Southampton School District To Host Meeting On Thursday To Discuss Potential Merger With Tuckahoe

The Southampton School Board has scheduled a public meeting on Thursday evening for a community discussion of the proposed merger with the Tuckahoe School District.The meeting comes one week after Southampton School Board members announced that while many of them say they are still in favor of the long-discussed annexation of the neighboring district, they want to hear from the community whether this is a plan worth moving forward with.The Southampton and Tuckahoe school districts have for several years been discussing a merger to alleviate a bleak financial future for Tuckahoe, but no action was taken until October 2012, when the two districts commissioned a merger study. A plan that outlined details for the Southampton School District to annex Tuckahoe was approved by State Education Commissioner John B. King’s office in August 2013. Voters in the two districts were able to cast the first of several votes on the proposal—and in the first round, the plan was overwhelmingly approved by Tuckahoe voters but rejected by voters in the Southampton School District.According to a posting on the Southampton schools website last week, the point of this week’s meeting is to formally present the proposal to the community and increase taxpayers’ understanding of the proposal, which would annex the Tuckahoe District into the Southampton district.“After extensive review of the financials and new state legislation, the Southampton School District Board of Education is considering putting forward to voters an annexation of the Tuckahoe Common School District under a new, revised merger concept,” the statement reads. “The BOE and Dr. Farina would like to invite community members to the table to discuss the proposed merger concept and to plan ways to increase wider community understanding of the facts and support outcomes related to an annexation.”The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 11, at 6 p.m. in the Southampton Intermediate School cafeteria. At the meeting, the board and District Superintendent Dr. Scott Farina will present the new merger concept, ask to hear public opinion on the proposal, and determine if there is enough interest to move forward with scheduling votes for or against the annexation.