School districts across New York are pulling out all the stops as they struggle to delay anticipated fiscal insolvencies. Embattled districts are considering mergers in order to continue to provide quality education.
Voters in Central New York have approved combining the neighboring Ilion and Mohawk districts. Ilion superintendent Cosimo Tangorra points out that his district had been disenfranchised by the state aid formula for a number of years.
Tangorra says the work has just begun - transition teams are being deployed to manage the merger of the two Herkimer County districts and try to make it as painless as possible for the 24-hundred students involved.
Over in Greene County, Catskill Superintendent of Schools Kate Farrell, says her district is looking to cut costs, exploring every possible option, including the consolidation of six districts in the county into one. She says a proposal to that effect will be placed on the agenda for a March 21st board meeting.
About 75-hundred students in Catskill, Greenville, Hunter, Windham-Ashland-Jewett, Cairo-Durham, and Coxsackie-Athens would be affected. Back in Ilion, Cosimo Tangorra has finished going over the details of his district's merger and he encourages district residents to participate in the transition process - here is a link to the Transition Plan.
