On Oct. 23, John Evans, shared superintendent of Livingston Manor and Roscoe Central School Districts, presented an informational session on the proposed merger between the two districts.
Evans presented information on what has changed since the last merger vote in 2022. Funding changes from the state, expected changes in Foundation Aid as well as financial changes at the local level are the largest contributing factors in the reason the merger study addendum was completed and the boards of education approved moving forward in the process.
The changes in Reorganization Incentive Aid for a merged district would mean an increase of about $23.5 million over what was available in 2022. The expected changes in Foundation Aid is also expected to have a negative impact on both districts. Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget proposal removed a provision that prevented schools from getting less aid than the previous year. The proposal would have meant $1.3 million less for Livingston Manor and $100,000 for Roscoe. The final state budget restored those cuts. However, changes to the Foundation Aid formula will likely be proposed in the upcoming NYS budget, and it is not expected to be beneficial for small, rural districts.
Another factor is the continuing increase in the Combined Wealth Ratio, a key component used in various aid formulas that fund schools. The CWR has been slowly increasing over the last five years shifting its wealth status from poverty to wealthy. Schools with a CWR below 1.0 are considered poverty schools by the state Education Department and schools with a CWR above 1.0 are considered “Average Need” or “Wealthy.” Poverty-designated schools receive more state aid.
Livingston Manor has also seen decreases in some of their expense based aid including their Transportation and BOCES aid.
Other non-financial changes included a continued decrease in enrollment in both districts, more students attending Career and Technical Education classes at BOCES, an increase in out-of-district placements, and the reduction and elimination of several programs.
A combined district could offer numerous educational opportunities that each district separately cannot offer. Some of those include bringing out-of-district students back in-house, offering expanded electives and subject concentrations, and multi-grade and transition classes to offer additional assistance to students who are struggling academically. It would also allow the expansion of extracurricular activities across grade levels.
This was the second informational session highlighting changes from the 2022 merger study and the 2024 merger study addendum following the approval by the two districts’ boards of education to move forward with petitioning to gauge public support for the merger, rather than having a straw vote, as the districts did in 2022.
For the vote to move forward, at least 227 valid signatures of eligible voters in the Roscoe Central School District and 309 valid signatures of eligible voters in the Livingston Manor Central School District must be collected, verified by the district clerk, approved by the boards and sent to the state Education Department, at which time SED would set a vote date.
Petition signatures are still being collected. For a vote to take place before Christmas, signatures would need to be collected by the end of October or early November, Evans said.
“I encourage all residents who would like to sign the petition to sign it as soon as possible,” Evans said.
Each district has designated representatives to assist the district in gathering signatures. Gary Dahlman, Tasse Niforatos, Tim Clark, Dan Johnston, Joe Langan, Patti Lambrigger, Judie Smith, Margaret Tremper, Laurie Allen-Kuehn, Rebecca Ackerly, Ed Park and Robin Francisco are collecting signatures for Roscoe. In Livingston Manor, James Buck, Jill Smith, Nicole Park, Chris Tuleweit, Ed Gorr, John Evans, Judith Emory, Judith Tuleweit, Carole Edwards and Jan Carlson are collecting signatures. Petitions are available in the main office of both districts for eligible voters to sign during regular business hours.
Anyone interested in signing a petition or has questions regarding the proposed merger should contact the school and someone will assist them.
For more information about the merger, including FAQs, recordings of meetings and slides from the meetings, visit the merger page on each district’s website, https://www.lmcs.us/page/merger-study-2024-25 or https://www.roscoe.k12.ny.us/page/merger-study-2024-25
Questions may be submitted via Goole form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5sRZaJsIyJMwRZ1DHorCwzcp1vbfbFHqm4etmqX7oX8rMug/viewform.