SOMERS, N.Y. - “We’re not even at first base yet of a home run, so to speak.”
That’s the baseball analogy that Somers schools Superintendent Dr. Adam Bronstein used last month to reassure folks that the district is still at the beginning stages of its participation in the discussion of “Regional Planning” as facilitated by Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES.
Last year, the state Education Department faced blowback for its proposed regionalization initiative, which it said would make it easier for districts to collaborate and to share resources.
Opponents worried about the potential erosion of local control.
Although the state eventually backed down from making participation mandatory, many districts and individuals remained skeptical.
Somers is one of 18 “component” school districts in PNWBOCES.
The others are Bedford, Brewster, Briarcliff Manor, Carmel, Chappaqua, Croton-Harmon, Garrison, Haldane, Hendrick Hudson, Katonah-Lewisboro, Lakeland, Mahopac, North Salem, Ossining, Peekskill, Putnam Valley, and Yorktown.
In a presentation at the Board of Education’s Sept. 16 meeting, Bronstein said he felt the state had recognized “the confusion that was caused by the way in which this was initially launched.”
Some had feared that school districts around the state would “suddenly” consolidate.
As the “new guy” in the district, Bronstein said he was there to say that “that is absolutely NOT the case.”
Asserting that his top priority is to “make sure that Somers has input and voice at the table,” he promised that the district is intent on making “clear decisions about how we’re spending our dollars” and, “most importantly, clear decisions about what’s best for our students.”
Bronstein said he’s continuing to seek feedback from stakeholders such as parents, board members, and administrators.
He reiterated that nothing’s been cast in concrete yet and that the district has only committed to being part of what’s now called the “Regional Planning” process.
Bronstein shared a Sept. 10 presentation that had been made at PNWBOCES.
The 15 original participating districts last year identified “common areas of need,” namely potentially shared services related to social/emotional learning/mental health, Pre-K, transportation, workforce development, ENL programming (for ages 18-21), and school security and school resource officers.
Right now, there are four distinct “activities” that Somers is choosing to participate in the planning of, Bronstein said, adding that no money or resources have been committed “at this point.”
The first would establish a regional behavioral health support network through shared services, including psychiatric services, mobile crisis support, partial day programs, urgent care expansion (for grades K-7), and regional social-emotional learning (SEL) training.
Bronstein explained that when districts have mental health needs to address, they often have to “triage those in isolation.”
Services could be shared and more state aid accessed for current services.
Bronstein cited current limitations in the district’s ability to respond to crisis situations, such as a death in the school community. If PNWBOCES were to assemble a mobile crisis support team, that’s something Somers could tap into.
If Somers isn’t part of the planning, then it’s “subject to whatever the region decides," he said.
The second “activity” under consideration is the coordination of regional Pre-K seats and CPSE (Committee on Pre-School Special Education) provider services using a BOCES-operated model in partnership with county officials.
Bronstein noted that Primrose Elementary School offers Universal Pre-K school but slots are currently limited.
If another school district, for example, had spots that weren’t being used, Somers parents who lost the lottery might be able to access them and save a good deal on childcare.
Bronstein pointed out that whenever these activities “come online” – it could take months or years – the district is still going to have “full choice and agency over” what it commits to.
“BOCES is pursuing all of these activities for the greater good of all the component districts and we can decide what’s going to be best for Somers in the long run,” Kandel noted.
Transportation coordination was another possibility.
All school districts have a certain percentage of students who end up going to private schools
State law requires them to bus students and “in many cases they’re doing so independent of one another,” Bronstein explained.
This proposal might entail sharing transportation costs of say, transporting students to, say, the Hackley School, Iona Prep, or other private schools within a 15-mile radius.
Costs may be pro-rated based on the number of students, but the model would be a way of distributing the burden more equally.
For instance, if Somers is sending students on a single bus that’s not at capacity, combining routes would be a way of saving money, he said.
It's not just private schools. There are students who have "individual education plans" that are outplaced for special education purposes.
Bronstein acknowledged that there’s a “redundancy about this” because this is “kind of what our BOCES does anyway.”
According to Bronstein, PNWBOCES didn’t want to “reinvent the wheel” but was just looking at ways to provide additional services.
“Regionalization or not, some of these (activities) they would have come up with anyway because these were already some of the identified needs of its component districts,” he said.
Trustee Rosalind Gallino stressed that “at no point is the autonomy of the district, students or programs going to be changed in order to meet BOCES’s needs. It’s more, how can BOCES meet the complex needs of our district?”
“… in a continuing culture of efficiency,” interjected Trustee Daryl Mundis.
“There are 37 different BOCES across the state. There are going to be 37 different plans. This is our plan for our region. It’s not going to look like anyone else’s,” Kandel said.
The last of the four “activities” involved the potential development of a centralized system for internship opportunities and the chance to implement “work-based learning coordinators” across high schools.
Rather than Somers “in isolation” trying to pair high school seniors with mentors, businesses, or organizations, maybe there would be a centralized “data base” of vetted partners maintained through PNWBOCES.
The “clearinghouse” could be especially helpful to families or businesses exploring internships for the first time.
Bronstein suggested that it would be a way of ensuring that it was a “valuable” experience for seniors, whether they choose to go on to college, military service, or the workplace.
The bottom line, he said, is this will give Somers the chance to participate in the planning “for whatever this might look like in the near, or not-so-near, future because some of these things may take a while to come to fruition.”
Ultimately, if the district should decide to provide any resources or dollars toward any of the things mentioned, it would be in the form of a “co-service” for which it would then receive aid the following school year, as it currently does.
“It’s just a matter of whether we add one, two, three more things into the bucket we already have. Every other year, we could decide to take certain things out of the bucket, or add new things. It will just be additional options for us in the future,” Bronstein said.
There are also four “ideas,” concepts that are “further behind in the planning process” than the four activities presented.
The things that BOCES is “thinking about, that could ultimately save us money and be more efficient,” he said, include: shifting financial responsibility for the Pre-K/CPSE mandates to counties; securing state funding for ENL evening courses for adult learners; providing aid for school security services; and gaining funding and regulatory approval for BOCES to serve as a staffing agency for its districts.
According to its website, the district has agreed to move forward “with contributing to the process” for the four activities in the presentation.
Updated information can be found on the district’s website, www.somersschool.org, on the Board of Education’s "Community Questions & Answers" page.
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