Dear Valley Stream Central High School District Community,
I would like to address concerns being raised in the community regarding the Central High School District’s propositions II and III that will be on the ballot in the upcoming May 20, 2025 Board of Education trustee election and budget vote.
As we have outlined during our budget presentations in our District and at Board of Education meetings in our component elementary school districts, Proposition III calls for the use of $6.4 million in capital reserves to purchase an office building on Fifth Street in Valley Stream. Should the voters approve this proposition, this building will serve as the new home for our District’s central offices, as well as additional space for future in-District career and technical education (CTE) programs. Proposition II calls for a fund balance transfer of $4.5 million; $2.2 million to be earmarked for flood mitigation repairs on the stream bank near South High School, and $2.3 million to reconvert our current District central offices, located on the second floor of Memorial, back into classroom space.
The plan to move our central offices out of Memorial to a separate, non-school building location—making it possible to create additional classroom space at Memorial—came after a great deal of consideration and discussion. It is a decision we believe will both benefit our students and save our taxpayers money in the long term. The goal of this plan is threefold:
- To provide additional classroom space in-District for our highest need special education students that are currently being serviced out-of-district at significant cost
- To provide dedicated classroom space (which does not currently exist) for our Twilight School students
- To create office and classroom infrastructure to meet demand for future in-District career and technical education (CTE) programs
Ultimately, this plan seeks to keep as many of our students in-District as possible regardless of their needs and interests. Our District, like many in the region, sends our highest need special education students, as well as a majority of our CTE students, to Nassau BOCES. While we enjoy an excellent working relationship with BOCES, outsourcing these services incurs significant transportation, tuition, and BOCES agency fees and expenses. For CTE students, traveling to BOCES facilities in Westbury, Garden City, or Levittown is also disruptive to their school day. Moving forward, we will use BOCES enrollment data to identify which additional CTE programs to bring into the District, with space at the office building we are proposing to purchase in Proposition III accommodating this growth. This will also result in various cost savings for the District.
Similarly, the repurposed space at Memorial will allow us to serve more high-need special education students internally while minimizing disruption for them. As students will be able to be educated nearer to their homes, the District anticipates significant transportation cost savings. For every ten students we can bring back into the District or new students we do not need send out of District, the District will save approximately $750,000. We believe this plan over time will save tens of millions of dollars for District taxpayers.
Last, and certainly not least, the additional classroom space at Memorial will provide dedicated classrooms for our highly successful Twilight School, a night school for students who are either working during the day or are better suited to a smaller classroom environment. Currently, this program has no dedicated classrooms.
I hope this information has provided some additional factual background on the two propositions. While we strive to provide as much information as possible regarding our budget process, we understand that many of you are unable to attend these budget hearings amid your busy schedules.
Thank you for your consideration, and we encourage you to vote on May 20 at your local elementary school.
Sincerely,
Dr. Wayne Loper
Superintendent of Schools