The Post-Journal sports section recently highlighted the success of the F/CV/F/R Indoor Track and Field teams.

The F/CV/F/R stands for Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Frewsburg and Randolph Central School Districts. Logically when there are not enough athletes from a given school district to field a team, the school districts merge their teams.

In my memory it was not too many years ago there were 24,000 students in Chautauqua County’s 18 school districts.

As recently as 2012 there were 20,000 students. The latest data from NY State showed only 17,000 students in the 2020/21 school year.

This dramatic decline in students is totally consistent with the collapse of the County’s population and employment in the last decade. When parents lose their jobs they move and take their school age children with them.

Why do we still have 18 school districts with 18 superintendents for only 17,000 students?

The simple answer is state law, not the state Constitution, makes it highly unlikely school districts will voluntarily merge and thereby reduce administrative overhead.

Only twice in our lifetime have Chautauqua County School districts merged. In 1958 Lakewood and Celoron merged to form the Southwestern Central School District. In the late 1990s Mayville and Chautauqua voted to merge creating the Chautauqua Lake Central School District. The State essentially rewarded this merger with an impressive new campus for the new school district.

As other school districts have drastically shrunk, like Ripley and Brocton, they have refused to merge. Why?

Under New York law, a majority of voters of each of the districts must vote to approve a merger. This is a huge impediment to merger.

In recent years, Westfield voters approved a merger with Ripley, but Ripley voters said no. Fredonia voters approved a merger with Brocton, but Brocton voters said no. Why?

New York’s Legislature and Governors have continued to pour huge amounts of State aid into tiny districts that have refused to merge. It is a good guess that State tax dollars cover 85% of Ripley’s and Brocton’s budget even though they should not be separate school districts anymore. It is a good guess that State tax dollars pay 90% or more of whatever capital projects Brocton and Ripley have desired since they rejected merger with their larger neighbors.

In other words, the state is propping up tiny shrunken districts that should not exist.

Ripley is so small, it sends its middle school and high school students to Chautauqua Lake Central.

To preside over this tiny domain of K-6 the superintendent’s salary this year is $152,000 with state retirement, health insurance and other routine fringe benefits, the total cost to taxpayers approaches $200,000.

Chautauqua County’s own Stan Lundine, former Congressman and former state Lieutenant Governor chaired a State Commission on “21st Century Local Government” which issued its report in April 2008.

The Commission concluded that, for example, a merger of two 300 pupil districts lowered the cost to taxpayers by over 20%.

The “Lundine Commission” recommended a simple change in state law that could be achieved by a simple majority vote in the Assembly and the state Senate and signed by the governor.

That simple change was as follows:

“Give the Commissioner of Education discretionary authority to order consolidation of school districts based on …… objective standards.”

Those standards would include “the number of pupils and geography, declining enrollment, limited educational programs, ability to achieve fiscal savings, and high tax burden.”

It is my memory that not a single one of the 150 state Assemblymen, Republican or Democrat, nor a single one of the 62 state Senators, Republican or Democrat, ever introduced such a simple change in New York law.

One would think about $200,000 for a superintendent of a K-6 District could be better spent on, for example, three new teachers offering new language courses like German, Russian or Chinese. Or three new Advanced Placement courses taught by teachers in the classroom, not on a computer screen from some remote location.

Our own Stan Lundine pointed the way to better schools for our children at less cost to New York taxpayers. He raised the flag but nobody in Albany saluted.

For those who oppose a school merger because of an emotional attachment to their tiny, shrinking school district, I point to Stan Lundine asking a local audience a few years ago “Who wants to eliminate the Southwestern Central School District and go back to a Lakewood and Celoron District?”

Fred Larson was Chautauqua County Attorney from 1998-2005, Industrial Parks Task Force member from 1998-2001 and a Chautauqua County Legislator from 1986-1994 and in 2014.