Lindenhurst Superintendent Reaches Out to OLPH School

While community absorbs the news of its impending closure in June by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Superintendent Richard Nathan and the public school district stands ready.

That's what he said at the Lindenhurst Board of Education business on Wednesday night.

The superintendent told the smattering of residents and district faculty who gathered at the McKenna Administration Building - despite the rain - that he reached out to OLPH School Principal Carmela Lubrano earlier that day after hearing the closure news.

"I did speak with Mrs. Lubrano at OLPH about the future of the students now that the school is closing," Nathan said. "There are about 200 students there now, and not that many from Lindenhurst. So I don't predict a significant effect on our district."

And while the superintendent did offer Lubrano and the school any help they might need with regard to transitioning students, he further reiterated what many OLPH School and Father Anthony Trapani, OLPH Church , have already told Patch: That many parents from the school will most likely seek out another Catholic school for their children's education.

He also said that the is trying to keep the students together despite the closure.

"I was told that there'll be a meeting with parents in January, and they'd like the entire group of students and parents to all go to another school together. But they didn't name what school that might be," the superintendent said.

Nathan later told Lindenhurst Patch that the reasoning for doing something like that would be to help make the transition easier.

"And I understand (from his conversation with Mrs. Lubrano) that it would help keep one identity for the students," he said.

But in the event the district does take some of the OLPH students into the public school fold for the 2012-13 school year, Nathan reiterated that the number would be very small in his estimation, so the effect would nominal despite the upcoming school year's budget that he outlined to the community before Thanksgiving.

"Maybe 10 to twelve, and that would be a lot, based on the amount of students and the class size at the school. But those small numbers don't present a problem. We're ready," he said.