David Paterson Elementary in Hempstead will stay open due to additional $24M in state funding, officials say

The planned closure of an elementary school in Hempstead has been averted after a last-minute state funding increase of $24 million due to high charter school enrollment, state and district officials said Thursday.

Hempstead schools had faced a $34 million deficit for the 2025-26 school year, largely due to charter school tuition payment increases, district officials previously said. The district had planned layoffs and the shuttering of David Paterson Elementary School to close the budget gap.

But state Sen. Siela A. Bynoe (D-Westbury) said the state budget, which the State Legislature passed Thursday night, included additional funding for Hempstead. The Nassau district, and two others upstate, qualify for the aid under a new funding formula to districts in which 20% or more of their student population attend charter schools, Bynoe said.

“This was a lot of hard work,” the senator said Thursday, noting she has worked with Hempstead’s state-appointed monitor, William Johnson, and others on the formula. “It is culminating with a real huge victory for Hempstead and I couldn't be happier.”

The Hempstead district is also slated to receive about $247 million in state aid for 2025-26, up from $243 million for the current school year. The district’s proposed spending plan for 2025-26 is nearly $359 million. It calls for the reduction of 25 teachers.

School board President Victor J. Pratt said Thursday the additional funding means the district will not close the David Paterson school but there will still be layoffs.

The staffing cuts, he said, are due to declining student enrollment.

Over the last decade, enrollment in Hempstead public schools has fluctuated but overall has dropped, from nearly 7,000 K-12 students in 2013-14, according to state data, to what district officials project to be around 5,000 in 2025-26.

Pratt said the exact number of layoffs and the specific positions to be cut may change as district officials determine in the coming days how the additional aid can be applied and what program changes may be made.

Over the years, student enrollment has grown at three area charter schools — Academy Charter School, Evergreen Charter School and Roosevelt Children's Academy. In all, about 3,300 Hempstead students are attending charter schools this school year, according to budget data from the district.

A fourth, Diamond Charter School, is slated to open next fall with plans to enroll about 160 students in kindergarten and first grade initially and grow to serve 486 students in grades K-5 by its fifth year.

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.