BOCES Superintendent outlines formation of committees to explore sharing services in local school districts

Thomas R. Burns, the superintendent of St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services, told the Ogdensburg City School District Board of Education Monday evening that he would soon be meeting with state Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie about the possibilities of a regional high school.

“There are currently laws within state education that say a city school district can only be involved in an annexation situation,” Mr. Burns said. “A district like Ogdensburg could host a regional site and invite neighboring districts.”

Board member Vicky M. Peo asked if such an arrangement would include Morristown Central School, to which Mr. Burns responded that a governing structure and financing for a regional high school had not yet been fully explored.

“There is existing space. There’s room here, for instance. With BOCES, we’re already putting high school students on buses and sending them to our technical centers. Why not doing the same on a bigger level?” he said.

Mr. Burns has made it a point to visit every district in the region to update school officials on the 300-plus page report that resulted from the 2011 consolidation, reorganization, and shared services study conducted by BOCES. An executive summary of the study can be found online at www.sllboces.org.

“BOCES officials and area superintendents spent a lot of time lobbying Albany for what amounted to a meager increase in state aid. Our efforts didn’t get us where we wanted to be. Nobody is coming to rescue us this time around,” Mr. Burns said. “To control our own destiny, we must continue to explore shared services.”

Three large committees are being formed, according to Mr. Burns, but have yet to meet.

“Probably the biggest option, and an area we’ve already begun exploring, lies in non-instructional sharing,” he said, listing region-wide initiatives such as a cooperative business office, food service management, and operations and management office, as possibilities. The issue of transportation, he said, has been tabled at this time.

A second committee will be focused on consolidation through technology applications - like distance learning and a regionally-shared instructional technology staff.

“Both efficiency and improving instruction,” Mr. Burns said of the committee’s charges.

Instructional sharing, legislative options, and public communication fall under the third committee’s area of study, he said, including school improvement, staff development, legislation, and public relations.

“We want to examine trends in regional testing and use staff development and training to address the gaps we find in the data,” he said.

Following Mr. Burns’ presentation, the board of education got a budget update on the city school district - an update that seemed to illustrate the need to keep looking for alternatives.

With a $1.4 million shortfall facing the city school district’s 2012-2013 budget due to state aid cuts and declining revenues, said Ogdensburg Superintendent Timothy M. Vernsey, any futher cuts will undoubtedly be affecting programming. With 80 percent of the budget being driven by personnel, he said, sharing services is the only answer.

“Every year I say it can’t get any worse,” Mr. Vernsey said, “and it’s getting worse. Even if we increase the fund balance, exceed the tax cap by one or two percent, and receive another $250,000 in state aid, we still have a serious problem on our hands.”

To arrive at a balanced budget with a less than 2 percent increase in the tax levy, the city school district expects to appropriate $1.8 million in fund balance.