The Sag Harbor Learning Center, formerly the Stella Maris Regional School, finally opened this week to prekindergarten and kindergarten students in the Sag Harbor School District, which bought the building from the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre in 2016.
Long delays in construction, followed by a conflict with neighbors over a retaining wall behind the school, pushed the school's anticipated opening date back by more than a year. The original plan to lease some space to a day care facility was shelved for now to allow the district to use more space in the new school for its own students in light of Covid-19.
"It's going really well," Jeff Nichols, the district superintendent, said this week. "It's nice to have a space that is appropriate for the age level that's being served, so that space obviously is new with the latest technology, but it also was constructed with instructional needs for children in mind, so everything is sort of size-specific. You can't help but smile when you walk through the building."
A video tour of the facility can be found online at youtu.be/8TXDBjiFLSM.
The prekindergarten was formerly housed at Pierson Middle and High School and the kindergarten at the Sag Harbor Elementary School. Moving those classes to the learning center allowed the district to repurpose classrooms in light of Covid-19 school reopening logistics.
"When you think about reducing class sizes to achieve social distancing, you're essentially almost doubling the amount of space you need. Theoretically, a class of 20 is broken into two classes of 10," Mr. Nichols said. "We really have to be flexible. We've got students all over the buildings."
