Number Six voting on March 20

On March 20, Lawrence School District residents can vote on the public referendum to sell the Number Six School for $12.5 million to Bronx-based Simone Development Companies, which is expected to lease the property to Mt. Sinai Hospital for a 60-doctor, 30-specialty medical center.

The 80,170-square-foot former elementary school at 523 Church Ave. in Woodmere has been closed for four years. Its 6.7-acre site has been dormant except for the community’s use of the outside ball fields, recreational space and the existing playground. That open space is planned to be eliminated as the proposed medical center is planning to create 456 parking spaces. The playground will remain, but will be moved. Simone officials have said that at least 100 jobs could be created.

Since the Lawrence Board of Education announced on Jan. 14 that they had entered into an agreement to sell the school, residents have been divided over the proposed sale. Opponents say that the loss of the open space will hurt the community, think the medical center is an inappropriate use for the location and believe an already congested area will see an increase in traffic volume.

“This project robs our children of their ball fields and the community of precious open space,” said Woodmere resident Joshua Schein, who organized an ad hoc group of homeowners and parents into the Community Coalition of the Five Towns. “We value our quality of life in the Five Towns. This mega-medical center is just wrong for a quiet, residential neighborhood.”

Proponents of the sale think the infusion of money, first from the sale, then the projected taxes, will benefit the school district. It is estimated that the medical center will generate approximately $1 million in annual property taxes. The school district could receive 70 percent of that money. Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead gets the remaining 30 percent.

Cedarhurst resident Maureen Carroll supports the plan to sell the Number Six School for the money and jobs it could generate. “I was not for the original sale of closing of the Number Six School at all,” Carroll said. “I still believe it was a mistake, to the detriment of the public school children. I would now like it sold [for] the medical center to bring in new tax revenue and new jobs.”

A majority of the board agreed to the sale, but at least one trustee, Uri Kaufman, has been very vocal in his opposition. Kaufman criticized the proposed sale due to the potential loss of the recreational space. “We lose open space, we lose it forever,” he said.

BOE Vice President Murray Forman previously said that the district’s priority was obtaining the highest price and the “highest certainty of close” for the property.

Lawrence Middle School at 195 Broadway in Lawrence, the Number Two School at 1 Donahue Ave. in Inwood, Lawrence High School at 2 Reilly Rd. in Cedarhurst and Village Hall at 65 The Plaza in Atlantic Beach are the polling places. Voting hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.