Politics & Government

English Learning Center Coming to New Hyde Park

Language school aimed at high school and college students to open on Hillside Boulevard.

A new English language learning center will be coming in to New Hyde Park after receiving approval from the village board at a special use hearing on July 16 at the village hall.

Jainy Thomas, a New Hyde Park resident for the past eight years, plans to open the center at 235 Jericho Turnpike on the corner of Hillside Boulevard.

“I want to try and utilize my educational background along with my professional experience to start an English language center in the Village of New Hyde Park which is very much needed,” she said. “We really don’t have anything like that in our community.”

Thomas, a teacher for the past 17 years, has reportedly taught using the Kinny system for eight years, is a NYS certified for grades K-12 and a tenured high school teacher. Presently she is an instructor at Nassau Community College.

She said that the center would be aimed at students in both high school and college for SAT preparation and college-level writing, but is open to adults “if there is a need,” she said when asked by trustee Richard Coppola. New Hyde Park Memorial High School hosts students starting in seventh grade.

Thomas said that the center’s hours of operation would be from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekdays during the fall and spring and on 10 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. She said she was not sure about Sunday hours, but is a possibility that the center would operate depending on a student’s schedule.

Only “qualified teachers” would be employed at the facility, totaling three to four, but they would not all teach at the same time.

“We may have one instructor teaching like an SAT course prep for 15 students,” Thomas said.

Students would be dropped off at the center and then picked up by parents later. There would be group sessions instead of individualized instruction as the facility has between 7-8 tables with four chairs each. Thomas said that she anticipates sessions of about 15 students at a time.

The case was labeled with a SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) resolution along with a negative declaration and a referral to the Nassau County Planning Commission. The Nassau County Planning Commission will make a judgment on the case within the next thirty days.

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