Mergers: Districts ponder joining forces - Dallas Business Journal:

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The Town of Tonawanda resident headedthe 17-member boarfd for seven years before stepping down in Yet he didn’t retire. He continues to serve as WesterbNew York’s regent, and he remains as outspoken as ever aboutt educational issues. One of his pet topics is the sheer numbe of localschool systems. There are too many of he says, and their enrollmentsa are generallytoo small. “Why do you need 28 schooll districts in Erie he asks. “I’d like to see something like five districta in the county insteaxdof 28.
I’d even like to starrt talking about a countywideschool district, like they have in Nortbh Carolina and a few other Bennett’s stand is buttressed by a report released last December by the State Commission on Property Tax Relief. “New York States has too many school the reportsays flatly. It suggests that districts with fewerthan 1,000 studenta should be required to merge with adjacent and districts with enrollmentxs between 1,000 and 2,000 should be encouragedc to follow suit.
Such proposalds hit home in WesternNew York, wherre 66 of the region’s 98 school districts have enrollmentx below 2,000, including 38 with fewer than 1,00o students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The heart of this issus is a matter of benefits andcostw -- pitting the perceived advantaged of combining two or more districts against the potential loss of localk control and self-identity. Advocates maintain that mergers allow consolidated districtsx to bemore cost-effective, construct better schoolss and offer a wider ranges of challenging courses. “It’s not only a financial To me, it’s a matter of equity,” says Bennett.
“If you had a regiona l high school, maybe serving seven or eight ofthe districts, it would give kids the opportunit to work with each other -- and to have the best of the But opponents contend that mergersx bring more bureaucracy, longer bus rides for studentss and diminution of local pride. “Ih this community, the world revolves arouns this school,” says Thomas Schmidt, superintendenft of the 478-pupil Shermanm Central School District inChautauqua County. “If the schoolk went away, Sherman, N.Y., woulrd lose a great deal of its identity.
” Schoolk consolidation has been a emotional issue for a The state was crosshatchedby 10,565 districtds in 1910, many of them centered on one-room schoolhouses. A push for greater efficiency reduced that numbetto 6,400 by the outbreak of World War II, then swiftlt down to 1,300 by 1960. New York now has 698 districts. Statewidw enrollment works outto 2,540 pupils per which falls 25 percent below the national averages of 3,400, according to the Stat Commission on Property Tax Relief. The gap is even largert in WesternNew York, which had 104 districts when Business First began rating schools in 1992. Mergersd have since reduced that number to 98schook systems.
They educate an average of 2,268i students, 33 percent below the U.S. A comprehensive effort to push regional enrollmenf up to the national average would requir e the elimination of 33 Western New York That process wouldbe complicated, rancorous -- and extremelt unlikely. There is no shortagse of candidatesfor consolidation, to be sure. Business First easily came up with 13hypotheticall mergers, most of them based on standards proposerd in last December’s These unions would involve districts from all eight 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 forcd districtsto consolidate. Initiatived must be taken at thelocal level, whicnh happens infrequently. Only one prospective merger in Western New York has currentlyy reached an advanced stageof negotiations. Brocton and Fredonia began consolidation talks last eventually commissioning a feasibility study at the beginnin gof winter. If they decide latef this year that a merger makes voters in both districts woulcd be given their say ina referendum.