Time To Grow

There is a point when “quaint” becomes the enemy of real, necessary progress. Protecting the things that make a neighborhood unique and special is worthy work, but not when it runs head-on into efforts to keep that same neighborhood alive and healthy.

It’s time to say it out loud: The day of Wainscott School surviving as a tiny throwback to school days of old is coming to a close. The school district is one of several on the South Fork that have been able to hold on in the modern era, despite the fact that they’re dwarfed by neighboring districts. To maintain the status quo, they must rely on torpedoing any effort to add family housing that could increase school enrollment.

The State Department of Education says that Wainscott has 26 students in kindergarten through third grade, making the one-school district among the state’s smallest. It’s located in a community that’s growing — and that needs to add even more affordable housing opportunities, especially for families. The stress of fighting the tide is too much, and something has to give. It’s time for Wainscott to grow with the times.

In the short term, that means preparing, without conditions, for a proposed new 50-unit rental apartment complex planned for Route 114, a small but not insignificant effort by East Hampton Town to create some of the new housing that’s needed. That’s aided by the Sag Harbor Housing Partnership, which has directed affordable housing funds from the village to the nearby site outside its boundaries.

Yes, it can seem a bit unfair for Sag Harbor to push its affordable housing needs into a neighboring school district — but that argument only goes so far, considering that the pupils who live in the complex would only attend Wainscott School for a few years, then many would choose the Sag Harbor system for upper grades (East Hampton being an option as well). In stark terms, this is exactly the way it should be, and would be, if Wainscott and Sag Harbor were to merge into a single school district.

Consolidation, truthfully, is the answer to a lot of these parochial issues, and it’s getting harder and harder to ignore that. Wainscott, according to the state, spends $36,491 to educate each of its 26 students, a number that ranks among the highest in the nation. The district is not saving money by continuing to beat back progress, despite the low tax rate for its residents. Wainscott is not alone in this calculation, not by a long shot. But it is the rare place where affordable housing can be added where school taxes are the lowest in the town.

The idea of caps on the housing on Route 114, to limit the number of children, is nonsensical for a variety of reasons. First, it runs counter to the spirit of every fair housing law. Second, it ignores the simple reality that working families need places to live, too, and are increasingly not finding any here. Wainscott School Board President David Eagan characterized these ideas as “reasonable relief” — but they are not reasonable, in the context of life in 2023 in Wainscott. Residents of nearby Springs School District, for example, might wonder where their “relief” might be, after years of filling the town’s need for affordable housing options.

Wainscott School won’t change overnight; most likely, the housing proposal won’t push the school beyond its capacity. But that day is coming, especially with the state pushing hard for even more housing development, potentially even at the cost of setting aside local zoning. The tiny school district is an anomaly, and it’s time for its leaders to accept a reality everyone else sees clearly: It’s time to plan for growth instead of fighting an entrenched battle to keep it at bay.