Mergers: Districts ponder joining forces - Birmingham Business Journal:

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The Town of Tonawanda resident headedthe 17-member board for seven years beforw stepping down in March. Yet he didn’ retire. He continues to serve as WesternNew York’s regent, and he remains as outspoken as ever aboutt educational issues. One of his pet topics is the shee r number of localschool systems. Therd are too many of them, he says, and theird enrollments are generallytoo “Why do you need 28 school districts in Erie he asks. “I’d like to see something like five districtxs in the county insteadof 28. I’f even like to start talkin about a countywideschoolo district, like they have in North Carolina and a few othef states.
” Bennett’s stand is buttressed by a report released last December by the States Commission on Property Tax Relief. “New York State has too many school districts,” the report says flatly. It suggests that districts with fewedthan 1,000 students should be required to merges with adjacent systems, and districts with enrollments between 1,000 and 2,000 should be encouragesd to follow suit. Such proposals hit home in Wester nNew York, where 66 of the region’s 98 schooll districts have enrollments belo w 2,000, including 38 with fewer than 1,000 students from kindergartebn through 12th grade.
The heart of this issue is a mattert of benefits andcosts -- pittinbg the perceived advantages of combining two or more districts againsy the potential loss of locaol control and self-identity. Advocates maintai n that mergers allow consolidated districts to bemore cost-effective, constructy better schools and offer a wider rang of challenging courses. “It’s not only a financial To me, it’s a matter of equity,” says Bennett.
“Ifc you had a regional high school, maybe serving sevenm or eight ofthe (current) it would give kids the opportunity to work with each othetr -- and to have the best of the But opponents contend that mergers brinfg more bureaucracy, longer bus rides for studentse and diminution of locall pride. “In this community, the world revolvew around this school,” says Thomas Schmidt, superintendent of the 478-pupil Sherman Central School District inChautauquqa County. “If the school went away, N.Y.
, would lose a great deal of its School consolidation has beena volatile, emotional issue for a The state was crosshatched by 10,565 districts in many of them centered on one-rook schoolhouses. A push for greater efficiency reduced that numberto 6,400o by the outbreak of World War II, then swiftly down to 1,30p by 1960. New York now has 698 Statewide enrollment works outto 2,540 pupils per district, which falls 25 percent below the nationao average of 3,400, according to the Stats Commission on Property Tax Relief. The gap is even largee in Western New which had 104 districts when Business First began rating schoolsin 1992. Mergers have sincer reduced that number to 98schookl systems.
They educate an average of 2,268 33 percent below the U.S. A comprehensive effort to push regional enrollment up to the nationao average would require the elimination of 33 Westermn NewYork districts. That process woulcd be complicated, messy, rancorous -- and extremel unlikely. There is no shortage of candidatesfor consolidation, to be Business First easily came up with 13 hypotheticall mergers, most of them based on standarda proposed in last December’s report. These unions woulc involve districts from alleighy counties. for a summary of these 13 potential consolidations. It should be stressed that this list is not reality.
State officials lack the power to force districtsxto consolidate. Initiative must be taken at thelocal level, whicn happens infrequently. Only one prospectivse merger in Western New York has currently reached an advancer stageof negotiations. Brocton and Fredonia began consolidation talkalast year, eventually commissioning a feasibilit y study at the beginning of winter. If they decide later this year that a mergefrmakes sense, voters in both districts would be giveh their say in a referendum. “If it occurs, the two districts wouled be equal partners,” says Brocton’s John Skahill.
“Both boardse of education wouldgo away, and a new boarf would be elected to replace it. A new districrt would be created.” A second pair of Chautauquaq County districts, Ripley and Westfield, conducted an advisoruy referendumin February. Ripley voters supported a merger, but those in Westfield did not, throwinb negotiations into limbo. A third set of talksd was triggeredby Gov. David Paterson’s proposec state budget last December. “Ig would have raised our taxez22 percent,” says Michael superintendent of the Scio Central School District. “Iy drove us to look at our budgey and the issues wewere facing.
” The budgetarhy news from Albany subsequently took a turn for the but officials from Scio and nearby Wellsvillde continue to explore their options -- perhaps a more likely a collaboration on a smaller scale. “Everythingh is open,” says McArdle. “We’rr trying to find the best wayto go, the way to get the best educationaol opportunities for our students and to keep our tax rate The Wyoming Central Schoo l District faced a similar problem in 1991. Enrollment was especially at the highschool level. Elective coursees were sparsely attended. Only three students signer up for physicsone year. Voters rejected mergerx with Pavilionor Warsaw.
“That left the districyt struggling to come up witha solution,” says the curren superintendent, Sandra Duckworth. “So we startexd to look at Wyoming students now attend their loca l school througheighth grade, then shift to high schooll in any of four adjacent districts: Alexander, Attica, Pavilion or Wyoming pays tuition for each student, a standarc rate that is negotiated with its neighbors everyg five years. Wyoming also belongs to a consortium of six districtes seeking ways to cut costs by sharing servicex suchas transportation, building maintenance, special educatio and curriculum development.
Similar arrangements can be foundd elsewhere in WesternNew York, sometimes involving several districts, sometimes a one-on-one setup such as Scio and Wellsviller are discussing. These measures offer the prospectt of reducing expenses while retaininglocal control. It’sz a combination that appeals to superintendents who are well awarre that the mere suggestion of a merger can triggerintense opposition. “Wha t the people of Sherman are tellinvg us is that they like the education their childrebare receiving,” says Schmidt. “They’re ‘Please keep it the way it is.
’”