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It's becoming clear, as we move through the state-prescribed consolidation process in Clymer, Sherman and Panama, that the state should consider changes to its school merger process.
The process begins with a nonbinding referendum vote during a school budget vote and board election to approve a study. The boards then approve a consultant. Then, the communities have to vote a second time to schedule a vote – either through what is known as a straw vote or through a petition drive that signals the communities' agreement to set a final vote. If all those steps are approved, then the communities involved can actually hold a binding vote.
Panama village officials have, a couple of times during this process, used Village Board meetings to set the record straight when village residents have raised concerns. That happened recently during the petition drive. Some village residents have been concerned with people coming door to door to get signatures and have checked with village officials to make sure the petitioners were legitimate.
We can understand the need for off-ramps on the road toward a possible school merger. It's an important decision that is being asked of Clymer, Sherman and Panama district residents. And, in our view, the districts have done a good job of making sure the public is informed through community meetings and a coordinated voice led by White and Partners to facilitate the process, including the hiring of Shelly O’Boyle as the merger study project coordinator.
But we can also see how the process can be overwhelming for some – particularly those who don't have children attending one of the school districts and aren't actively taking part in the deluge of information.
Schools around the state are facing many of the same issues as Clymer, Sherman and Panama. Declining enrollments make it difficult to offer the type of courses that many students want and need while rising costs to educate fewer students put local school boards in the position of trying to balance budgets without increasing taxes beyond what local taxpayers can pay. Mergers are one way to solve those problems, but the existing rules make the entire process both confusing and difficult to achieve.
In August, the potential merger of the Hancock and Deposit central school districts didn’t advance to even the straw vote after the Hancock School Board was deadlocked on the vote to set the vote. The potential merger of those districts had been under discussion since March 2025. The Cazenovia and Morrisville-Eaton districts in Central New York are also moving through a potential merger process.
In our opinion there should be a change in state law to streamline this process. The double-vote system should be replaced with a single statutory vote that is preceded by community forums. While it hasn't been a problem locally, if voters really want to consider mergers but face a school board like Hancock that is split on the issue, the state should allow regional shared-services panels or voter petitions to force the issue. And, for smaller school districts that are often the ones considering mergers, the state Education Department could create a template for districts with fewer than 500 students that handled data and logistics through local BOCES rather than independent studies.
School mergers shouldn't be rubber-stamped, but they shouldn't be this difficult either. This is a process that should be changed.