BUFFALO, N.Y. — The idea of urging school districts across the state to think of "regional plans for sharing resources" is emerging from Albany.
And it is already touching off some controversy from those who fear the loss of local control of the schools in their community even as the state seeks to ease those concerns.
It surfaced in September at the Board of Regents meeting as members approved the agenda item from the New York State Education Department to have school districts complete surveys on their operations and then BOCES superintendents to quote "develop and implement a regionalization plan every ten years that is designed to improve student opportunities and operational efficiencies through shared resources, leading to 37 regionalization plans in the state.".
That "regionalization" buzzword runs counter for some to traditional local control by school boards and taxpayers of school districts.
Niagara Falls School Superintendent Mark Laurrie makes this observation "People in my opinion often move to their communities for their school district. And using that basic premise I think communities are going to resist and rail against this."
They are already doing that out in Long Island where some school districts are now suing the state over this issue.
The state education department did not respond to 2 On Your Side on Tuesday but some educators feel the goal in this time of declining enrollments is to ensure rural or less wealthy school districts can help their students get access to programs like specialized or AP courses which a more affluent district might have.
That is especially true at a time when a state facing a deficit in its new budget tries to revamp state education funding to schools.
The State Education Department also went out of its way on Tuesday to once again emphasize that this policy plan is not mandatory for school districts and they keep full control. It also allows school districts to opt out of this "regionalization planning process" with written notification to NYSED by January 15th.
Laurrie notes ["The state tells us that nothing will be mandatory. OK - then why are we doing this? And where is this leading to? How far is this is gonna go? And that leads people to say there is gonna be the forced closure of school districts. Which they've tried before and I don't think it's ever gonna happen."
Some smaller districts currently run combined sports programs, but Laurrie still sees challenges with other shared academic programs due to differing teacher contracts, school calendars and schedules, and transportation.
Hamburg Central Schools Superintendent Michael Cornell, who is also the President of the Erie - Niagara School Superintendents Association says he feels this is just an effort to push more collaboration among school districts. "I've seen no evidence that would lead me to believe that it's anything other than an effort to encourage regional collaboration so that kids can have you know similar educational experiences regardless of zip code."
Cornell also cites examples of existing collaboration among districts to meet the needs of special education students and especially the combined efforts to help with mental health counseling in Erie County school districts.
Both Laurrie and Cornell say that the state has previously offered financial incentives to school districts to look at the idea of a merger but officials in relatively few districts choose to do so.