Elwood district: No takers on merger offer

The Elwood school district has announced it has abandoned a call for a consolidation study with neighboring districts, in part because of a lack of interest.

Elwood last winter asked the Northport-East Northport, Half Hollow Hills, Commack, South Huntington and Harborfields districts whether any would consider a merger. But none expressed interest in even taking part in a feasibility study, the district said in a posting last week on its website.

Dan Ciccone, vice president of Elwood's school board, said Friday that the district's initial inquiries yielded lackluster results.

"I saw more negative than positive," he said. "There really wasn't much for us to pursue."

The idea received little support from residents within Elwood's borders. Many of them spoke against the idea at a special meeting in January that drew more than 300 people.

They said they had been drawn to the district because of its small size. Elwood had 2,616 students in the 2009-10 school year.

Stephen Waldenburg Jr., president of the Northport-East Northport school board, said Friday that Elwood residents' lack of support made his district wary.

"Our board felt it didn't look like the Elwood community really wanted to pursue this," he said. "And, in the analysis that we have done, there really wasn't a lot of cost savings."

If a merger had been proposed and voters had agreed to it, the state would have provided the new district with 40 percent more of its 2006-07 operating aid -- based on numbers provided by both districts -- for five years. After that, the aid would decrease by 4 percent each year until it hit zero.

A new district also would have been eligible for additional building aid for construction within 10 years of the reorganization.

Ciccone said the financial incentives were the most attractive part of consolidation, but that board members doubted the money would come through, considering the state's precarious finances. If too many districts across the state expressed interest in merging, "There is no way the state can afford it," he said.