Sag Harbor School District Receives Appraisal On Stella Maris Property

The Sag Harbor School District has received an appraisal on the former Stella Maris Regional School and is still exploring the possibility of purchasing the building.

At a School Board meeting on Monday, Superintendent Katy Graves said that the district was working with architects to find out what needs to be done with the building to bring it up to state specifications for using it as a public school facility. While noting that the district had received an appraisal, she would not specify the amount.

Ms. Graves has said that the Stella Maris building could be used to provide extra space to accommodate the growing number of students who have enrolled from outside of the district. The space could also be used, she said, for special education students who are now placed in other districts. Tuition students currently account for more than $500,000 in revenue for the district, the superintendent has said.

Last week, Ms. Graves added that the district will create a committee of stakeholders and hold workshops throughout August and September to come up with creative ways the district could use the property to generate revenue.

“We need as many familiar faces as possible to be there, because these are the questions that need to be answered,” she said. “Today is the beginning for all of us on that one.”

Village officials have said that if the school district were to purchase the property, it would have to secure a variance or special exception approval, as the nonconforming use of the residentially-zoned property as a school is considered to have been abandoned since the building has been vacant more than 12 months.

Stella Maris, once the oldest Catholic School on Long Island, had to close after the 2011 academic year because of declining enrollment and a growing deficit. Stella Maris’s enrollment for the 2011-12 school year included only 44 students, a steep decline from 127 students in 2010-11.