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With Ontario County’s school districts facing budget concerns, a potential shift to regional high schools could help save money by combining school districts, according to representatives of the Center of Governmental Research (CGR). But even if that happens, Victor students would most likely remain relatively unaffected, at least geographically.
Members of CGR — who collected data on a preliminary study on the feasibility of a regional high school — met with community members Tuesday and Thursday nights at Finger Lakes Community College in Hopewell to discuss their findings.
Under the regional high school plan, current school districts would keep their kindergarten though 8th grade classes — nine separate districts and nine separate school boards. In contrast, grades nine through 12 would be one district — with multiple facilities — and one regional board.
While many county high school students would experience a shift in where they show up for classes, Victor, Honeoye, Canandaigua, and Marcus Whitman students for the most part would not. Victor students would also not likely have to share a facility or classrooms with students from other districts.
Kirstin Pryor, a senior associate with CGR, emphasized that the information in the study represents only preliminary findings and that implementing a large change is not imminent.
“This is not a merger study,” Pryor said. “It’s important to remember no action is required.”
She added that the state does not currently have legislation for regional high schools; however, the Department of Education and the Board of Regents are pushing for “new ways of doing business.”
CGR Senior Associate Jaime Saunders said the benefits of this change would include a reduction in costs, with the big savings coming from staff reduction.
According to CGR’s figures, the current nine high schools have 460 teachers, with an approximate cost of $32.3 million. The regional high school model could potentially save $4.2 million from that figure, said Saunders.
She said a concern of the switching to the regional model would be travel time for students to get to their respective campuses. The other concern: size. The ideal school size is 800 to 1,000 students; Pryor called it the “sweet spot.” The two models presented at the meeting addressed these issues — one model reorganized the districts based on size and a second focused on travel time.
“We wanted to build the models with very different parameters,” Pryor said.
The preliminary information raised some questions: For instance, who makes the final decision on the issue? Representatives of CGR said there isn’t definitive answer at the moment.
The information presented also raised some concerns.
“This eliminates the culture (of each individual school),” said Sam Zebelman of Farmington. “It’s a good study, but a bad idea.”
With Ontario County’s school districts facing budget concerns, a potential shift to regional high schools could help save money by combining school districts, according to representatives of the Center of Governmental Research (CGR). But even if that happens, Victor students would most likely remain relatively unaffected, at least geographically.
Members of CGR — who collected data on a preliminary study on the feasibility of a regional high school — met with community members Tuesday and Thursday nights at Finger Lakes Community College in Hopewell to discuss their findings.
Under the regional high school plan, current school districts would keep their kindergarten though 8th grade classes — nine separate districts and nine separate school boards. In contrast, grades nine through 12 would be one district — with multiple facilities — and one regional board.
While many county high school students would experience a shift in where they show up for classes, Victor, Honeoye, Canandaigua, and Marcus Whitman students for the most part would not. Victor students would also not likely have to share a facility or classrooms with students from other districts.
Kirstin Pryor, a senior associate with CGR, emphasized that the information in the study represents only preliminary findings and that implementing a large change is not imminent.
“This is not a merger study,” Pryor said. “It’s important to remember no action is required.”
She added that the state does not currently have legislation for regional high schools; however, the Department of Education and the Board of Regents are pushing for “new ways of doing business.”
CGR Senior Associate Jaime Saunders said the benefits of this change would include a reduction in costs, with the big savings coming from staff reduction.
According to CGR’s figures, the current nine high schools have 460 teachers, with an approximate cost of $32.3 million. The regional high school model could potentially save $4.2 million from that figure, said Saunders.
She said a concern of the switching to the regional model would be travel time for students to get to their respective campuses. The other concern: size. The ideal school size is 800 to 1,000 students; Pryor called it the “sweet spot.” The two models presented at the meeting addressed these issues — one model reorganized the districts based on size and a second focused on travel time.
“We wanted to build the models with very different parameters,” Pryor said.
The preliminary information raised some questions: For instance, who makes the final decision on the issue? Representatives of CGR said there isn’t definitive answer at the moment.
The information presented also raised some concerns.
“This eliminates the culture (of each individual school),” said Sam Zebelman of Farmington. “It’s a good study, but a bad idea.”
