Why are school district mergers so hard?
Students sits in the front hallway at Southampton High School to protest the defeat of a proposed merger with the nearby Tuckahoe School District. (Nov. 1, 2013) Credit: Gordon M. Grant
Why are school district mergers so hard to do?
Consider the failure last week of the plan to consolidate Southampton and Tuckahoe. There were many good reasons -- academic, financial and social -- to merge them. But voters in Southampton, for the second time, said no. The margin -- 94 votes of 2,038 cast -- was much closer than last year's initial vote, but it was a rejection nevertheless.
The reason most often cited by merger opponents? Their taxes would rise. A universal concern and one I don't typically belittle, but the details here make you wonder.
Consolidation would have hiked taxes $330 on a $1-million Southampton house. And that house now is paying -- are you ready? -- $2,440 in school taxes. That's right, $2,440.
How much do you pay?
In most K-12 school districts on Long Island, the owner of a million-dollar home is paying five or 10 times that amount.
After the first failed vote last fall, state officials eased the "burden" by allowing tax increases from mergers to be spread over 10 years. That wasn't enough.
Other merger opponents said they didn't see any benefits for Southampton -- as though opportunities to expand course offerings and strengthen early childhood education by turning Tuckahoe's schoolhouse into a specialized pre-K, kindergarten and first-grade center were not benefits.
The no vote was doubly dismaying because many other districts were looking for a yes to spark their own merger plans.
So Tuckahoe, with virtually no commercial tax base, remains in dire financial straits, facing difficult decisions. Standing still is not an option.
Tuckahoe, which educates its students through eighth grade, pays out-of-district tuition to send most of its high-schoolers to Southampton; the rest go to Westhampton Beach. Tuckahoe could send its Southampton kids somewhere cheaper, or educate its ninth-graders at home, one option on the table. Minus that tuition, Southampton would have to raise taxes or reduce offerings, or both.
A more likely option is that Tuckahoe could join some of its K-8 or K-6 brethren -- such as Springs, East Moriches and Remsenburg-Speonk -- to form their own central high school district. Assemb. Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) and Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) have introduced a bill that would make that feasible by changing the existing law that says such districts must be contiguous.
It's an interesting road to go down. Mergers might look a lot better to high school districts faced with the prospect of losing their tuition cash cows.
Also lurking is Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's plan to set aside $500 million from budget surplus and bank settlement money to spur consolidations and shared services statewide. Details will determine whether that's a game-changer.
We also should look at the cumbersome merger process, relatively unchanged since the 1920s. The Southampton-Tuckahoe vote, for example, was a "straw" vote -- a vote only to put a merger plan on a formal ballot for a binding vote. Why two rounds? That likely keeps many proponents home for round one, figuring their vote there doesn't really matter.
Cosimo Tangorra Jr., the state deputy commissioner for elementary and secondary education, wants a change of law to make school reorganization easier: "If we were going to recreate the educational system in New York State, it wouldn't be comprised of 680-some-odd school districts."
Or 124 on Long Island.
We've had one successful merger in 17 years -- two in 19 tries statewide since 2010.
We all want better academic programs and lower costs. It shouldn't be this hard.
Michael Dobie is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
Michael Dobie is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
