BOE expected to decide on district’s participation in Regionalization Initiative during January 9 meeting

Updated January 10, 12:25pm: The Northport-East Northport board of education voted at its meeting last night to opt out of New York State’s regionalization plan, one month after state education officials announced that participation in the plan would be voluntary. The deadline for districts to opt out is January 15, 2025.

Many board members argued that the rollout of the plan was rushed and clumsy and there was no advantage of participating in the program. The sole trustee to support the program, Trustee Allison Noonan, said she could not justify opting out, that regionalization and shared services existed for a reason and “while I understand everyone’s arguments, I understand the philosophy behind regionalization and that’s why I’m a little hesitant to opt out of something that philosophically I agree with.”

Trustee Dave Badanes was absent from the meeting.

After the board’s 5-1 vote in favor of not participating in the regionalization plan, a resolution finalizing the district’s decision to opt out of the entirety of the regionalization process was read, indicating that the district “strongly opposes any initiative that jeopardizes local control of our schools, or redistributes taxpayer dollars and resources to other jurisdictions”; and the “preservation, protection and maintenance of complete and total local control of all School District operations is of paramount importance to the Board of Education and Administration, and in the best interests of the Northport-East Northport School community, our students and our schools.”

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dave Moyer will now provide written notification of the board’s decision to the state. Paperwork previously submitted as part of the state’s Strengths & Needs Tool data will be unsubmitted.

At the upcoming January 9 Northport-East Northport Union Free School District Board of Education meeting, the board is expected to discuss and decide on whether or not to opt out of participating in the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) Regionalization Initiative. 

Last month, NYSED made edits to the initial Regionalization Initiative, allowing local school districts to opt out of the process by submitting written notification to the commissioner by January 15, 2025. To date, several Suffolk school districts have opted out, including nearby Commack and Elwood districts. 

During a conversation on the decision that took place at the December 12 BOE meeting, some trustees expressed an openness to participate in the initiative knowing that the district isn’t mandated to take part in the regional plan.

Trustee David Badanes said that the new voluntary option means the district has the flexibility to “not do something in the future.” He doesn’t see a downside in continuing to participate because of this flexibility, especially because the initiative is supposed to be focused on sharing resources and saving money. Badanes did agree with other trustees in that the NYSED’s rollout of the initiative was flawed, which they believe led to fear and misunderstanding among the public. 

Trustee Larry Licopoli said that this “could’ve been a great idea, but it was really screwed up in terms of its implementation.” He said that it’s not new for school districts to learn from each other and share resources, and there was great potential for furthering that as part of this initiative. “We aren’t going to do anything that would cost us money,” he said, but noted a potential advantage with transportation and sharing district bus fleets. 

Trustee Tom Loughran agreed with participating, knowing that the district is not mandated to follow any actions related to the regionalization plan if it chooses not to. “I can see a benefit from BOCES quarterbacking in places where there’s inefficiency,” he said. 

Trustee Carol Taylor said that she wants to opt out of the regionalization process. “I think it was clumsy, I think it was poorly executed…Let them go back to the drawing board,” she said. Taylor said that the nature of education is sharing and the NEN district is already part of a BOCES that shares services.

According to the NYSED’s Regionalization online FAQ page, local districts that choose to participate in the initiative are required to: submit the Strengths & Needs Tool data (the NEN district submitted its data on November 1); participate in regional convenings that are facilitated by the district’s BOCES superintendent to discuss aggregate needs of the region with other local districts; continuously engage and collaborate with other local districts to develop a regional plan and set of recommendations for creating and enhancing access to opportunities for all students within the region; collaborate to implement and amend the plan, as appropriate, beginning in the 2026-27 school year, if the district has an activity listed in the plan for their schools; and engage in the planning process to reflect on progress and update their plans on a 10-year cycle. 

The NYSED noted that local school districts are not required to have an activity for their schools listed in the plan, but they must contribute to conversations if they choose to participate. “Upon completion of the regional plan, school districts need only pursue implementation of activities they have agreed or consented to,” the NYSED FAQ page reads.

The next BOE meeting will take place on Thursday, January 9 at 7pm, in the Brosnan building cafeteria. The meeting agenda, which will be available three days prior to the meeting, can be found here.