A petition calling for a revote on the Schenevus/Worcester school district merger was submitted on December 2 by Schenevus resident Nicole Miskell. The hard-copy petition was given by Miskell to Dr. Catherine Huber, district superintendent at the Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES office in Milford.
By DARLA M. YOUNGS
SCHENEVUS – Schenevus Central School District Superintendent Theresa Carlin resigned during a special Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, December 27, effective December 31. Carlin stepped down just over a year after Schenevus taxpayers voted against a proposed merger with Worcester Central School. The merger had been approved in a straw vote held by both districts in September 2021, but Schenevus residents ultimately opposed the merger on December 1, 2021 amid much contention.
“I was not fired, I wasn’t going to be fired. This was my decision,” Carlin said during a telephone interview last Friday.
Nor did the failed merger have any bearing on Carlin’s resignation.
“I would have resigned anyway,” Carlin explained. “Part of my decision to leave is because I want to be in a different place, doing different things.”
The votes are in and here are how the school budget elections went around the county. We will add results as they com in.
Proposition 1: 192 for – 66 against
Proposition 2: 178 for – 78 against
Proposition 3: 187 for – 70 against
Proposition 4: 162 for – 95 against
Board Seat
Erin VanDerwerker Seely: 216 votes
Budget: 393 for – 106 against
Bus Lease Proposition: 427 for – 67 against
Village Library Proposition: 408 for – 88 against
Board Members
Peter Iorizzo: 303 votes
Cody Moore: 300 votes
Linda Ann Winchester, 64, of Ogallala, Nebraska, passed away Sunday, December 12, 2021 surrounded by her family at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado. She was born September 12, 1957 in Long Island, New York to the late Harry and Mary (Monteleone) Hults.
Linda and her family later moved upstate to Westford, New York. Linda graduated from Schenevus Central School in 1975. On July 5, 1998, Linda married Thomas Winchester in Worcester, New York. Linda worked for SUNY Oneonta for over 32 years and retired in 2012. She had a genuine passion for helping others and after retirement, she opened her heart and her home for the next ten years, to many children in need in the foster care system. She had a very giving, generous heart and loved unconditionally.
VISITING WRITERS – 7 p.m. The Hartwick College department of English presents the first reading in the Visiting Writers Series. This month will feature poet Roger W. Hecht (Associate professor of English at SUNY Oneonta) reading from his works, meeting with students, and giving insights to what its like to be a professional writer. Free. Masks, vaccination required. Eaton Lounge, Bresee Hall, Hartwick College, Oneonta. 607-431-4921 or visit www.hartwick.edu/academics/academic-departments/english-department/visiting-writers-series/
By KEVIN LIMITI • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Budget and board of education elections for schools in Otsego County will take place from noon to 9 p.m., Tuesday, May 18. In addition, schools are preparing for a second year of coronavirus-proof graduations.
Here are the details for each of Otsego’s public school districts:
Graduating seniors from any Clark Scholarship-eligible high schools are encouraged to apply for the Cooperstown Art Association’s annual Art Scholarship, for students looking to study art at the college level.
CAA will providing up to $1,400 in awards through this scholarship.
The schools eligible are: Cherry Valley-Springfield, Cooperstown, Edmeston, Gilbertsville-Mt. Upton, Laurens, Milford, Milford BOCES, Morris, Mt. Markham, Owen D. Young, Richfield Springs, Schenevus and Worcester.
Home-schooled students living within those school districts are also eligible for the scholarship.
Applications will be submitted online this year. Students can access the form on the CAA’s website, www.cooperstownart.com.
There is no application fee.
Each student will be asked to provide a portfolio of five pieces that best represent their work and artistic abilities. Images can be uploaded directly in the form. Students will also be asked to upload a document that includes the titles and mediums for each piece entered.
All submissions must be submitted prior to the deadline at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 12.
All portfolios will be juried by a local artist /art professional, to be determined by the CAA.
Funding for this scholarship is provided in part through CAA’s annual Adorn-a-Door Fundraiser and through donations from CAA members and patrons.
Melinda Tyler of Cooperstown was inducted to Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia.
Membership requires maintaining a grade point average of 3.0 or above, leadership excellence, participation in service projects, and an annual membership fee. Tyler was one of the inaugural members of the induction class.
Heidi Edmonds of Cooperstown was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest all-discipline collegiate honor society.
Edmonds was initiated at United States Air Force Academy.
Elmira College recently announced its Dean’s List for academic achievement for winter 2021.
The list recognizes full-time undergraduate students who were registered for at least 12 computable credit hours and who earned a term grade point average of 3.6 or higher. Local students recognized include: Hailey Erway of Cherry Valley; Willow Tompkins of Worcester; and Mason Weir of Oneonta.
Thomas Leahy of Otego was one of six students from SUNY Oneonta’s School of Economics and Business who were inducted into Omicron Delta Epsilon, the college’s honorary society in economics for the 2020-21 academic year.
Amethyst Gardner of Oneonta was one of 13 students inducted into SUNY Oneonta’s Edward K. Griesmer chapter of National Residence Hall Honorary.
ICE HARVEST – 7 p.m. Hanford Ice Harvest goes online. Presenting ‘Winter’s Coolest Crop: Ice Harvesting History and Culture’ with staff Liz Callahan, Andrew Robichaud, assistant professor of History whose in-progress book is a history of the ice trade in North America. They will also discuss the annual festival celebrates this community tradition. Free, registration required. Presented by Hanford Mills Museum, East Meredith. 607-278-5744 or visit www.hanfordmills.org
By JAMES CUMMINGS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
MILFORD – Milford and Charlotte Valley have emerged as possible refuges for Schenevus Central students if that financially strapped school district is force to close its doors.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, Worcester Superintendent of Schools Tim Gonzales announced “tuitioning-in” Schenevus students wasn’t in his school district’s best interest.
That came after a month of conversations after Schenevus looked to Worcester as the most sensible place to educate its students if it can’t continue on its own.
“In the beginning, tuitioning for both sides looked good. But as we dug deeper and looked more into the legal side, that’s where it got muddy,” Gonzales said.
Schenevus Superintendent Theresa Carlin, while disappointed, may have found two new angels.
“Milford and Charlotte Valley had indicated to me that they would be interested in having a conversation about tuitioning-out,” she said.
“I told them that I would love to have these conversations, but I would ask that you do your research before we do this, because I’m not going down this road again.”
Should the schools agree to tuition-in Schenevus students, however, it may be too late for the 2020-21 school year.
“All of those decisions need to be made by April 1. I don’t think between now and April 1 we have enough time,” she said. “The feeling that I’m getting from the board is that we’re not going to rush into anything.”
For his part, Gonzalez said staffing seniority rules was part of the reason for the change of mind.
“The way the statute is, any staff that’s let go becomes part of our staff. They’re put on the eligibility list for seven years,” he said. “We would have to hire their current math teacher, whoever their most senior person is.”
And should tuitioning cease for any particular reason, Worcester would be obligated to keep the more senior staff member, even if that means terminating a Worcester teacher.
Schenevus’ Carlin said her school board is disappointed. “We were hoping this would be a way for us to maintain our sustainability for a little longer, therefore benefiting our students greatly. For Worcester, it would be an opportunity to enrich their programs,” she said.
“The other thing that brings some disappointment to it is that ultimately our district would like to merge with them. And having tuitioned out, it would’ve been a positive step towards a merger.
“So now I feel like we’ve taken a couple of steps back.”
Regardless, with a merger grant awarded last month, Schenevus and Worcester will nonetheless begin the process of determining if a merger will work for both schools. There will be a special presentation from Syracuse educational consulting firm Castillo and Silky, who have been selected to facilitate the study, at a Board of Education Meeting at Worcester Central at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 22.
By JAMES CUMMINGS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
WORCESTER – Less than a month after the Schenevus Central School Board voted to begin talks with Worcester about tuitioning-out, Worcester Central School turned down the proposal, citing legal issues.
“In the beginning, tuitioning for both sides looked good,” said Worcester superintendent Tim Gonzales. “But as we dug deeper and looked more into the legal side, that’s where it got muddy,” he said.
By JAMES CUMMINGS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
SCHENEVUS – With $150,000 in state aid not coming through and a merger study still not guaranteed, the Schenevus Central school board voted unanimously on a resolution to begin talks with Worcester on “tuitioning out” middle and high school students.
“We started off the week with a very scary situation,” said District Treasurer Greg Beall. “The state did not give us $150,000 in aid. Fortunately, we received a $180,000 refund from BOCES and now we are funded for this year.”
And Theresa Carlin stressed that next year could be worse. “We don’t know if we’ll be able to function next year,” she said. “There is no indication that we will see additional state aid.”
By JAMES CUMMINGS • Special To AllOTSEGO.com
SCHENEVUS – Awaiting a merger study, the Schenevus Central School Board will meet tomorrow at 6:30 to vote on a resolution to begin conversations with Worcester about tuitioning-out students for the 2020-2021 school year.
“Tutioning-out is buying a service from another school district instead of supplying that service yourself,” said Schenevus Central School Superintendent Theresa Carlin.
Possibly the most important outcome of the recent meeting to discuss the future of the Schenevus Central School District is a quote from the superintendent: “The District’s revenues are inflexible.” She went on to say, “the District does not have property wealth or the income wealth to raise taxes enough to cover the deficit.”
Finally someone in a position of authority has admitted the truth! We live in Appalachia and Upstate New York is in a death spiral. Ironically, Schenevus is where the first gas well to be fracked is located. Would that have made a difference to the school district if it had been allowed to go forward? We’ll never get to find out, but fracked gas has undeniably made a positive economic difference in Pennsylvania. That we do know.
As it started snowing, I thought about the claims of those who protested the use of fracking on the grounds they wanted to protect the surface and ground water. You might be wondering what snow has to do with protecting our water sources.
It’s really quite simple. As soon as a snow flake falls, those same people clamor to have the roads salted. Thousands of tons of salt are spread on our roads each winter and that salt ends up contaminating our rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater – yet you don’t hear a peep about it from the folks who shouted down fracking.
Why is that? Maybe it’s because they don’t have to make a living here like the 30 percent of our population that’s below the poverty line. Maybe it’s because they don’t care if our young people have to leave to find work. Maybe it’s because they don’t care if Upstate New York is losing its population at an alarming rate.
If you doubt that, look at the number of students who graduate from Oneonta High School – less than half the number that graduated in the 1960s. The same is true for Laurens, Morris, Jefferson, Worcester, Franklin, Treadwell, etc.
The smaller schools are facing the need to merge which means a loss of identity and jobs – something we can’t afford to have happen. It has to go that way as the schools’ enrollments are too small to offer a diverse education and their tax base is declining. Those of us who choose to stay face, in order to maintain the current level of government “services,” an increase in our taxes every time one of our neighbors decides to leave New York.
As the superintendent from Schenevus so eloquently said – we simply can’t afford not to merge some of our schools. (A paraphrase.)
Look at what’s happening to the towns within the New York City watershed. The city has bought up about 90 percent of the developable property within the towns. Thus those towns have very little opportunity to grow their tax base while at the same time they are facing a 2 percent tax cap and a 3 percent cost-of-living increase.
They are in an economic vise with no way to escape. Why – because New York City will do, and has done, anything to avoid the need to filter its water. Meanwhile, the deer and beaver keep pooping in the woods.
Our area needs a source, or sources, of reliable energy now – energy that can be tapped when and where it is needed. We simply can’t afford to wait until technology catches up with our current need.
Natural gas is a reliable bridge that will allow us to start reversing the downward economic trend now before the downward spiral is irreversible. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about our planet – we do. We also realize that it takes prosperity to have the free time and available capital to protect our environment. Protecting our environment isn’t a priority for the lesser-developed countries – survival is.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable and thus we’re going to run out of them. One would have to be a fool not to recognize that and begin now to take the steps necessary to have reliable energy available when we run out of fossil fuels.
We can’t just flip a switch and make that happen – just as we can’t flip a switch and have solar energy available 365 days a year – at least not in Otsego County.
By JAMES CUMMINGS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
SCHENEVUS — With time and money running out, Schenevus Central School Superintendent Theresa Carlin gave parents three options for their district: Dissolve, tuition-out or merge.
“We cannot sustain ourselves as a K-12 district much longer,” she said at a presentation in the school gymnasium tonight. “Our number one solution is to merge with another district.”
But families who came out to the meeting were divided on which of those three choices to make.
Doug Gulotty, a Schenevus resident and former Wilber Bank president who spent 17 years as a board member and whose wife teaches at the school, favors tuitioning-out. “The identity of the school matters,” Gulotty said. “I want everyone to keep an open mind.”
By JAMES CUMMINGS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
SCHENEVUS – With its deficit heading toward $750,000, the Schenevus Central School has reopened merger talks with neighboring Worcester Central.
A forum entitled “The Future of Schenevus” is planned at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, in the school gym.
“Please join us for an evening of forward-thinking collaboration and gaining an understanding of what we need to do to maintain an institution that provides all students with a quality education,” the promotional information reads.
State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, Assemblyman Brian Miller, R-New Hartford, state Education Department representatives, Superintendent Theresa Carlin and District Treasurer Greg Beall will serve on a panel.
There a number of reasons for the financial bind, said Carlin, ranging from rising insurance costs and some poor decision making in the past.
And state aid is lagging. “We’re getting the money we would’ve gotten 10 years ago,” Carlin said.
In June, special legislation sponsored by Seward and Miller allowed Schenevus Central to borrow $500,000 against future state aid.
But it hasn’t been enough.
At least six staff positions have been dissolved, meaning that teachers are being asked to do more, including teaching classes that they hadn’t previously, Carlin said. Additionally, there are fewer electives available for students, fewer field trips, and less new equipment.
The idea of a potential merger was first raised in June, when Schenevus and Worcester school board members attended a presentation by education consultant Alan Pole, in which he explained how the merger process works.
Next, Carlin said, a $50,000 merger study must be completed by both districts to determine if a jointure is viable. Both districts have applied for a New York State Department grant to cover the cost.
If the grant is awarded in January, the two schools districts will share any additional costs.
The districts have undergone a merger study in the past, but in 1996 chose not to follow through with it. Several years ago the two districts also applied for grant funding for another study, but did not receive it.
When asked about the potential merger, Carlin expressed enthusiasm, at the possibility of “more classes, more electives, and the sports teams would be amazing”.
She said there is already camaraderie among the students: “Schenevus kids are already involved with Worcester kids.” Separated by only five miles, the schools already share a track team.
It’s the adults who might have to be convinced.
“There is a natural resistance to change,” says Tim Gonzales, Worcester Central School superintendent, “an emotional piece you can’t control.”
Should a merger take place, some may think “the community is not what it once was.”
Gonzales said he favors the merger, if the study supports the idea. “We want what’s best for the kids; my intent is to share as much as we can,” he said.
If all goes well, the merger study would begin in February and last nine months. Merger itself could take as long as two years, as both school boards and both communities would have to vote on the idea.