Consolidation of School Districts - WIll it Work? You decide.
Submitted by JDKJJK on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 4:19pm
As many of you may know consolidation of school districts has been discussed as a means to reduce expenses. However prior to consolidating school districts there must be a comprehensive proposal designed to demonstrate how the proposed consolidation would benefit both the communities involved and better serve the educational interests of the student population.
The uppermost question right now is will a consolidated school district save the taxpayers money?
To keep this example simple only the consolidation of the Brewster and Carmel School Districts is used as an example.
The NYS Report Cards for the Brewster and Carmel School District for the school year ending in 2008 reports the following key information:
Brewster Carmel Total
Enrollment 3538 4693 8231
Avg. Class Size 19-24 20-23 N/A
Teachers 292 344 636
Paraprofessionals 70 197 267
Following are the proposed budgets for the 2009-2010 School year for the Brewster and Carmel School Districts along with the proposed State funding for both Brewster and Carmel:
Brewster Carmel Total
Prop. Budget $82,617,364.67 $104,124,361.00 $186,741,726.00
State Funding $17,039,320.00 $24,625,060.00 $41,664, 380.00
As you can see the State is currently providing approximately 22% of the funds for the Brewster and Carmel School Districts. Therefore the most obvious benefit of consolidating the Brewster and Carmel School Districts will be the increase in State Funding. According to the Reorganization Guidelines a consolidated district will receive funding of 40% for the consolidated districts. However according to the State Guidelines each individual District is still responsible for its long term debt obligations and since both the Brewster and Carmel budgets include debt repayment for long term obligations the 40% State contribution may deduct these obligations from the 40% funding mandate.
The above is a simplistic look at a consolidated Brewster/Carmel School District. The budgeted numbers do not include any possible savings which may be attained through consolidation. To determine if a cost savings would be feasible one must look for a District which would be approximately the same size as the consolidated Brewster/Carmel School District and in close geographic proximity.
According to the 2008 NYS Report Card for the Arlington School District, a district in Dutchess county, the Arlington School District is similar in size to the proposed Brewster/Carmel Central School District. The following numbers are from the NYS Report card for the Arlington School District:
Arlington Total
Enrollment 10226 10226
Avg. Class Size 20-28 20-28
Teachers 732 732
Paraprofessionals 205 205
The following information is from the proposed 2009-2010 Arlington School budget and the proposed State Aid for Arlington:
Arlington Total
Prop. Budget $172,266,965.00 $172,266,965.00
State Funding $55,210,368.00 $55,210,368.00
On its face it would appear the Arlington School District operates in a more cost efficient manner than the current Brewster/Carmel School Districts; current budget proposals for Brewster/Carmel exceed 186 million dollars to educate approximately 8200 students; Arlington’s budget proposal calls for the expenditure of over 172 million dollars to educate approximately 10200 students. It is also interesting to note that Arlington receives 32% in State Aid as compared to only 22% for Brewster/Carmel.
Both Carmel and Arlington provide comprehensive budget information, while Brewster provides account totals only. A basic summary of the account codes follows:
- Items beginning with the number one are for General Support;
- Items beginning with the number two are considered Instructional;
- Items beginning with the number five are for Transportation costs;
- Items beginning with the number nine are for all other costs including long term debt and employee benefits. The Arlington Budget Website provides a detailed explanation for the individual account codes.
The question then becomes would a Brewster/Carmel Central School District be as cost efficient as the Arlington School District? There are obviously some differences. One of them is that Arlington High School has a greater capacity than either the Brewster or Carmel High Schools, therefore both High Schools would have to remain operational under a consolidated district.
Using the various links in this article you the reader can make your own determination as to whether you believe consolidating the Brewster and Carmel Districts makes sense. The question you should ask yourself is where would the proposed savings come from?
School District Consolidation
At the very least, the consolidation of the two school districts would result in basic "economies of scale" savings such as - one Superintendent, one District office and some reduction in support staff. Equipment such as buses and physical plant components (schools, etc.) might be somewhat reduced but not necessarily. For instance, Brewster runs its own transportation service while Carmel contracts with an outside vendor; if the new district decided to use the Brewster model then additional buses would have to be purchased. The two could remain somewhat separate for the purpose of sports and determining which kids go where, similar to how NY City schools operate.
It is important for everyone to understand that this is not about reducing the quality of our public education system or cutting programs; it's about reducing the expense and the size of the administrative bureaucracy that is both redundant and unnecessary once the two districts merge.
Agreed
I completely agree. Elimintating redundant positions and condensing purchases for larger discounts is a good thing and should be explored much more thoroughly. I have not been presented an example of how it could reduce services. What services would it reduce? Even if it did, people need to realize that services need to be paid for - so the more services you expect from the goverment the more YOU need to pay in taxes.