Residents request release; Sullivan West seeks options

Long Eddy residents ask school to budget for their move

By KIMBERLY M. WEYANDT

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — When Long Eddy residents came before the board last summer to request the release of their town from the Sullivan West school district, they were told that the budget was completed and their request was too late. This year, they’re not taking any chances.

When financial problems resulted in the closure of two Sullivan West buildings last year, it looked as if Long Eddy students would be facing a significantly longer bus ride. Worried about what that loss of time could mean for their children, Long Eddy parents filled the meetings, first opposing the closure of the Delaware Valley campus and later requesting their release from the district. It was then that they were told the completed budget could not suffer the loss of the income their taxes provided. It was too late.

With budget season in the near future, Long Eddy residents filled the seats of the school board meeting once more as they asked the nine school board members to keep their request in mind when planning the budget for next year.

“When you’re working on your budget, will you please take into consideration releasing the Long Eddy residents so that we don’t run into the same problem?” asked Rebecca Nevin-Gales.

According to Sullivan West superintendent Alan Derry, although the district spent approximately $100,000 transporting the Long Eddy students this year, revenues collected from the residents was $539,000. Last year the figure was around $483,000.

“Although there aren’t many students in that area, we would lose a lot of money in revenues if we let all of them go,” said Derry.

Derry said that the other issue was that not all the Long Eddy students wanted to leave. A survey sent to the 26 parents of students from Long Eddy showed that 12 wanted to stay in the district, two didn’t respond, two had contradicting responses (one parent in opposition to the other) and one was divided (parents in opposition to children).

“Is there a way to make everyone happy?” said Derry. “Could we let some go and keep others?”

One option that was mentioned was the creation of parcels. Slivers of land would be handed over to the Hancock School District; others would remain with Sullivan West.

“The problem with that is we would have islands,” said Derry, “It’s not just people on the border who want to go.”

Other issues rasied at the meeting were that childless couples were not given the survey, although their taxes would be affected. Would they be given the option to switch districts? The easiest way to divide residents would be along county lines, but “I’m hard pressed to let the entire Delaware County go,” said Derry. “That would be a huge tax burden on the rest of the district.”

“If you wanted to talk about being at the furthest reach of the district that’s not Long Eddy but the people on the opposite side of the district,” said Derry, “can we say no if we’ve said yes elsewhere?”

Currently Derry is investigating the legal issues involved in slivering out parts of the district. If it is a possibility the option will come before the board and, if approved, will have to pass through the Hancock Central School Board of Education, the Sullivan County and Delaware County district superintendents and, finally, New York State Education Commissioner Richard Mills.

“We hold the cards here,” said Derry. “We know that Hancock will vote yes to allow these students into their district.”

Although the Hancock school could legally accept students tuition-free, their board policy for 2005/2006 is that students are accepted on a tuition basis of $3,313 a year. This applies to students both from Pennsylvania as well as New York.

“The board sets that policy and they are consistent in the interpretation and enforcement with that policy,” said Hancock superintendent Terry Dougherty.