With mounting pressure to cut costs, some school districts across the state are looking at consolidating with other districts. Others could ultimately be forced to do it.

The governor has proposed consolidation measures for schools, as has the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief, which has recommended consolidation for school districts with fewer than 1,000 students.

"NYSUT is open to consolidation where the overall savings can be proven and where the major stakeholders agree," NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin said.

Union members, Lubin noted, look at the consolidation issue from two perspectives — as taxpayers who support tax relief, as well as educators who understand the importance of preserving vital programs and services.

In a recent NYSUT Polling Center survey, 53 percent of the members contacted said forcing consolidation on small school districts would adversely affect those communities.

Voluntary, well-planned and voter-approved consolidation proposals are another thing altogether.

In western New York, rising budgets and declining enrollments have led the Fredonia and Brocton districts to consider consolidation, according to Darrin Paschke, president of the Fredonia Teachers Association.

Fredonia has more than 1,600 students K-12; Brocton enrolls just over 750 students.

Without a lot of industry or high-income jobs, Paschke said, "Fredonia is a very expensive place to live." Annual property taxes on a home valued between $250,000 and $300,000 can run more than $8,000.

Two members of Paschke's local and two from the Brocton TA, headed by Deborah Lloyd-Priest, sit on district committees that are analyzing how consolidation could affect, for example, student travel time, available courses and existing union contracts.

Union involvement, Paschke said, assures that the outcome will be based on "what is best for the students and taxpayers of both communities."

Under current state law, a proposed consolidation is subject to two separate votes by each district and requires approval of the state education commissioner.

That would change under a second key proposal from the state Commission on Property Tax Relief. In its final report late last year, the commission recommended that the education commissioner have the power to order consolidation of districts with fewer than 2,000 students.

During Priscilla Campbell's 18 years as a teacher, consolidation has been an on-and-off discussion among the many small, scattered school districts on the eastern end of Long Island.

Now, with the current state budget crisis, it's getting more serious, says Campbell, president of the East Hampton TA.

"Consolidation could result in a tax increase for some district residents and a tax decrease in others," she said.

If East Hampton, with 1,795 students, consolidated with the nearby Springs District, with 640 students, Campbell said, taxes in Springs would drop, but East Hampton's would increase.

East Hampton already receives tuition-paying students from five nearby small districts for high school and some other grades, and the district shares sports teams with neighboring schools.

One consolidation proposal calls for the creation of a single central school district for all schools east of Southampton, which, Campbell said, would vastly increase the commute for many students and cut into class time.

Savings often not there

The bottom line in the consolidation discussion, says NYSUT's Lubin, is the bottom line itself. 

"It's been our experience that consolidations are rare because many times the savings just aren't there," he said.

According to a 2005 report from the National Rural Education Association, the educational and financial results of state-mandated school district consolidations "do not meet legislated expectations." An association task force also determined that smaller districts have higher student achievement.

In a 2004 report, the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Ariz., found that consolidation increases administrative costs and class size and reduces student achievement.

Lubin noted that consolidating regional services and functions — instead of entire schools — would save money and avoid loss of a school as the center of a community.

Consolidation is difficult for communities with "ownership of schools," says Andy Palumbo, the president of the Jamesville-DeWitt Faculty Association, who chairs NYSUT's Small and Rural Locals Advisory Committee.

"There's a sense of community that just breaks down," he said. "It's hard to make those changes."

The best-case scenario for consolidation, said Palumbo, is when a very small district is located not far from another district or school.

In the early 1990s, Palumbo lost his job at an elementary school in Rensselaer County that merged with another school.

"It was justifiable," he said. "They were close enough to bus the kids."

A resolution sponsored by the Washington Academy Teachers Association will be introduced next month at NYSUT's Representative Assembly in Buffalo, calling for a special task force to study the pros and cons of rural school consolidation.

Contact Liza Frenette at lfrenett@nysutmail.org.