NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4446
SPONSOR: Molitor TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to authorizing the estab-
lishment of regional high school districts in certain counties
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Would authorize two or more school districts in certain counties to
enter into a contract to establish and operate a regional high school.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
The Education Law is amended by adding a new article 39-A with Sections
1920 and 1921.
Section 1920: authorizes two or more school districts that are wholly
contained within the same BOCES district in Allegany County, Cattaraugus
County or Chautauqua County, to enter into a contract to allow a hosting
school district to operate a regional high school, subject to approval
by the Commissioner.
The bill provides that in order for school districts to form a regional
high school, school boards must first vote to give the school authority
to formally pursue the formation of a regional high school by proposing
a contract for its operation. Then, there must be a public meeting not
less than thirty days in advance of a public vote to be held on the
proposed resolution to forma regional high school contract. The public
must then approve the resolution by an aggregate majority vote of all
voters from all school districts considering the question of whether or
not to form a regional high school.
Next, the participating school districts must finalize and submit the
contract to the Commissioner of Education for approval. The final step
to form the regional high school is for the Commissioner to certify that
the regional high school will expand and improve the educational
services to students and can result in administrative efficiencies. Once
the Commissioner has approved the contract, the new regional high school
is followed as a legal entity.
The contract shall be for a minimum of five years and with the approval
of the Commissioner may be renewed by mutual agreement of the respective
boards of education. In the case of unforeseen circumstances, the
contract may be modified with the consent of the majority of each of the
school boards and the approval of the commissioner.
The contract shall also stipulate the manner of transportation of the
students and that the cost shall be charged to the student's district of
residence. The regional high school shall also operate its own extracur-
ricular activities and athletics, except in the case of modified athlet-
ic teams, mixed grade music and band programs and joint grade extracur-
ricular programs.
Students of the regional high school shall be deemed to be enrolled in
the regional high school except for purposes of state aid, in which case
their attendance and enrollment shall be treated and counted as part of
their participating district. The contract shall also include informa-
tion on the regional high school's fiscal plans, staffing plans, special
education plans, student disciplinary procedure plans, building plans,
transportation plans, curriculum plans and projections on cost-savings,
student enrollment, state aid changes, expenditures, and local tax
effort. The contract shall provide that school principals, assistant
principals, other supervisory personnel, teachers, and other staff
members of the participating school districts, except the superintendent
whose services in the participating school districts are no longer need-
ed, shall be granted employment rights in the host school district in
the same manner as is provided in sections 3014-a and 3014b of the
education law.
The contract shall provide that all teachers and other staff members of
the participating school districts, except the superintendent of schools
whose services are no longer needed because of the creation of a
regional high school, or the transference of students to an existing
regional high school, shall be granted employments rights in the host
school district. Teachers and all other employees previously employed by
participating districts would assume the host district contract until
such time as a new employee contract has been negotiated. Teacher and
employee transfer and seniority rights shall be recognized in accordance
with current state education and civil service law. The contract shall
state what the governance plan for participating district school admin-
istrations shall be after the regional high school is formed. The
contract shall also specify that the regional high school shall be sole-
ly responsible for the implementation and completion of all academic
achievement standards for, the students of participating school
districts. The regional high school shall be responsible for the evalu-
ation, grading and academic performance of students and diplomas shall
be awarded by the Regional High School. The effective date is provided
in section two of the bill.
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill has been requested by several school districts that would like
the opportunity to share resources and cut costs while providing contin-
ued quality education for students.
In many districts in upstate New York-particularly in rural areas,
schools have faced declining enrollment while standard operating costs
and mandated and contractual expenses continue to rise. This bill would
allow schools to consolidate resources, take advantage of regional
resources and save taxpayers and school districts money. The New York
State Rural Schools Association has encouraged consideration of this
option for several years. They work to help school districts address
issues of declining enrollment and loss of tax base. They believe that
regional high schools can enrich opportunities for secondary students by
offering full curricular, co-curricular and interscholastic programs.
They support the approach of having a hosting district administer the
programs because it keeps regional high schools within existing gover-
nance structures and does not create new layers of school governance.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.7067-A 2013/2014 - Held for consideration in Education
A.5088 2015/2016 - Held for consideration in Education
A.4284 2017/2018 - Held for consideration in Education
A.5427 2019/2020 - Held for consideration in Education
A.4959 2021/2022 - Held for consideration in Education
A.1965 2023/2024 - Held for consideration in Education
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None. Cost savings will be realized by participating school districts.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The bill takes effect immediately.
