Health & Fitness
The Future for Tuckahoe High School Students
Granting Southampton High School an exclusive contract for our High School students is a bad idea.
Rather than acting as “good neighbors” and aiding Tuckahoe in a time of great financial stress, Southampton High School is holding us hostage. I attended Monday night's board meeting and got a better, but still vague understanding of what is happening. The most important point that should be noted is that, apart from the discussions of a merger, Tuckahoe is still looking to make a deal with Southampton High School for exclusivity of our high school students and this could have an impact as early as next year. There is no question that for many years now, up to and including this one, Tuckahoe families that chose Westhampton Beach for academic reasons were saving the district money over Southampton.
For years Southampton High School has been over-charging Tuckahoe residents to "accept" our children. Despite repeated attempts by numerous boards to negotiate a more equitable deal, SH refused to budge. After realizing over the last two years a majority of families were opting for Westhampton, Southampton came back and said, give us an exclusive and we'll consider lowering the rate we charge. NOTE: The offer is only on the table IF Tuckahoe gives them an exclusive. So why are we negotiating with them?
This year Southampton High School charged Tuckahoe taxpayers $22,695.00 per regular ed student per year and $76,000.00 per special ed student per year. Westhampton on the other hand charged $19,000.00 per regular ed student per year and only $58,072.00 per special ed student per year. In other words, Westhampton charged Tuckahoe from $3,660.00 to $18,140.00 LESS per year per student.
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To say that it is a “faction” of parents of current Westhampton Beach students that are pushing for an exclusive is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts. I know many of the Tuckahoe families whose children attend Westhampton and none of them ever called for any sort of "exclusivity" until it became clear that Southampton and Tuckahoe were working together to eliminate the Westhampton choice. It should also be noted that, despite the board's assertions, this discussion is not about the "quality" of education, but the "cost" of education. I attended both the SH and WH orientation programs designed to help families make an informed choice. Westhampton impressed me with their dedication to academic standards (including an offering of 24 Advance Placement Programs that can earn students college credits) and their emphasis on preparing our children for college while Southampton focused on a goal of simply getting students to graduate High School and seemed entirely uninterested in convincing us that they were the better choice.
So now SH, fearing that they will lose their sugar-daddy, is willing to make conditional reductions to tuition rates. Southampton is offering reductions that bring them just a bit lower than Westhampton's current tuition, and all of Tuckahoe should gratefully accept their “generous” offer while ignoring the long history of fleecing? That does not make sense to me or the other families who chose to send our children to Westhampton because we felt is was the best educational choice for our kids.
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I understand that the Tuckahoe School district faces great financial challenges ahead and that the board must look for ways to meet those challenges, but at what expense? Eliminating an option that has been chosen by a majority of Tuckahoe families for the last two years to placate a school that has refused to give us a break? Many people choose Tuckahoe because of the Westhampton option and we must take a close look at what affect losing that option would have on property values and education. Should we completely ignore the historic refusal of the Southampton School district to forgo the Seneca Falls Formula and give Tuckahoe a break over the last few years of decreased revenues and budget killing tax caps? Again, the merger/consolidation is a separate issue from that of granting Southampton an exclusive to our High School students.