Simon: 'Board Made Appropriate Decision'

West Islip Superintendent Rick Simon spoke with Patch about the Board of Education's decision to close at the end of the school year, and deemed it an appropriate one.

When asked if it was the correct decision, Simon replied, "I don’t think it was a question of being a correct decision, I don’t think I’d use that terminology.  I think the Board had a very difficult decision where there were positives on both sides.  It was a series of decisions. 

"They had to work their way over the last few months going from almost all options of not closing a school at all and having to find lots of savings, to realistically looking at the data and saying 'we have the potential to fit all our students into a more efficient setup.'"

Simon credited all the members for the work they each put into their decisions and said there were so many dynamics each had to weigh out. 

"I think the board made an appropriate decision, in the sense that they weighed all the factors," he said.  "The key to me was that all seven [board] members clearly spent a lot of time thinking about this, studying the data.  I studied it, and I can be the first to say that there was no one right answer and all the other ones were wrong.  Time will tell how effective we were in picking the best solution."

He went on to mention that he thought the members were thinking long-term, especially considering declining enrollment.  He also said that they spoke with several realty companies about which schools would be the most marketable. 

Board President Steve Gellar noted during the meeting on Jan. 12 that they would look to lease out Kirdahy and Westbrook to compile additional revenue for the district. 

Simon added, "If you’re looking for a characterization, I think the board took the big picture and said we’re going to make a decision that we think in the long run is the best for the district."