CCSD holds school merger presentation in response to Morrisville-Eaton request

CAZENOVIA — On June 20, the Cazenovia Central School District (CCSD) hosted a community presentation on district mergers, also known as reorganization.

The event was held in response to Morrisville-Eaton Central School District’s request that CCSD consider a merger study in light of updated financial incentives from New York State.

Cornell University professor and researcher John Sipple, Ph.D., volunteered his time and expertise to present “School District Reorganization: Enrollment Decline and Community Vitality in Cazenovia.”

Sipple, who studies how public schools and communities adapt to different policies and challenges, was introduced by Superintendent Christopher DiFulvio.

“[Dr. Sipple] will help us navigate and understand the complex topic of school district reorganization, an issue that undoubtedly brings mixed feelings to many of us here,” DiFulvio said. “We recognize that the idea of merging comes with its share of concerns and uncertainties. Yet, it’s crucial that we continue to explore all avenues to preserve and enhance the educational programming for our students. Our recent budget vote highlights the need to explore avenues to preserve programming. Thanks to the community, we have been able to maintain the vast majority of our vital programs. Our number one goal remains to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students.”

DiFulvio emphasized that no decisions have been made at this stage; the district’s primary objective is to perform due diligence and thoroughly assess whether a merger could benefit CCSD taxpayers and students.

As part of that process, CCSD sent letters to its neighboring districts to inquire about their interest in reorganization. Fayetteville-Manlius, Otselic Valley, and Canastota indicated that they are not interested. As of June 20, CCSD had not received official responses from DeRuyter, Fabius-Pompey, or Chittenango.

“Given the financial challenges we faced while developing the 2024-25 school budget, and with a projected state aid reduction looming for the 2025-26 school year, it would be irresponsible not to explore all options,” said DiFulvio. “The school district and the board of education owe it to our community to review all possible benefits and drawbacks that a merger might present. We represent your voice, the voice of our community. It is our responsibility to communicate the district’s needs and progress transparently and to engage with the public, our staff, and our students in the decision-making process.”

Sipple began his presentation by expressing that he had no intention of swaying attendees in favor or against merging; his goal was to share information.

He stated that, at this point, the CCSD community is not prepared to ask, “Should we merge?” Instead, the question should be, “Should Cazenovia move forward exploring underlying issues, the process of, and the pros/cons of a potential merger?”

How did we get here?

Sipple outlined some trends in Cazenovia that help provide context for the recent conversations about reorganization.

He first showed a figure demonstrating a trend of declining enrollment from 1993-94 to 2022-23.

“I could show you 450 districts in New York State that have the same downward trends in enrollment,” he said. “This is happening all over the place.”

Sipple explained that people are having children later and having fewer children. Additionally, in some areas, the cost of living, the cost of housing, the cost of childcare, and the cost of healthcare have gotten so high that people cannot afford to live there unless they are retired or have gotten to a point in their career where they have the resources to move there with older children.

“There are communities all over the place that have trouble getting the next generation of parents and kids to come to the school districts,” he said.

Sipple also highlighted a trend of increasing property values in Cazenovia.

“You’ve got this dual phenomenon of having fewer kids around but also having property that is of greater value,” he said. “You have the lake here, a beautiful town, a wonderful school system, and it’s a desirable place to live. That raises property values. . . . All of a sudden, the State of New York looks at your district and says, ‘Oh, this is becoming a wealthier district. They’re wealthier than they were before.’ The state has one job, to allocate dollars in a fair way, and they give more money to poorer districts than wealthier districts.”

As the rate of increase in state aid slows, CCSD’s total expenses continue to rise, placing a greater burden on the local community to make up the difference. As a result, the tax rate for local taxpayers goes up.

Considering opportunities

Sipple encouraged the attendees to begin thinking broadly about the many directions the district could take to address the fiscal stress felt by the CCSD community and the trend of declining enrollment.

A few of the wide-ranging opportunities he presented were making small tweaks and efficiency improvements; merging administrations with another district; and merging two small high schools into one larger school while keeping the middle and elementary schools the same.

“There is no right or wrong here,” he said. “It’s whatever works best for this community and whoever your ‘dance partner’ is if you choose to go forward with a conversation about reorganization. If you choose to go at it [on] your own, then it’s just this community making some of these decisions. Think inside and outside the box. This is an opportunity to really do this kind of thinking. Often, we don’t get the opportunity to really think broadly.”

Sipple simplified CCSD’s options down to the following: maintaining the status quo, sharing additional services with other districts, using technology for virtual instruction to expand program offerings, merging central administrations and school boards, or undergoing a comprehensive merger with a partner district.

“You control your destiny,” Sipple said. “If you make no changes, I guarantee your taxes will go up and you’ll have to cut services in the district. [I’m] sorry to say that, but if you do nothing, we know where this is going.”

Changes at the state level

According to Sipple, New York State created a new system this year to nearly double the reorganization incentive aid, or “bonus money,” offered to schools seeking to merge.

“They want to dangle money in front of districts to get them to merge,” he said. “They’ve done this for a long, long time, but whatever they were dangling last year didn’t get much of anybody’s attention, because nobody merged last year across the entire state.”

Before this year, reorganization incentive aid was based on 40 percent of the NYS foundation aid received by the merging districts in 2005-06.

The new system offers reorganization incentive aid based on 40 percent of the foundation aid from the prior year.

“They are letting you use last year’s foundation aid,” Sipple said. “That’s a much bigger number; the state is investing more in schools now than they were in 2005-06. The incentive — the dangling money — is much bigger now than it was.”

CCSD’s 2005-06 foundation aid was $4,006,121. Its 2023-24 foundation aid was $7,558,552.

The total first-year reorganization incentive aid is determined by adding the foundation aids for two or more merging districts and then calculating 40 percent of that combined number.

The aid is 40 percent per year for the first five years, after which the percentage is scaled down annually. By the 15th year after reorganization, the district’s incentive aid is zero.

Sipple presented a sample calculation of the reorganization incentive aid that a merged CCSD and Morrisville-Eaton district would receive. In total, the new district would gain $60,485,162 over 14 years.

“The state is offering — depending on the partner —$50 million to $70 million,” he said. “I’m not trying to [sway] anyone, it’s just a fact. The State of New York is doing this, and it’s not just you guys, they will offer this to any district that merges. “

Sipple also noted that if two or more districts decide to reorganize, the new merged district will receive the same total incentive aid whether it combines all the school buildings or none of the school buildings.

“You just have to create a new school district with a new board, and you get that money,” he said.

The reorganization process

According to Sipple, CCSD is in the “learn and listen and talk” stage of the lengthy, multi-step reorganization process.

This stage involves examining the causes of the district’s enrollment decline and educational and fiscal challenges. It also involves understanding all the factors driving the district to seek change.

“Once you understand what [this reorganization] thing is, you could say, ‘Oh, I’m not really comfortable with that,’ or, ‘I didn’t have any idea what that was, now I understand so let’s explore a little more,” Sipple said.

If Cazenovia decides to continue looking into reorganization, the next steps are to evaluate potential merger partners and create different reorganization scenarios.

“Once you agree with a partner and you have a scenario you want to move forward with, then the state gets involved in this process,” said Sipple.

To move forward, both boards of education must independently vote in favor of the plan.

The next vote is for the public. Both communities conduct separate straw votes.

“That’s kind of to gauge community interest and make sure everyone knows what is going on,” Sipple explained. “. . . If both communities vote ‘yes,’ you go to a real binding vote. [So,] the community has to actually vote twice on this. It’s a long process to make sure you are [willing] to do this. There is plenty of time for conversation and re-exploring options and scenarios.”

If both communities vote affirmatively, the reorganization occurs, and a new board of education is established for the new district.

Sipple noted that another key part of the merger process is a comprehensive merger study, which is used to develop information that describes how a specific combination of districts would operate if reorganization occurred. The study would consider administrative staffing changes and board structure; transportation; food service; instructional programming and BOCES use; scheduling; extracurricular activities; building use; tax rates; potential savings; and costs.

According to Sipple, different committees work on the study, and students, the public, and staff have many opportunities to get involved.

Exploring reorganization: for students and the community

“Most people who will come in and talk to you about reorganization say, ‘If there is ever a decision that you are having a hard time making, it should always be made for the best interest of the children in our community,’” said Sipple. “I’m not going to argue with that at all, but what I would say is if you think of the children only and don’t think of the wellbeing of the broader community — you don’t think of strengthening your community [and making it] a place people may want to move to, bring their families to, [buy] an affordable house in, get some childcare in — [you] might end up in the same place ten years from now that you are in right now.”

Sipple continued by stating that mergers can reduce tax rates and ease financial pressures; however, those benefits are temporary unless other changes are made that get at the root cause of the district’s current challenges.

“[The state incentive aid] is a lot of money,” he said. “That will lower your taxes, but if you just rest on that money and don’t work to make this an attractive place to get more kids, your high school is going to [continue shrinking].”

Sipple concluded his presentation by sharing a suite of tools he helped create for the NYS Education Data and Research Hub at Cornell University.

The free tools are available for public use at nyeducationdata.org.

The website’s “District Reorganizer Simulation Tool” visualizes the effects of merging two or more neighboring districts. In addition to calculating the reorganization incentive aid, it features enrollment totals, school district comparisons, and crude local revenue calculations.

Other tools on the website provide insight into enrollment; community wealth; graduation rates; and financial, performance, and demographic trends.

The presentation concluded with a brief question and answer session. One of the topics discussed was how reorganization enables the new district to receive increased state support for qualified building projects.

Attendees were encouraged to submit additional questions about Sipple’s presentation and reorganization to CCSD via a QR code or pen and paper. The questions will be compiled into a FAQ page with answers and posted on the district’s website, cazenoviacsd.com.

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