Watkins school board discusses merger

Jul 13, 2015 at 09:31 am by Observer-Review


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Watkins school board discusses merger

WATKINS GLEN--Watkins Glen Superintendent Tom Phillips and board member Keith Caslin spent part of the Monday, July 6 school board meeting discussing the potential of looking into merging with the Odessa-Montour Central School District. The subject was raised by Caslin, who referred not only to looking at the merging of the schools' lacrosse, baseball and softball teams, but also looking at merging each school district as a whole. Phillips also voiced his support for the idea, adding he would get in contact with the Odessa-Montour school board about the matter.
"If you look back in my tenure this has been something I have continually brought up," Phillips said. "The reality is we have eight towns, four villages and three school districts in a county of under 18,500. Can anyone tell me why?"
Caslin said with declining class sizes and people moving out of the area, merging schools is becoming more of a reality. He added the school board has a responsibility to taxpayers to pursue looking at a merger.
"Schools can't continue to operate on their own," Caslin said.
While Caslin mentioned the newly formed Seneca Indians football team would be a good indication of how merged teams will work between the two school districts, he added the schools need to start looking beyond sports in order to find what is best for both taxpayers and students. Phillips agreed and said he would have liked to see more progress made with the issue during his time as superintendent.
"This is year 10 for me," Phillips said. "It is a slow process and I would have liked it to be more accelerated."
In other business:
• The board swore in new member Barbara Schimizzi along with incumbent Kelly McCarthy during the reorganizational part of the meeting. McCarthy was elected as board president, while Gloria Brubaker was elected vice president.
• The board accepted a donation of $5,729 from the sports boosters for the purchase of a helmet cart for the lacrosse team, a camera and a starter pistol for outdoor events.

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