HCS Board Hears From Consultant About Mergers, Other Possible Changes

RFH 2010, Cover Stories, HCS News

Thu, Jan 06, 2011

A day after newly-elected Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered a inaugural sermon warning of a state in crises and preaching the need for radical change, the HCS Board of Education heard how the status quo is also becoming history for public education including schools like Hamilton's.

Alan Pole, a consultant and former BOCES superintendent, explained to the board why districts must change how they do business and outlined how they might reinvent themselves either by sharing services with other districts, merging/consolidating. He said this change is being driven primarily from Albany, which is providing less aid while increasing expectations.

Pole's presentation was the same as the one he delivered to some members of the boards of education of the Hamilton, Madison, Stockbridge Valley and Morrisville-Eaton last month. Because of bad weather, some HCS board members could not attend so he was invited to a meeting in Hamilton. His work grew out of discussions by the superintendents of those districts, including HCS' Dr. Diana Bowers.

Pole, Bowers and board President Bob Pils assured the audience at the meeting that his presentation was strictly for informational purposes. There are no plans, each said, to begin any merger/consolidation process. There has been, however, speculative discussion about those four local districts combining and creating a regional high school in Pine Woods. They already share a variety of services and are looking to do even more.

Thursday night, Pole warned of a conjunction of issues driving the need for change. They include:

Greater expectations and opportunities for all students;
Declining student enrollment in many districts (though HCS' is holding steady);
and precarious financial conditions.

Pole outlined the various ways school districts could address these issues.

The first and easiest is to share services with neighboring districts. This, he said, could include:

Sharing administrators of such things as special education, curriculum and staff development, instructional technology, athletics and business management;
Sharing management functions like transportation, maintenance, purchasing, printing and energy;
Sharing facilities including libraries, fitness centers, records storage, fuel filling stations.

He also outlined how school districts have restructured their high schools to address life in the era of always "doing more with less." Pole cited a study he was part of in Wayne County, which has 11 separate school districts. Their high schools average about 470 students each, and one of the solutions being discussed was the creation of four regional high schools while maintaining the 11 existing middle and elementary schools.

Pole said the county's districts were motivated by the desire to provide "world class" education for their children, while addressing the problems of declining enrollment and high property taxes. Solutions included allowing students to at classes offered at high schools other than their own, creating "themed" high schools (i.e. technology, environmental, the arts, humanities) and online courses.

He said the Wayne County districts continue to discuss what, if anything, they may do.

Pole said one thing that many New York districts may wish or may have to do is to reorganize through some sort of merger with a neighboring district(s). This could be done by centralization (creating a new one new district out of two or more existing ones) or by annexation, where one district (usually the larger of the two) takes over the other (smaller one) keeping the annexing district's school board, administration, contracts, polices and identity.

In either case, Pole said there isa state-prescribed process, which takes anywhere from a year and a half to two years to competes. That process includes:

A study of the districts involved;
A review by the state Education Department;
A review by the district's boards of education;
Public discussion;
Board approval;
A non-binding advisory vote in each district;
And, a final vote.

But, Pole made it very clear that neither annexation or centralization is easily accomplished. Not long ago, the Madison and Oriskany Falls districts considered merging, but the measure failed when put to a vote.

He added, though, that there are large amounts of state money dangled in front of districts as incentives to combine.

Despite the difficulties and the costs involved, New York has a long history of combining school districts. There are today 697 school districts in New York, a number the governor said Wednesday is too many. That compares to:

739 in 1980,
760 in 1970,
1,293 in 1960 ,
3,189 in 1950;
and 10,565 100 years ago.

There has been consistent discussion among educators that the state Education Department is targeting all schools with fewer than 1,000 students for some sort of merger.

Pole closed by saying it is impossible to know what state government could do in the future. There was, he said, a master plan for consolidations drawn up in the '50s. While he was a BOCES superintendent, he, like others in similar posts around the state, was directed to create a program for consolidation for his district.

And, while how school districts change is a work in process, Pole said that change is certain.

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