Nensconset elementary school will be shuttered at the end of the school year after Smithtown Central School District board members voted unanimously Tuesday night to close down the school due to declining enrollment.
The school, located on 29 Gibbs Pond Rd. in Nensconset, is one of six public schools and six patriarchal schools, slated for closure or considered to be closed this year.
Board members voted 7-0 to close the school, the smallest in the district. The decision sends reverberations across the district now that the newly formed transition committee is tasked with placing the 342 K through fifth-grade students to other schools within the district.
The school once held upwards of 500 students.
A school official said current Nesconset students are expected to be moved to Mills Pond elementary school in St. James, which would then force the district to move approximately 100 or more students currently enrolled in Mills Pond to St. James elementary school, though a final decision has not been made.
Nesconset will be closed at the end of this school year on June 30.
The vote to close comes nearly a year after the district established a citizen’s advisory committee to investigate the long-range housing patterns needed to support the school. Other factors included budget constraints and less school aid.
The study was delivered to the board on Jan. 31.
A school official said the projections “fell way short” of the BOCES projections the district gets at the beginning of the school year.
