Voters in West Islip, N.Y., residents have decided to reject the proposed sale of an abandoned elementary school, which would have been converted into housing for people ages 55 and older.
Newsday reports that the final tally was a 2,667 to 796 vote against authorizing the West Islip school board to sell the abandoned Emil D. Masera Elementary School property.
Terwilliger & Bartone Properties had offered $8.5 million for the property, plus a $1 million donation that would have gone toward improving or replacing the district’s athletic fields.
The proposal called for building 26 condominium townhomes and 100 one- and two-bedroom rental units at the 11-acre property.
The school opened in 1955 as the Paumanok Elementary School in 1955. The school was renamed in 1987, and then closed in 1992 because of declining enrollment. The Eastern Suffolk Boards of Cooperative Education Services leased the building from 2000 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2019.
The vote against selling the school produced a mixed reaction among some residents.
Ed Ragan, who attended the school, said he voted against the proposed sale because the housing development would eliminate the recreational fields on the property.
