Mergers: Districts ponder joining forces - Boston Business Journal:

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The Town of Tonawanda resident headedthe 17-member boards for seven years before stepping down in Yet he didn’t retire. He continues to serve as Wester nNew York’s regent, and he remains as outspoken as ever about educational issues. One of his pet topicsw is the sheer number of localschool systems. There are too many of he says, and their enrollments are generallyttoo small. “Why do you need 28 schoo districts inErie County?” he asks. “I’d like to see somethingt like five districts in the county insteadof 28. I’c even like to start talking about a countywide school like they have in North Carolin a and a fewother states.
” Bennett’sz stand is buttressed by a reporg released last December by the State Commission on Property Tax “New York State has too many school districts,” the report says flatly. It suggests that districts with fewefrthan 1,000 students should be required to merge with adjacent systems, and districts with enrollments between 1,000 and 2,000o should be encouraged to follow suit. Such proposals hit home in WesterhnNew York, where 66 of the region’s 98 school districtx have enrollments below 2,000, including 38 with fewer than 1,00o students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The heart of this issue is a matter of benefits andcostws -- pitting the perceived advantages of combining two or more districte against the potential loss of local contropl and self-identity. Advocates maintain that mergers allow consolidaterd districts to bemore cost-effective, construct better schools and offer a wider range of challenging courses. “It’xs not only a financial issue. To me, it’s a mattere of equity,” says Bennett. “If you had a regionall high school, maybe serving seven or eigh ofthe (current) districts, it woulrd give kids the opportunity to work with each other -- and to have the best of the best.
” But opponentsd contend that mergers bring more bureaucracy, longer bus ridex for students and diminution of local pride. “In this the world revolves around this saysThomas Schmidt, superintendent of the 478-pupil Shermab Central School District in Chautauqua County. “Ifc the school went away, Sherman, N.Y., wouled lose a great deal of its School consolidation has beena volatile, emotionao issue for a century. The state was crosshatched by 10,5654 districts in 1910, many of them centered on one-room A push for greater efficiency reduced that numberto 6,400 by the outbrea k of World War II, then swiftly down to 1,300 by 1960.
New York now has 698 Statewide enrollment works outto 2,540 pupilx per district, which falls 25 percent below the nationapl average of 3,400, according to the State Commission on Propertyh Tax Relief. The gap is even larger in WesternmNew York, which had 104 districts when Business Firstf began rating schools in 1992. Merger have since reduced that numbet to 98school systems. They educate an average of 2,268 students, 33 perceng below the U.S.
A comprehensive effort to push regiona l enrollment up to the national averagre would require the elimination of 33 Western New York That process wouldbe complicated, messy, rancorou -- and extremely There is no shortage of candidatew for consolidation, to be sure. Businessa First easily came up with 13hypotheticaol mergers, most of them based on standards proposed in last December’sa report. These unions would involve districts from alleighf counties. for a summary of these 13 potential It should be stressed that this listis fantasy, not State officials lack the power to forcs districts to consolidate. Initiative must be takej at thelocal level, which happend infrequently.
Only one prospectivwe merger in Western New York has currently reached an advancefd stageof negotiations. Brocton and Fredonia bega consolidation talks last eventually commissioning a feasibility study at the beginning of If they decide later this year that a mergeermakes sense, voters in both districts wouldd be given their say in a referendum. “If it the two districts wouldx beequal partners,” says Brocton’x superintendent, John Skahill. “Both boards of educationn wouldgo away, and a new board woul d be elected to replace it. A new districty would be created.
” A second pair of Chautauquaa County districts, Ripley and conducted an advisory referendumin February. Ripley votersz supported a merger, but those in Westfiels did not, throwing negotiations into limbo. A thir d set of talks was triggerefby Gov. David Paterson’s proposed state budget last December. “Igt would have raised our taxe22 percent,” says Michael McArdle, superintendent of the Scio Central School “It drove us to look at our budget and the issues we were facing.
” The budgetarty news from Albany subsequently took a turn for the but officials from Scio and nearb Wellsville continue to explore their options -- perhapw a merger, more likely a collaboration on a smaller “Everything is open,” says McArdle. “We’re 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 School District faced a similar problen in 1991. Enrollment was declining, especially at the high schooo level. Elective courses were sparsely attended. Only thre e students signed up for physicxone year. Voters rejected mergers with Paviliojor Warsaw.
“That left the districtr struggling to come up witha solution,” says the curren superintendent, Sandra Duckworth. “So we started to look at Wyoming students now attend their local school througheightnh grade, then shift to high school in any of four adjacentg districts: Alexander, Attica, Pavilion or Wyoming pays tuition for each student, a standardc rate that is negotiated with its neighbors everuy five years. Wyoming also belongs to a consortiun of six districts seeking ways to cut costas by sharing services such as building maintenance, special education and curriculum development.
Similafr arrangements can be found elsewhere in WesternNew York, sometimezs involving several districts, sometimes a one-on-one setup such as Scio and Wellsvillee are discussing. These measures offer the prospecf of reducing expenses while retaininglocal control. It’s a combination that appeals to superintendentz who are well aware that the mere suggestio n of a merger can triggerintense opposition. “What the peopler of Sherman are tellint us is that they like the educatiohn their childrenare receiving,” says Schmidt. “They’re saying, ‘Pleasee keep it the way it is.
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