Southampton School District Proposes Five-Year Tuition Deal To Tuckahoe

Southampton School District officials have approached their counterparts in Tuckahoe with a proposed five-year tuition exclusivity deal, one that would require Tuckahoe taxpayer approval via referendum this spring.Under the proposal, Southampton would offer a 15-percent discount in 2015-16 from the non-resident tuition rate cap set by the state, as well as a 25-percent discount for special education tuition—though both rates would be higher than the amount currently paid by Tuckahoe for students matriculating to Southampton. As a condition, Tuckahoe would have to approve a tuition contract through 2020.“We want the Tuckahoe students here,” Southampton Superintendent Dr. Scott Farina said this week. “We do not want to go every year not knowing what our budget and revenue numbers are going to look like.“We would like to put this to rest for five years, so the Tuckahoe students do not have to worry about where they are going to school, and we have better projections for the future,” he added.Tuckahoe officials declined to comment on the proposal, which was delivered to the district on Friday. The Tuckahoe School Board has not had a chance to fully vet the figures or other viable tuition options on the East End, Superintendent Chris Dyer and School Board President Bob Grisnik both said this week. They hope to have a decision made by the end of this month and have scheduled a community forum on January 21.Under state law, Tuckahoe would have to hold a public referendum in the spring to approve any tuition deal extending beyond one year. The Tuckahoe School Board can, however, vote this month to approve the first-year tuition figures.According to state mandates, the most the Southampton School District is allowed to charge in tuition for the 2015-16 school year for each non-resident student is $27,069; the cap is $88,842 for each special education student. Southampton is proposing that Tuckahoe pay $23,009 in tuition, which is 15 percent below the cap, but is still 8.2 percent more than the current tuition rate of $21,263. The tuition for special education students would be $66,632, 25 percent below the state cap, but 5.3 percent higher than the current year’s $63,298 tuition rate.If the five-year plan is approved by Tuckahoe taxpayers, in years two through five of the agreement, only the incoming freshman rate would be readjusted, based on the new caps on non-resident tuition rates, as set by the state each year. Sophomore, junior and senior rates would be increased based on the annual budget-to-budget percent hike in spending in the Southampton School District.Currently, Tuckahoe sends 109 students, plus 11 special education students, to Southampton for high school; another 22 students, plus two special education students, attend Westhampton Beach High School. Tuckahoe is projecting that next year’s freshman class will contain 27 students, plus 11 special education students.At a Tuckahoe School Board meeting on Monday night, board members did not have answers for residents who had questions about the proposed deal, saying that even though Southampton had released the numbers to the public, they had only received the figures on Friday afternoon and had not had an opportunity to meet to discuss the proposal.According to Mr. Dyer, the district has received proposed tuition rates from other districts, but none for multi-year contracts. He declined to say which districts approached Tuckahoe, or how much they proposed to charge for tuition.The lack of information seemed to frustrate some of the approximately 20 people in attendance at the meeting on Monday.“How can we even consider a deal like this when we could not afford their prices with exclusivity in the past, and now they are surpassing that?” she said. “It does not sound like we can afford that now, especially over a five-year term, when we are having trouble affording a one-year term.”School Board member Harald Steudte said he understood Ms. Rissone’s concerns, and that the district is working as hard as it can to explore all options, a complicated process with the students’ best interests in mind.“At some point, when do you stop dealing with them just for exclusivity?” Mr. Steudte asked. “I would like to see it opened up to Hampton Bays and Westhampton [Beach]. If there are people who want to go to Westhampton and feel it is a better school, then power to them, and it should be opened up. If it costs a bit more then so be it.“Southampton is only looking at us as a cash cow,” he continued. “They are beating us up and beating us up, and then being nice—but in the end, all they want is our money.”In order for the agreement to go into place, the Tuckahoe School Board would have to vote to approve the year one projection and move to schedule a public referendum covering years two through five. Southampton voters would not vote on the proposal.If Tuckahoe does not approve the exclusivity agreement, Southampton would charge the full state-recommended non-resident tuition rates for all students moving forward.The Tuckahoe School Board met in executive session on Monday to discuss the five-year proposal, although Mr. Dyer declined to comment on the discussion. The board, he said, would like to schedule a meeting with the seven-member Southampton School Board to discuss the numbers.A community forum is scheduled for January 21 at 7 p.m. in the Tuckahoe School library on Magee Street. If more space is needed, the meeting will be moved to the upstairs cafeteria.“This board is striving to find a sustainable relationship with a good, quality high school, while putting the children first,” Tuckahoe School Board member Dr. Daniel Crough said Monday. “It is really that simple. But it is not an easy goal to achieve. It is not a time to poison a relationship because you are frustrated and exhausted.”