South Huntington Reconfiguration Plan Calls For New Pre-K Center

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — The South Huntington Board of Education approved a reconfiguration plan that will expand the district’s Pre-Kindergarten program, the South Huntington School District announced.

The expansion will end the district’s current lottery program for Pre-K placement due to limited space and provide increased access to a publicly-funded, Pre-Kindergarten education to children of all families in the district by opening up a new Pre-Kindergarten center.

Effective Sept. 1, 2026, what is currently the Silas Wood Sixth Grade Center will be converted to a Pre-Kindergarten center, and the former Memorial Junior High School building on Pidgeon Hill Road will become the new Sixth Grade Center, the district announced.

Silas Wood originally opened as an elementary school in 1952. Memorial opened in 1958 as the district’s first junior high school and was closed in 1984. The building was then leased out by the district. Both buildings will be updated to perfectly fit the needs of their new students.

The decision comes after the district formed two committees in January 2025 made up of administrators, teachers, parents, and other members of the South Huntington school community.

A Pre-K Committee was created to investigate the early education needs of the community and the costs involved, according to the district. A Transportation Committee was also formed to determine what effect, if any, a dedicated Pre-Kindergarten Center would have on traffic patterns in the district. R&M Engineering of Huntington was commissioned to do a traffic study and determined "the relocation of the Silas Wood Sixth Grade Center traffic activity to the Memorial School Building would not have a significant impact on the surrounding roadway network."

South Huntington Superintendent Dr. Vito D’Elia called the Pre-Kindergarten Center an important investment in the community’s youngest learners.

"I am very excited about the Board supporting the Pre-K and Transportation Committees’ recommendations," D'Elia said. "Every district would love to be able to provide Pre-K to all eligible students but, like we were, they’re limited by space. Being able to now provide a Pre-K experience in one building to all the eligible students in the community will help our residents immensely, and will maximize our Universal Pre-K (UPK) allotment funding from the state."

Currently, half-day and full-day Pre-K classes are spread throughout various buildings in the district. Applications become available in February and the district holds a lottery in the spring. Children who do not secure a spot through the lottery are put on a wait list. Children who are 4 years old by Dec. 1 are eligible.

School Board President Nicholas Ciappetta thanked the members of both committees for volunteering their time in support of the district’s long-term vision for "educational excellence and operational efficiency."

Based on the Pre-K Committee’s recommendations, the district is still working on start and end times for the school day, and providing before and after care options for families at a reasonable cost.

"We do really feel that this is going to be transformative and we're very excited to have a dedicated Pre-K building for our families," Ciappetta said. "We're still working on what a school day will look like for our youngest students. We plan to make a presentation at some point next year to the community on what exactly the Pre-K day will look like. But we know it’s going to be very special and meaningful to the education of our students."

Most educators believe that early childhood education plays a vital role in later academic, social, and emotional development. It "paves the way for greater learning capabilities because it happens at a critical period of brain development and equips children with the tools and skills they’ll need throughout their academic journey," according to the district.

"We believe in the benefits of it," D'Elia said. "And I will tell you this, kindergarten teachers will benefit tremendously the following year because they're going to see all these students coming in and really working on their readiness skills and getting a head start on that. Plus we’re going to be able to educate and feed these young students for free, and that's important, especially with the tough financial climate that we're in."

Construction on the updates to the Memorial building began in July and will continue throughout the 2025-2026 school year.