By JEFF MORRIS
Superintendent of Schools Robert Glass presented what he called “a little bit of an update about something called ‘regionalization’ that has caused a bit of a stir over the last number of months” at the Dec. 11 Board of Education meeting.
Glass said they’ve had some emails about it, and a lot of discussions with other administrators in the BOCES region, and “many of us, who work in education in the region, were a little bit perplexed with what this is and what this isn’t.” He added that if they were confused, then people “who are going about their daily lives not working in schools are probably a little confused too.”
According to Glass, back in September, the Board of Regents issued an emergency regulation with the name “Regionalization Initiative,” intended to help develop a strategic approach to upcoming challenges. He said what wasn’t really clear at the time was they were really mandating a conversation to develop that approach.
Glass noted they had fought a Foundation Aid battle last year, and were fortunate to come out with the funds they felt they deserved — but there are different regions within a “large, diverse state” in different situations, depending on geography and unique circumstances, and what the state wanted to do was get a handle on things and see if there are some ways they can all work smarter.
“What they wanted to do was not mandate an outcome, but mandate a conversation,” he said. But this came out “without a lot of explanation up front.”
The mandate took place in parallel with the Rockefeller Institute’s study of New York state school funding, said Glass. In April 2024, New York state’s enacted budget called for the Rockefeller Institute of Government to conduct a comprehensive study of the state’s Foundation Aid education funding formula and deliver a report with findings and recommendations for improvement by Dec. 1, 2024.
Glass said he thought the timing was designed to take the results of the Rockefeller study and be ready to do something with them. The problem, said Glass, was there was very little information on regionalization provided in advance, and the title of the initiative caused some confusion.
“When you hear the term regionalization, you might think anything,” said Glass. “You might think we’re going to redistrict; we’re going to consolidate districts; we’re going to mandate all this stuff.”
As a starting point, Glass said, the state was trying to collect data, and it created a Strength & Needs assessment tool that the district was required to complete.
He described it as a massive, time-consuming process that included a lot of data that the state already had. The process was facilitated by the BOCES superintendent in each region. Glass said he had a sit-down meeting with the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES superintendent, whose job it was to come up with some sort of plan for the region based on what was in the needs assessments and his conversations with administrators.
On Oct. 11, Jeffrey Matteson, the senior deputy commissioner for educational policy, and David Frank, NYSED chief of staff, who were charged with leading the regionalization initiative, met with the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents to provide more clarity on regionalization and to gather input.
“They got a pretty good earful,” said Glass. “We were like, ‘What is this? Why are you making us do this massive report? What is the end game here?’ We found out that the end game is really more collaborative than we originally perceived it to be.”
Glass said he feels that the districts in this region already work together pretty well and have a lot of the bases covered. He said they were told the initiative is not about mergers, consolidations, annexations, and it doesn’t mandate that districts participate.
“The way I understand this is, we have this regional plan; if we choose to say we’re not so interested, that’s fine,” said Glass.
From October through November, articles and reports in various areas across the state expressed concern about mandated participation in the plan and loss of local control. But the sources he contacted, said Glass, did not seem to have concerns about any loss of local control or other mandates. He said the regionalization website and face-to-face communications indicate the conversation is mandated, but not participation in a plan.
On Nov. 26, SED Commissioner Betty Rosa issued a written clarification letter, adding two key components to address local control. One is a revision noting that suggested amendments to regionalization plans will remain advisory rather than mandatory, to ensure that districts maintain full control over the plans they develop. The other is a new provision which allows districts in consultation with their school boards, to elect not to participate in the regionalization planning process by submitting written notification by Jan. 15, 2025.
The New York State School Boards Association confirmed this in a post Dec. 16, adding that under the revisions, the SED and district superintendents will monitor the implementation of the regionalization plans by conducting site visits and reviewing performance metrics to ensure outcomes meet the initiative›s larger goals.
“If such metrics are not being met, SED or the district superintendent will ‘request’ that the component district amend its section of the regionalization plan to achieve the desired outcomes,” said NYSSBA. “The original regulation used the word ‘compel’ instead of request.”
According to NYSSBA, the original emergency regulations passed by the Regents in September required districts that are components of BOCES to participate in the process. “But the mandate proved controversial, with SED receiving approximately 9,500 comments,” said NYSSBA, leading to the revisions, with SED officials subsequently emphasizing that they aren’t asking districts to consider mergers or the redistribution of local resources.
Board members had questions about whether there were advantages or consequences to the district’s choice to participate or not.
Board President Gilian Klein said they would probably have an executive board meeting with Glass to discuss the matter prior to Jan. 15, which is both the deadline to opt out and the date of the board’s next meeting. Glass was planning to attend a town hall meeting with Rosa on Dec. 12, as well as a Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents meeting on the 13th, and said if there was anything significant coming out of those meetings he would post updates to the district website; there have been no updates posted.