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Merger Plans Discussed By Feasibility Committee

The Feasibility Study Committee are split into to two groups to discuss the potential merger between Panama and Clymer central schools. P-J photo by by Jordan W. Patterson

CLYMER — Scenarios involving a merger between Clymer and Panama central schools were discussed Wednesday during a meeting of the Feasibility Study Committee.

The committee, which met in Clymer, was accompanied by the three member team from Learning Design Associates, Tom Schmidt, Marilyn Kurzawa and Dave Kurzawa. Many topics were recapped and revised Wednesday, including transportation and building usage should a merger between schools takes place.

Schmidt emphasized that it was too early to tell whether their final report will include the recommendation to close one of the buildings. The committee received a handout that included a list of solutions from previous schools that were forced to close a building for various reasons.

For example, Olean City School District closed two elementary schools and sold the buildings to private businesses. In Dunkirk, School 2 is used for the Veterans of Foreign Wars; School 3 is used for apartments; and School 5 is used as a warehouse. For a community that is closer to size as Clymer and Panama, Mayville closed their central building and turned it into office space and a court house.

“I don’t have the answer for that yet,” Schmidt said when asked if he believed a building will be closed if the schools merged. “I won’t have (an answer) until after we write our report. It’s one of those things where we just don’t know.”

When it comes to transportation, Learning Design Associates can only make recommendations to New York State and have a minimal role in figuring out bus routes. Transportation will fall back to the new Board of Education if a new school district is formed.

“If we suggest a merger, we’ll put together some guidelines for busing,” Schmidt said. “It’s up to the boards to create policies and up to their (transportation department) to create the routes … using routing software.”

Dave Kurzawa, at the top of the meeting, presented two hypothetical situations if a merger were to take place. The two situations were suggested by two different committee members. One plan suggested that both buildings be kept open while the other suggested the closing of Clymer Central School’s building.

The plan that kept open both buildings proposed a reduced spending of $1.5 million. This hypothetical plan would also include cuts, which included cuts to teaching staff, coaching staff and a consolidated bus garage. In this plan, the committee member suggested that each building keep their respective elementary schools and then the middle school would be held in Clymer and the high school would be held in Panama.

The second plan that suggested the closing of the school building in Clymer estimated that the new school district would save $326,900 per year from the closing.

The committee was then split into two groups, one that was in favor of merging and the other that was not. The groups were then asked to review the topics of staffing ratios, administrative staffing, possible cuts or additions, uses of incentive aid, building usage, transportation plans and food service.

Both agreed that closing one building would make sense financially but both groups felt that they didn’t want to see one building go to waste. When it came to transportation, the groups didn’t come to an agreement on how it would get done but agreed that there should be a max time that students were on a bus, ranging from 30 to 45 minutes.

Marilyn Kurzawa noted that despite the two groups having different opinions on merging, the proposed plans were extremely similar.

The suggestions made were hypothetical, though Learning Design Associates could include them in the state report.

Starting next week, the group will sit down to draft a report, which will be submitted on Sept. 11. If the state approves the recommendation, both boards of education from Clymer and Panama will have to agree to the terms that the state approved. After that, there will be a “straw vote” in both communities on Nov. 6, both of which have to be in favor of a merger to move forward.

If the straw vote comes back in favor of a merger, then there will be a final vote to solidify the merger plans. The difference between the “straw vote” and final vote is that the former is to see if there is interest in a merger in the first place, according to Dave Kurzawa.

“It’s a warm up vote,” he said.

The final vote, pending the events in September and November, will be held Jan. 11.

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