Billy Joel meets students to raise LIHSA awareness

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He’s not just about his $1 million donation to help prevent the Long Island High School for the Arts from closing.

Rock icon Billy Joel met with students from LIHSA, SUNY Old Westbury, school superintendents, and parents on Monday, and invited them to “pick his brain” about his musical career during a Nassau BOCES master class that lasted nearly two hours.

The event, called “Billy Joel: An Afternoon of Questions & Answers . . . And a Little Music,” was held at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post on Monday afternoon, and prompted a Joel retrospective on his early days as a performer, why he wrote the lyrics he did to some of his legendary songs, and why LIHSA was chosen for his million-dollar contribution.

LIHSA, located in Syosset, is the region’s only specialized high school for the arts,and has been threatened with closure for nearly a year. The Doshi STEM Institute, which shares a campus with LIHSA and is the area’s only specialized high school for science, technology, engineering and math, is also threatened with closure. Joel’s contribution, however, is directed towards LIHSA only. All Nassau County students are eligible to attend either specialized school, but many are unaware that the schools exist, school parents have often said in the past.

“This is not just about money, it’s about enrollment,” Joel said, emphasizing that his donation needs to be supplemented by student participation in LIHSA in order to generate enough funds to sustain itself.

Students in the Herald’s coverage area that currently take advantage of LIHSA are from Bellmore-Merrick, East Meadow, East Rockaway, Long Beach, Lynbrook, and Seaford. Students in Doshi STEM are from Baldwin, Freeport and Malverne. Currently, 92 students attend LIHSA and 46 attend Doshi STEM. A Nassau BOCES spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the campus needs a total of 180 students to balance the budget. LIHSA’s present deficit is $400,000 and Doshi STEM’s is $600,000.

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