The Roslyn Board of Education opted out of the state’s Regionalization Initiative during its Dec. 16 meeting and reserved its right to take legal action if forced to participate in a unanimous vote.
While announcing the decision, Board President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy explained that “sharing of resources is something that can be extremely beneficial, and that’s why we do so much of it, in such a large measure where it makes sense,”
She went on to add that the district is always looking for new and creative ways to collaborate with other districts, but “it should not be regulated in this fashion or mandated in any other way. It’s optional now and it needs to stay that way,”
Waxman Ben-Levy mentioned numerous examples of collaboration that she contended the Roslyn School District already does including transportation, combined school teams and other programs.
While praising the leadership of school officials like Allison Brown, district superintendent, Waxman Ben-Levy also said she believed that the decisions for the Roslyn School District should be made by those in the community.
“We supervise it, the Board of Education, Allison, and our administrators supervise it. There are so many ways we do it,” she added. “We do a lot of it; we do it to serve the community, effectuate savings and we do it where it makes sense,”
The board’s resolution announcing the decision said it was made because the preservation, protection and maintenance of local control of all school district operations is of paramount importance to and in the best interests of the Roslyn community
A committee of the state Board of Regents voted unanimously Dec. 9 to amend the language of regulation to confirm that regionalization would be voluntary and that districts would have the option of not participating in the planning process.
“Throughout the 60-day public comment period, the department has engaged with stakeholders across the state and gathered feedback on the proposed amendment,” the Board of Regents resolution states. “This outreach reflects the department’s commitment to ensuring all students have equitable access to high-quality educational opportunities while respecting the unique needs and priorities of local communities.”
School districts which choose not to participate in the plan are to provide written notification of their decision to the Education Department prior to Jan. 15, 2025, and must provide an update to the state if they wish to remain opted out every 10 years.
The Roslyn School District joins other Long Island districts such as Great Neck, Syosset, and the Wantagh School Districts that decided to opt out of the program.
The Education Department introduced the regionalization initiative in an effort to close regional gaps in teacher recruitment, advanced course offerings, and funding and aid.
An emergency regulation in September pushed the program forward, which drew opposition from many Long Island schools. The pushback included a legal filing, which multiple Long Island school districts joined.
The state requested a Strengths & Weaknesses Tool to gather initial information on each district.The regionalization planning process has five steps, which does include the final step of regional plan implementation, according to the state Department of Education website.
Opponents said the initiative is a threat to local control because the state is giving too much power to the state and to the BOCES superintendent, who is the regional representative for local districts.
