CRCS Weighs ‘Three-School’ Option

COBLESKILL — Cobleskill-Richmondville is looking to secure its future in coming academic years, including a look at the district’s current enrollment and use of resources. This may mean a look at a variety of options, according to Superintendent Matt Sickles.

Sickles said that the district has been looking at the changing budget and enrollment situation facing the school. Since starting his role in 2022, the superintendent said that CRCS has had to make difficult decisions in budgeting each year. While some positions have been cut via attrition, there has been at least one round of layoffs. With uncertainty at the state level, being prepared is key, he said.

The district benefitted from COVID-related funding that has been phased out in recent years. As a result, the district has been doing more with the resources at its disposal.

In particular, the district’s declining enrollment has been a major factor. In 1993, the district included about 2,200 students. By 1998, the year that the current high school opened, enrollment peaked at around 2,280 students. By 2004, the year of the current footprint of the district and its campuses, enrollment stood at 2,208.

Today, the figure stands in the 1,400s. The district has seen an enrollment decline of about 5 in the last generation, said Sickles. While the decline has not been as sharp as in other local districts, the trend appears to be accelerating.

CRCS must be prepared to use its current resources in the best possible fashion for current and future students, said the superintendent.

“If you have space, you find a way to use it,” he said.

The district started its process of considering long-range options in January. At the end of that month, Sickles made the recommendation for such planning, saying that there was “no indication funding would get easier. We have to acknowledge the enrollment decline.”

Rather than attempting to fix myriad problems year to year, Sickles said that the hope is to “provide the best opportunities for our students well into the future.” This includes not only current enrollees, but the future of CRCS’ classes.

By March, the school put out an RFP (request for proposals) about its long-term options. It weighed a number of consultants and ultimately chose Capital Area School Development (CASDA), which the school has worked with in the past. The agency has been around for about 70 years and works with SUNY Albany. The cost was within a responsible range, said Sickles, and the contract was awarded in June.

Since then, CASDA has “walked every inch” of CRCS property and reviewed the district’s finances. 

Now, as the new school year is underway, the consultants and the District are each looking at community engagement. The school board appointed a committee to help: the District Planning Advisory Committee, or DPAC. The DPAC committee wouldn’t have a vote in the final plan, but would give advice to Sickles, the school board, and the consultants. On Oct. 14, the district held a workshop with students between grades 8-12, then opened it up to members of faculty and staff, then to the general public. About a dozen employees and a dozen members of the public attended.

Meanwhile, the study is continuing. The consultants are finishing a draft and survey for the public. This includes a student survey to review “programs and opportunities” and a survey for the community that includes “financial realities, declining enrollments, and difficult choices,” according to Sickles.

Ultimately, the school district carries a “lot of overhead,” said Sickles. This includes the role of getting students in an area covering 182 square miles— just a hair larger than Middleburgh’s 179— to school and back safely each day. This puts CRCS well in the largest 10% of school districts in the state.

“That’s big,” said the superintendent.

The district is facing the same critical bus driver shortage as local districts. In recent years, the problem has been partially mitigated by having retired bus drivers help with existing shifts. However, the issue is accelerating. The district only has about half of the drivers that it had before COVID, the superintendent said. This means fewer runs, and that bus trips are “even longer.” Currently, it is “labor prohibitive” to do a divided run between the elementary schools and the junior/senior high school. This means that some students are arriving at the high school at 7:25 am, then at Radez, then at Ryder/Golding at 8 In the afternoon, the situation is reversed, with students loading at Radez at 2:25, then at Ryder/Golding at 3:05. For some students, this means adding more than an hour’s time on the bus each day.

“The consultants really honed in on that,” said Sickles, as did students.

Ultimately, the draft proposal will likely include a choice between changing CRCS to a three-school model or keeping all four existing schools open. The high school is the best equipped due to the science labs and athletic equipment and fields. Closing Ryder or Golding would be effectively impossible since they are linked buildings, said Sickles. 

“It’s the reality we have to engage in,” he said. If the school board “ultimately decides” to “possibly further advance” a three-school model, then it would be “a question that needs to be entertained.”

Short of a full-on “budgetary crisis,” Sickles said that any plan would take place over several years. There would be consideration about the current and potential roles of each building on campus.

Such a plan would require “a lot of community engagement,” said Sickles. It could ultimately unfold over the next three to six years, though critical budget issues could cause the “district [to find] ways to advance sooner.”

“We’re trying to determine: Is this something we have to consider on a deeper level and start to plan for?” said Sickles. “This is not fun stuff,” he added. The overall determination would have to weigh “culture, emotion and history” tied to each part of the district.

The superintendent said that he and all involved would “owe it to C-R to ask the tough questions to secure the future of our students.”

“It’s difficult, emotional work,” he said. “It’s scary.” However, the obligation requires a fair look “even in the face of this discomfort.”

Surveys will likely be finalized between Nov. 9 to 16 and would be open for responses for between 10 and 14 days.

Regardless of where the district ultimately heads, this issue is not going away. Local school districts have been facing significant declines in enrollment, with some talk starting about possible mergers between Middleburgh and Schoharie and Jefferson and Stamford.

Despite the discussion about a possible reduction in the actual floor space used by the district, such a plan would be less likely to include significant layoffs. There is still a raw number of teachers needed to educate students, Sickles said. The district has stabilized the current system at five sections “across the board,” which would be likely to stay. Fewer buildings may also make travel easier for teachers.

If the district considered any significant changes, it would likely make it “more tenable for the district to stay within the tax cap,” said Sickles.

The consultants and the district would chart out different options in coming months. This includes possible savings for a three-school model, as well as the funding and tax levy likely necessary to keep all four buildings open.

“I appreciate the impact on taxpayers,” Sickles said. He and the district don’t want to cut any classes or services “for the sole sake of maintaining four buildings.”

The preliminary consultant’s report is expected in mid-January, and after that the CRCS’s elected school board would make all of the decisions. One option is to empower the superintendent to make further steps in one direction or another. The school board has “come to appreciate the realities of declining enrollment and budgetary realities.”

Regardless of the direction CRCS heads, Sickles said that it is crucial to get more public input. The hope is to ask the average resident “what creative solutions and/or sacrifices are you willing to consider so that our students have the best educational programs and opportunities as possible.”