
Tuckahoe School Board members had little information to offer about 50 concerned parents at a meeting on Monday night, less than one week after a straw vote to fold the Tuckahoe School District into Southampton’s failed in Southampton.
With more unanswered questions raised—including where Tuckahoe students will attend high school next year, and whether a merger is still possible—administrators said many answers will not be available until January at the earliest, when tuition fees are finalized for several East End school districts that Tuckahoe students might attend.
At the moment, Tuckahoe Board President Bob Grisnik announced, the district is moving forward as if it will be open for business next year; he noted that there are some reserve funds available for the 2014-15 school year. The Tuckahoe district, he said, is exploring all of its options to keep the Tuckahoe School operating without cutting educational programs, including talking with several East End districts about lower tuition rates, as well as exploring a cheaper health care option for employees and a possible bond referendum.
At the same time, Tuckahoe officials still hope to continue talks with Southampton about a possible merger. According to Tuckahoe Superintendent Chris Dyer, the school district’s attorneys clarified over the weekend that the district does not have to wait any specified time to hold another vote, as was previously thought. If the vote had gone through to the second, final vote, and that had failed, the district would have had to wait one year before presenting it to the voters again.
However, because last week’s vote was a straw vote, both districts have the opportunity to modify the plan and bring it back to the taxpayers whenever they want. However, Mr. Dyer said it is unlikely that will happen in less than six months.
The district is also working with East End legislators, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., to change state law to allow for different tax districts within one school district. That would allow the merger to go through with little to no impact on Southampton resident taxpayers.
“Tonight, we are here with sad hearts because of what happened last Tuesday night with the merger,” Mr. Grisnik said at the board meeting on Monday night. “We all know that for the betterment of the whole community a merger is the way to go. We got a bump in the road, but now we are going to continue forward—we have a school year to prepare for.”
Last week, Southampton residents voted down the proposal, 1,075 to 693, which would have merged the Southampton and Tuckahoe school districts, effective July 1, 2014. In Tuckahoe, taxpayers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the proposition, 565 to 35—a moot point once their neighbors to the east rejected the proposition, as state law dictates that both would have to approve the measure separately in order for it to move forward to a joint vote of the two districts.
For now, district officials must move on under the assumption that Tuckahoe will still be a separate school district come September. The board will immediately begin working on an operating budget for the district.
On Monday, board member Daniel Crough said the district did save some money in the reserve fund in case the merger failed. He also said that while the district will be able to manage for next year, the 2015-16 year will not be as easy.
The district, according to Mr. Grisnik, has several options to save money moving forward. First, the board will review contractual payments to see where money can be saved, or what contracts can be eliminated. For months, the district has also mulled switching to a less expensive health insurance option that will still give teachers and staff the benefits they need, while saving the district money.
Another option, Mr. Grisnik said, would be a bond vote. The district, he said, may be forced to borrow money to save educational programs.
“We do not want to compromise on any of the educational programs that we have,” he said. “We feel we have a great program for all of our children here.”
The biggest hurdle for the district next year will be tuition payments. Administrators will have to find a way to save on tuition while continuing to educate high school-age students as they leave the eighth grade. Tuckahoe administrators have already begun talks with the Southampton, Hampton Bays and Westhampton school districts, and they plan to include Sag Harbor.
On Tuesday night, Southampton Superintendent Dr. Scott Farina announced that after the straw vote, the district offered Tuckahoe the same exclusivity deal as this year at the same rate, $19,300 for a general education student and $57,000 for a special education student, provided all of the Tuckahoe students attend Southampton next year.
While the schools may provide cheaper alternatives to Southampton, many parents on Monday night expressed concern about the process, saying they do not want their children attending Hampton Bays or Westhampton Beach because they want them to be a part of the Southampton community.
Even though the merger vote failed, Tuckahoe administrators are still hoping to move forward with the annexation and have made it clear that a merger is still the first choice. On Monday night, officials said the first step is a meeting with Southampton administrators to see if they are still interested.
On Tuesday, Dr. Farina announced that the board will still be working on more solid numbers for the merger proposal, noting that a proposed combined budget, if a vote were to pass, will be presented to the community before another vote is put to the taxpayers. That would give a more realistic base for the tax rate, district budget, and the tax levy.
The announcement was in response to multiple community members who said there was too much mis-information spread in the weeks before the vote. The community asked for the board to be more open, and give more information to the public if the merger is voted on again.
The proposition, he said, will be brought back to the taxpayers after legislators have a chance to try and change regulations to allow two tax areas in the school district.
Last week, Mr. Thiele said that although the merger is on hold right now, he and Mr. LaValle are still working to make it happen in the future. He said that in January, he and Mr. LaValle will be able to petition the state to eliminate any merger-related tax increase for Southampton voters, while still decreasing taxes for Tuckahoe residents.
“This is still just the beginning of the discussion,” he said. “We have the ability to work with our colleagues in Albany and the governor’s office wants to promote consolidation where it makes sense. I am hopeful we will have a receptive ear in Albany and can come up with options to make this, from a financial point of view, palatable for everybody now.”
" According to Tuckahoe Superintendent Chris Dyer, the school district’s attorneys clarified over the weekend that the district does not have to wait any specified time to hold another vote, as was previously thought."
All through their presentations, the Tuck Board has been scaring the wits out of Tuck parents into incoherence by saying if the vote fails, they will have to wait one year before any further merger with ...more SHHS can be put to another referendum, so approve it now and all those idiotic contradictions noted will be fixed by Dec 5.
Now he is saying they really don't have to wait any time to hold another vote, even tomorrow if they should choose to do so. I believe they can't possibly be so incompetent as to study the issue for one year, with the help of their lawyers and paid experts and not have known that - just a bunch of lies meant to always deceive the taxpayers and play them for fools.
If Dyer, a very experienced Ed bureaucrat and the Board after all that expense didn't know that basic fact that they now reveal, then we are in worse trouble than we thought; a bunch of know nothing, cluless Board and Administration bumbling its way to bankruptcy!
And there's more heartbreaking idiocy: "The Tuckahoe district, he said, is exploring all of its options to keep the Tuckahoe School operating without cutting educational programs, including, Mr. Grisnik said, talking with several East End districts about lower tuition as well as exploring a cheaper health care option for employees and a possible bond referendum."
It is very clear to all that Mr. Grisnik, who has been on the Board for over 25 years and presided over the fiscal destruction of Tuckahoe and ably assisted by the clueless Crough, now says he wants to borrow more money (bond) so he can continue to tax and spend, without exploring the root source of the cause of the chronic massive spending - the huge constantly rising compensation and pensions of the union teachers and administrative staff!
So his direction instead of correcting the massive overhead of the little school is to let the compensation and pensions remain untouched (unlike so many other school districts all over the country in dire straits) and just borrow more and more which will increase further the tax load of residents.
Time to retire and let others who have better ideas and educational experience take over. You're providing no solutions within your control but doing more of the same that got Tuckahoe in trouble in the first place - FISCAL PROFLIGACY!
Now you want Southampton taxpayers to bail you out or NY State politicians but you do nothing to clean up your own house? You have been studying this issue for 1 year and invite Tuck parents to attend the meeting and you present no alternative plan of action but just more feckless meetings?
A job well done? Everyone with an IQ exceeding single digits is well aware of the disaster this Board has wrought in this community - bottom of the barrel test scores, sky high, unaffordable, union compensation, benefits, ...more and pensions, out of control taxation, a school careening into bankruptcy, clueless about how to get out of this financial and academic hole, and looked upon by its Southampton "our community" neighbors as a stagnant cesspool pit, fled, fleeing, or planning to flee property owners, and no Board pride to stop begging Southampton to please save them from themselves!
Sad to say, they control the Tuck school community, this cabal I have always called the Tuckahoe Yahoos, who are led by former Southampton residents who only came to Tuckahoe because the real estate here is cheaper, and run Tuckahoe like a piggybank, profiting from this $18.5 Million a year business directly or indirectly. But they have always seen themselves not as Tuckahoe people but Southampton people so it is Southampton or BUST!
Many of the Teachers are recommended by them, not necessarily hired for their competence but for their connections. The PTO is crawling with the Yahoos as well as the Tuckahoe Foundation all shameless supporters of this incompetent, ignorant and laughable Board, and they will have a big say regarding major contracts. That's the cabal, and they care not for academic excellence or superiority and don't mind Failure, Mediocrity, bankruptcy as long as it is "their own sponsored Failure, Mediocrity, and Bankruptcy!
Those who have to pick up the pieces are the taxpayers who have been taken advantage of through the school expenditures and contracts. A present Board member has been the recipient of several contracting work from the school - all nice and cozy arrangements. This is the Zeitgeist of the Tuckahoe School and you have paid dearly for it in very high taxes, which Southampton said no thanks to.
That's why nothing will change inspite of the screaming disaster that is Tuckahoe into an aptly called "stagnant cesspool", Southampton's words not mine. If somehow, Southampton lets down their guard and let this Tuckahoe group into their bosom, they will regret it for decades, because for over a decade, these characters cannot point to ANY ONE SINGLE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC OR FINANCIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT THEY HAVE ACHIEVED!
This Board will continue to produce one outrage after another all the way to bankruptcy and the Yahoos will always be there cheering and commending them for a job well done. Unless citizens of Tuckahoe do something, this community, school, and real estate values are doomed. Throw the bums out..
Wow! You said another mouthful. I was the pathetic and disgusting community member who commended our board and administration you so thoroughly undressed in yet another anonymous post. If your IQ is so high and think you have all of the answers than I would suggest running for the board. If you are half as good at complex problem solving as you are with insults and condescension, then we could sure use someone like you right now. Start with posting your real name. Just a suggestion. ...more "Obbservant" has one "b" in it by the way but, what do I know with my single digit IQ and all?
Sean Hattrick
You either want someone to take a stand and say no to more spending or you don't. All the students including my own who graduated after the academics got straightened out are much better off as well as those that are still there. We need more people willing to stand up and take the heat for doing what needs to be done, but after watching all the craziness, who would want to put themselves out there, not to many people. After re-reading all the old articles, it also appears that the newest current board member probably got the seat from illegal manipulation of the votes, not a surprise after reading everything I have on all these men. But why doesn't anybody care, like I said we are handing over our VERY hard earned money to these people who seemingly use to for their own advantage, there should be outrage not a-- kissing. unless of course these complementary community members are getting something out of it....you never know. Again we get what we deserve unless we are willing to take a stand or in my case, send the kids to OLH/Mercy, at least my family will be happy
The Tuckahoe kids currently attending Southampton and Westhampton Beach should not be forced from their schools nor should the threat of this be used as a bargaining tool. Enough games.
nicole guillo
As ...more for Observant's constantly refering to Tuckahoe as a "cess pool" - this former board member has her own personal axe to grind and the board she served on was every bit as destructive and divisive as this one.
No need to kill the messenger who simply delivered the clear verdict to you of the Village. Cesspool does not refer to ...more many terrific, thinking families in Tuckahoe who represent the majority of the hamlet. Many of these terrific education oriented families have already fled or are fleeing. Others nostalgic of what they once remained and had simply sent their children to OLH, Ross, Raynor, Quogue, etc., and pay, in addition to their absurdly high Tuckahoe taxes simply wasted by the Board, through the nose, the many extra thousands of dollars for the other schools' tuition to save their children from academic disaster.
It is the final result of what this Board, the Yahoos who support them, and the unions have done to the school, the community, and the children. Do you not see what happens when a diverse assemblage of Tuckahoe parents now gather and talk about the issues in school? Yes, toxic emotions, frequently recriminations and anger.
Go ahead Progressnow, ignore the obvious, and simply conclude that those who don't sugarcoat the huge problems we have are anti-Tuckahoe. Au contraire, I am a great supporter of what Tuckahoe used to be and what it can again be returned to. But if too many people refuse to acknowledge we have big, toxic problem that require radical surgery instead of just tweaks here and there, then what many Southampton parents feel about the Tuckahoe cesspool will never get fixed!