NYS Regents Board Suggests Studying School Consolidation

The New York State Board of Regents on Tuesday voted to create a panel to review the potential benefits and pitfalls of school district consolidation, the formation of which must be approved by the state legislature and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo.

The consolidation panel review is one of 11 suggestions adopted unanimously by the Board of Regents in its State Aid proposal for 2011-2012. School district consolidation is an idea that has been raised several times in the past on Long Island but heavily opposed by residents and educators who believe it would hurt educational programs and drive up costs.

"It is a conceptual proposal and certainly not set in stone," Jane Briggs, a spokesperson for the Board of Regents, told Patch in a phone interview. "The goal is to take a look at school district consolidation and the possibility of saving money given the current fiscal crisis." 

The consolidation panel suggested by the Board of Regents calls for assessing "current incentives and disincentives" tied to potential school district reorganization, and "supporting models that are consistent with needed educational reforms, cost savings and shared services." But the panel cannot be formed without approval from the state legislature and the governor.

Superintendent said that while it seems to be a practical idea to have districts consolidate, it would ultimately diminish the sense of individuality each community has with their schools.

"In theory, there's a good argument to say there should be consolidations, but in practice, the long history of New York State is to give individual communities the autonomy to have their own school systems," Simon said.  "The schools are at the center of our community.

"The fact that the Board of Ed is made of up and have a commitment to this district, gives this community and the schools a special goal," he continued.  "And if consolidation occurred on a larger scale, where the leadership of the district was located in some sort of disconnected so-to-speak corporate type office, I'm not sure it matches up with the school structure."

Simon also said there are already forms of consolidations, particularly in the business end.  He said there are consortiums that purchase items for multiple districts to get the economy to scale.  

"So what you see is a number of districts pooling together to purchase fuel or to purchase large items or things like that," he said.  "And I certainly think they should do more of that.  It would offer more opportunities for districts to participate if they want to."

Other components of the State Aid proposal put forth by the Board of Regents includes no increase in Foundation Aid funding for the next year, making sure that no school district state wide suffers more than a five percent loss in state aid over the prior year, suggests that school districts form three-year financial plans and allow school districts to establish additional reserve funds to cover future costs such as retiree expenses.

The state aid plan also recommends $15 million in funding to continue the Regents testing program. Earlier this month state education officials had indicated that exam costs may be pushed on to local districts given state funding issues.

In addition, the plan recommends moderating aid on school construction, transportation and shared services, such as the BOCES program used by districts on Long Island, and recommends that BOCES Aid for cooperative programs and services support be considered a funding priority.

"The funding proposal approved is what the board feels is fair in terms of striking a balance with the fiscal crisis and about the need of finding new ways of doing business," Briggs said.