West Side Elementary School reopened Monday, April 13, one month after a fire gutted its library and central rooms, Cold Spring Harbor School District officials said.
More than 200 students had been scattered across four other buildings since the March 10 blaze first forced the Syosset school to close. For many of those kids, the return felt like something they hadn’t realized they’d been missing until they walked back through the front door.
“It just feels so normal to be back here after being in a new school for three weeks. And normal sounds pretty perfect to me,” said Leif Koka, a West Side Elementary student.
That word, normal, captures something real. Getting back to a familiar hallway, a familiar desk, a familiar cafeteria smell isn’t nothing. Ask any kid who’s ever had their routine yanked out from under them.
The fire broke out in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 10, when the building was empty. Nassau County fire officials said it started as an electrical fire, concentrated mainly in the library and the central rooms surrounding it. No injuries were reported. The damage was severe enough, though, to trigger an immediate closure and force district administrators to scramble for temporary placements before students lost any more instruction time.
Nassau County Fire Coordinator Michael Uttaro said roughly 150 firefighters from 16 departments across Nassau and Suffolk Counties battled the blaze. They got it under control within two hours. The response pulled crews from across both counties, a reminder of how quickly a single building fire can draw regional resources.
With West Side shut down, the district split the student population by grade. Second graders moved to Goose Hill School. Third through fifth graders were sent to Lloyd Harbor School. Sixth graders joined the Junior and Senior High School population for the interim. For families, the disruption meant extra commutes, unfamiliar drop-off lines, and kids trying to settle into classrooms that weren’t theirs.
Principal John Barnes said the reopening morning carried real emotion. “I loved seeing people greeting each other this morning and am grateful to our village,” he told staff and families. Barnes also credited the broader community for making the turnaround happen in a matter of weeks rather than months.
Superintendent Joseph Monastero was equally effusive. “Today marked a truly special milestone with the reopening of West Side School,” Monastero said in a statement posted to the district’s Facebook page, adding that the day was “filled with excitement and positive energy.” As Long Island Press reported, Monastero called the enthusiasm in the building “unmistakable and a reminder of what makes Cold Spring Harbor so special.”
The building isn’t fully back to normal yet. The library, which took the worst of the damage, won’t be functional for roughly two more weeks. Monastero said a temporary library and a creative learning lab have been delivered to the site and crews are working to get both spaces ready for student use. It’s a stopgap, but it means kids won’t be without those resources for long.
The Cold Spring Harbor School District serves students across a stretch of Nassau and Suffolk County communities. West Side Elementary sits within the Syosset address zone, a detail that has caused occasional confusion over the years since the district draws from multiple towns. Parents looking for updates can find them through the district’s official site and social media channels, which Monastero has used consistently since the fire.
West Side carries a certain history that school officials are quick to mention. George Washington reportedly visited the site in 1790 during construction of the community’s first schoolhouse and is said to have helped raise one of the original rafters. Whether that story gets told in a temporary library or a rebuilt one probably doesn’t matter much to the second grader who just wants their normal reading corner back.
For the families who spent the last month navigating pickup at unfamiliar schools, the April 13 reopening was a practical relief as much as a sentimental one. According to Nassau County’s Office of Emergency Management, large-scale fire responses like the one on March 10 draw from mutual aid agreements across both counties, which is how 16 departments got on scene that morning.
The building is back. The library is coming. And Leif Koka, for one, is glad to have his normal back.