on the site.

The board intended to use the money from the sale to offset a $3.8 million bond proposal. However, in February, the board reversed its decision to sell the school after discussing it at several community meetings. Willis Avenue was then treated as a separate issue and the bond issue ultimately failed.

Jaroslaw said he and the board are newly resolved to tackle the issue and selling is again an option ¬ so is razing and rebuilding on the site. The board will be meeting with Specter Associates, an architecture firm, to discuss options on Thursday.

"The board will seek input from the entire community on what to do with it," Jaroslaw said. "The board has received serious bids and there have been a number of suggestions, including an early childhood center or a multi-use building. The district needs space for administration offices. We can even rent out part of it."

In February, tearing down the building was estimated to cost about $700,000. The same estimates placed a new building in the $7 million range.

The building had a long and varied history of use before it was abandoned by the district. It was once occupied by Nassau County offices and once served as an elementary school. A pistol range still remains in the basement.

Despite the wooden-framed building's state of neglect, and that the fire marshal has designated it uninhabitable, the building inspector hasn't called for its demolition. However, Mineola Fire Chief Jack Gayson said the old school is one match away from coming down.

"It's real old construction," Gayson said. "It would be a quick burn. It would catch easily because of the age of the building, and the timber in there is well-seasoned."

As for a potential threat to nearby buildings ¬ which are limited to a few private homes ¬ Gayson said the major problem would be smoke.

"It's not close enough to anything else for it to spread, but it would really be a smoke hazard more than anything else," he said. "It would be in the best interest of Mineola if that building was demolished and they start from scratch."