Singer Billy Joel, in an impassioned letter, asks the Nassau BOCES board not to move toward closing the Long Island High School for the Arts, saying it should be built “into something Long Island and New York State can be proud of.”

“I went to public school on Long Island and I am grateful for the music program and my music teachers for helping provide me the tools for which I have based my career,” the pop-rock icon writes in the letter, dated Nov. 18 and released Thursday by Joel’s publicist. “I understand that closing this school does not mean the end of the music and arts programs on Long Island, but it does indicate our willingness to abandon a school that has been there for 40 years.”

He asked “as a concerned Long Islander that before agreeing to close the school, you consider all of the other alternatives.”

Read more at Newsday.

Top Photo: Olivia Reed, a cast member of the national touring company of the Broadway musical “Mamma Mia,” teaches a master class at Nassau BOCES Long Island High School for the Arts in Syosset on Monday, July 13, 2015. Photo by John Paraskevas, Newsday