HALB WINS

Residents of the Lawrence School District voted 1,856 to 461 on Monday to approve the sale of the Number Six School to the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach.

HALB is buying the 6.67-acre site, including the 80,170-square-foot school building, for $8.5 million, along with $2.7 million that will be held as a guarantee that Lawrence will realize approximately $566,000 in annual savings on what the district now spends on transportation and special education for HALB students.

“The sale of the Number Six School will result in a significant savings for the district, and by maintaining its use as a school, it continues to enhance the community,” said Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall.

HALB is expected to move its Long Beach-based elementary school, with grades kindergarten through eighth, to the school on Church Avenue in Woodmere in two years, officials previously said. The academy’s West Broadway building in Long Beach will most likely be sold.

More than 90 percent of HALB’s 800 students live in the Five Towns. Davis Renov Stahler High School for Boys, also in Woodmere, Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls in Hewlett and the Lev Chana Early Childhood Center on the SKA campus are also HALB schools.

HALB must still obtain approvals from the Town of Hempstead for its planned renovations of the school, according to Lance Hirt, president of HALB’s board. “It is technically a change of use,” he said. Plans include remediation of the building, which has been closed for years and was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, new electrical wiring, plumbing, windows and roof, and the creation of classroom space. The cost is expected to be close to $9 million. Hirt said that he anticipates the town approval process to take approximately nine months.

Once the sale contract is signed, HALB is expected to give the district a $500,000 down payment. The payment schedule is listed in the contract.