Speakers opposing private schools on industrial land dominate comp plan hearing

Opposition to allowing private schools in industrial districts dominated Monday night’s public hearing on Riverhead’s draft comprehensive plan update, with many speakers taking aim at a change that would expand the Riverhead Charter School’s options for locating a new high school.

More than a dozen people, including Riverhead teachers and administrators, spoke against allowing the charter school on industrial land. They argued the change would lead to land being taken off of the tax rolls and allow the expansion of the charter school, which receives funding from the Riverhead Central School District. 

Dozens more people in the audience cheered on their statements in the packed Town Hall meeting room, displaying signs that read “industrial zones are supported to raise revenue not give it away” and ”don’t defund our public schools.” Towards the start of the meeting, a billboard truck displaying a similar message pulled into the Town Hall parking lot.

“If this were to go through, you are removing a significant amount of land from our tax rolls in direct opposition to the whole purpose of establishing those new zoning districts,” said Tom Payton, a Riverhead resident and the principal of Roanoke Avenue Elementary School. “Is it your intent to attract other private schools to the zoning districts? I cannot imagine so.”

“Private schools just like the Riverhead Charter School would look to occupy a significant amount of land, a good portion of which would be for fields,” he said. “That would further reduce the amount of commercial development and potential tax revenue that would be generated by establishing the zoning districts.” Payton said the zoning change would be a “handout” to the charter school. 

The draft comprehensive plan says that industrial zones “currently permit, and should continue to permit, various non-industrial uses” and “The Town should consider allowing private schools as a permitted use in all Industrial zones.” Much of the town’s industrial land is along Middle Country Road in Calverton.

MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead teachers union decries town effort to help charter school find new site for high school

The recommendation that private schools be allowed in industrial zones was added to the draft comprehensive plan after the charter school’s board in March requested that it be added. Despite being primarily funded by tax dollars, New York State law considers the Riverhead Charter School a private school for purposes of zoning. Riverhead Charter School officials did not speak at the hearing, although a few members of the public spoke in support of the charter school. 

In an email Tuesday morning responding to a request for comment for this article, Riverhead Charter School Superintendent Raymond Ankrum said the charter school has “no plans to leave” Riverhead. 

“We are a New York Public Charter School seeking fair facilities,” Ankrum wrote. “While we understand the challenges faced by the Riverhead district, last night’s meeting felt like an attempt to shift blame. The focus should be on improving the district, not scapegoating charters. There’s room for collaboration,” he wrote.

“Their numbers suggest we represent 7% of their budget, yet they still need to address how they would handle an influx of students facing the same space constraints as us,” Ankrum added. “We are open to working together and conducting a focus group to understand why Riverhead parents choose our schools.”

Riverhead school board president Colin Palmer, a Northville resident, said during the hearing that the question of whether or not to allow private schools in industrial zones comes down to whether the town wants to help the public or private sector. Allowing a private entity like the charter school to expand eliminates the “vital democracy that is needed in all of our lives,” Palmer said.

“You can scrape away at these resources over time, contracting services out, but at the end of the day, what will we have left? A shiny Town Hall on Second Street and not much else,” Palmer said. “This comprehensive plan moves us in that direction, but it doesn’t have to. The buck stops with you. Change was promised during the last election. I implore this board to remove this clause from the plan.”

Southampton Town Council Member Tommy John Schiavoni asked the Town Board to reconsider allowing private schools to be allowed on industrial land. He said that the change enables the Riverhead Charter School’s expansion, which “siphons” money from the Riverhead Central School District, part of which is in the Southampton Town hamlets of Riverside, Flanders and Northampton.

“Our schools are the center of our communities. We have to keep our public schools strong,” he said. “It is the silver bullet. It is the institution that creates equity in our society. A lot of everything that we believe in is based on that.”

Kimberly Wilder of Riverhead said that parents should be able to choose what school their child goes to and that she might send her daughter to the Riverhead Charter School in the future. No school deserves to be overcrowded, she said. 

Wilder said the opponents of allowing the charter school to locate in industrial zones are the same people who objected to the charter school building a high school on farmland in Northville. “It sounds more like there’s other issues in the background that might want to be explored,” she said. 

At the end of the hearing, Supervisor Tim Hubbard responded to those who spoke against allowing private schools in industrial zones. 

“We sat here all night tonight listening to many, many school district people — parents, teachers — basically blaming us for defunding the school district,” Hubbard said. 

“Let me tell you, the money you wasted on these,” he said, holding up a postcard sent to homes last week encouraging people to attend the hearing. “The money you wasted on the billboard truck, the money you wasted on your posters, should have been spent going to Albany and arguing with the state, who controls the funding for the charter school, not us. We don’t control that.”

It’s wrong to put the blame on the town for the way charter schools are funded, he said. Hubbard said generations of his family have attended Riverhead public schools and that he bleeds “blue blood as much as anybody here.” 

“I was on the school board. I know how it works,” Hubbard said. “I 100% disagree with the way the funding is done. It is so not fair to the public school district. But that’s not the Town Board’s decision,” he said, before being interrupted by some members of the audience, including Palmer and school board trustee Virginia Healy, who said speakers were talking about the zoning change.

“The funding is the issue,” Hubbard said in response. “And it was the issue when the location was going up on Sound Avenue. It came out that that was the real issue behind not wanting the charter school up there. Let’s call it what it is, people. That’s exactly what it is. It wasn’t the location, it’s the charter school.”

“And I agree 100% that the funding is awful and it’s disproportionate severely to the public school district. But take that argument to New York state; that’s where you’ve got to fight that,” Hubbard said. “We will support you with that. But to come here and say it’s our fault that we’re defunding the school district. Sorry. Not buying it.”

In an interview Tuesday morning, Gregory Wallace, president of the Riverhead school district teacher’s union, said he disagrees with Hubbard’s statement. 

“The charter school funding formula is set by Albany, but zoning laws are local,” Wallace said. “The definition of defund is to withdraw financial support from especially as an instrument of legislative control. This zoning change will take funds away from Riverhead Central School District.”

“There’s no net benefit to the taxpayer for this. There’s nothing compelling them to make this change,” Wallace said. “And to say that it’s not the town’s responsibility, or the town has nothing to do with it, is disingenuous.”

In interviews after the hearing, the other Riverhead Town Board members all had different opinions on the issue.

Council Member Joann Waski said she supports allowing private schools on industrial land. The change is not just about helping the Riverhead Charter School, but making sure other schools also have the opportunity to build on industrial lands in Riverhead. 

She said parents have the right to choose where their children go to school. “I had three children in Mercy that probably would not have thrived that well in public school, and I was fortunate to have another school to fall onto as a secondary school,” she said.

Waski said the charter school does a “fine job with their students,” but understands the effects it has on the Riverhead Central School District. 

Council Member Ken Rothwell said he does not support allowing the charter school on industrial land. The change would take away the town’s tax base, he said. 

“I think they have a right to be here, I think they do a great job. They have a great facility. They just need to find the appropriate place for them,” Rothwell said. “There may very well be a good place for them in town. It’s not for us to create zoning and to work with them. They’re an independent business, they should do that and seek it on their own.”

Council Member Bob Kern said he is still undecided on the issue and wants to look further into how charter schools are funded. 

Council Member Denise Merrifield did not return a call requesting comment.

Riverhead’s draft comprehensive plan, a 209-page document developed by the town and its consultants, BFJ Planning, has much more than just the recommendation about private schools on industrial land. People spoke at the hearing about other recommendations in the plan, including proposals to allow agritourism resorts, the possibility of building more apartments on Main Street and proposed new rules for accessory dwelling units. (Separate article to come.) 

The hearing is also available to watch on the town’s website.

A portion of Hubbard’s comments towards the end of the hearing were cut out of the video on the website due to a glitch, Hubbard said in response to a reporter’s question Tuesday. The town is working on putting the footage that was left out, which captured on the town’s Zoom recording into the video on the town’s website, Hubbard said. (Editor’s note: RiverheadLOCAL made its own recording of the proceedings during the hearing. This article includes relevant portions of the supervisor’s comments that were cut out of the video posted on the town’s website as of Tuesday morning.)

Written comments will be accepted into the record of the public hearing until June 10, Hubbard said. A separate hearing on the draft generic environmental impact statement for the plan, which assesses its environmental impacts, will take place on Wednesday, May 29 at 6 p.m., Hubbard announced.

Editor’s note: Check back tomorrow for related coverage summarizing comments made during Monday’s hearing on other aspects of the comp plan update.

Correction 5/22/2024: This article has been amended to correct an error regarding the date at which the town would stop accepting written comments into the record of the public hearing.