CAZENOVIA — On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Cazenovia Central School District (CCSD) presented the first of a series of town hall meetings on its merger exploration process with the Morrisville-Eaton Central School District (ME).
The event, held at the Nelson Town Offices, was aimed at informing the public about the factors that led to the consideration of a merger, the next steps in the merger exploration process, and what a merger may look like if the communities choose to proceed.
“This really is an informational session,” CCSD Superintendent Christopher DiFulvio said at the beginning of the meeting. “The district hasn’t [decided] to merge or not merge; those decisions are left up to the community.”
ME initially approached CCSD about the possibility of a merger in October 2023. The two districts, which already share some programs, attended a joint meeting in January 2024 to discuss a potential merger.
In the spring of 2024, DiFulvio asked every bordering district if they were interested in exploring a comprehensive merger study; only ME was in favor.
In June 2024, Cornell University professor and researcher John Sipple, Ph.D., presented “School District Reorganization: Enrollment Decline and Community Vitality in Cazenovia,” to the CCSD community.
In the summer of 2024, both boards of education passed resolutions authorizing their supervisors to pursue a joint merger feasibility study to gather comprehensive data on a merger’s potential benefits and challenges. A resolution to study a merger does not guarantee that the merger will occur; the study is an exploratory phase.
The two districts recently collaborated to prepare an application for a New York State grant to help cover the cost of the study, which is estimated to be around $100,000 total.
The CCSD and ME study would be eligible to receive up to $40,000, as the state will award up to $100,000 to support merger studies, with a maximum of $20,000 per participating school district. The application deadline was Jan. 24, 2025.
ME’s situation
ME Superintendent Gregory Molloy began the presentation by describing the factors that led him to invite CCSD to consider pursuing a merger study.
Molloy, now in his ninth year as ME superintendent, graduated from the district in 1995 and is the son of a former ME superintendent.
When he became superintendent, not long after Hamilton Central School District voters rejected a proposed merger with ME, Molloy was tasked with restoring programs lost over the previous 20 years due to declining enrollment and reduced state aid.
“We started this process of figuring out how state aid works, trying to maximize formulas, taking advantage of every way we could bring extra aid into our school district,” Molloy said. “It worked. We were able to bring back more music, and we were able to start an agriculture program — a very impactful, strong, thriving program. [We] brought in a reading program, reading specialists, [and] we had mental health providers. There’s a list of things we were able to do.”
He added that although he achieved his mission within his first two years as superintendent, the district’s financial challenges did not disappear.
“We continue to have decreasing enrollment, [and] we continue to actually become wealthier — our property wealth in our school district, I think, is driven by the couple of lakes we have in our community,” he said.
Due to those factors, the district is at a disadvantage in terms of receiving state aid.
While ME was able to sustain some of its programs using short-term COVID-19 relief funds, it also investigated possibilities for addressing the anticipated budget challenges after the federal dollars stopped coming in.
According to Molloy, the district considered five options; exploring a merger was at the bottom of the list.
He recalled that when he started looking into merger opportunities, he knew he had to do his due diligence, but he hoped to rule out the option and check it off the list. However, as he learned more about how students could benefit from the financial incentives associated with merging, it became increasingly difficult to identify why it shouldn’t be explored.
“I started to look at it through the lens of, ‘It’s not about me being a member of [the Morrisville-Eaton] class of 1995; this is about the kids who are going to be Mavericks of the class of 2035,’” he said. “It’s looking forward versus looking at our past.”
In addition to his deep roots in ME, Molloy has strong ties to CCSD. His eldest child is a recent Cazenovia High School (CHS) graduate, his son is a junior at CHS, and his youngest daughter is in fourth grade at Burton Street Elementary School.
“What I am proposing will have a direct effect on my own [daughter],” he said. “I wouldn’t be proposing this if I didn’t feel so strongly [that] this is something that is going to actually benefit her. I wouldn’t propose this if it was going to have a negative, adverse effect on the community that I grew up in and the kids that I serve in Morrisville. . . . I’m [not] at a point of [thinking] this has to happen; I don’t think anybody is. We want to [continue to] learn. What are we missing? We want to know everything.”
According to Molloy, DiFulvio was not the first superintendent he contacted to discuss a potential merger. Initially, he spoke with neighboring superintendents in his district’s BOCES region, but they did not express interest in learning more about the concept and whether it was worth exploring.
ME identified CCSD as a suitable merger exploration partner in the summer of 2023.
At that time, a merged CCSD and ME district would have received a total of about $30 million in reorganization incentive aid over 14 years. The combined district would have received about $3 million per year for the first five years, after which the amount would be scaled down annually. By the 15th year after reorganization, the new district’s incentive aid would be zero.
“$30 million was enough to address the challenges that both Morrisville and Cazenovia were experiencing to get through some of the fiscal stresses that we’ve been facing the last couple of years,” said Molloy. “. . . The conversation that I had with Mr. DiFulvio was [about how] we could do so much for our kids with this kind of funding; at the very least, [we could] save the programs that we’ve got for generations of kids.”
Last spring, NYS created a new reorganization incentive aid formula, nearly doubling the amount of money that a merged CCSD and ME district would receive. Under the new system, the combined district would receive about $60 million over 14 years. It would receive about $6 million per year for the first five years, after which the amount would be scaled down annually.
“We legitimately, in my opinion, would have more money than we know what to do with,” Molloy said. “We would figure out something to do with it, but it’s a great problem to have.”
In addition to the extra operating aid, the merged district would benefit from a significant building aid enhancement.
Cazenovia’s situation
According to DiFulvio, CCSD faces many of the same financial challenges as ME.
“Our wealth ratio is going up, which means our state aid is going down, and, at the same time, our tax rate has been declining, so it has been the perfect storm,” he said.
Those issues are piled on top of challenges presented by the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA), a program that reduced state aid to public schools from 2010-2017 to help close the NYS budget deficit.
According to Assistant Superintendent/School Business Official Thomas Finnerty, who was present at the town hall, CCSD saw a total loss of $8,089,757 in funding from 2009-2017 due to GEA.
Finnerty stated that CCSD took some drastic measures to address the losses associated with the GEA. For example, it cut around nine positions from its facilities department that have still not been replaced.
“For a district our size, typically you see about 30 people in the facilities department; we have 19,” he said. “[The] district [also] used fund balance, which is like the district’s savings account, to make up for some of these shortages of state aid. We spent our savings account, and that ended up putting the district in what is known as ‘moderate fiscal [stress].’”
Moderate fiscal stress is a rating given by the NYS Comptroller’s Office to local governments or school districts that are experiencing financial strain but to a lesser degree than those in significant fiscal stress.
“For the next few years after this, we worked diligently to get out of that, and right now we are on solid ground,” said Finnerty. “We got a zero, which is a perfect score when it comes to fiscal distress. So, we’re in good shape right now. [However,] we’ve now been appropriating fund balance to deal with our shortages in revenue versus our increases in expenditures. I’m sure your households have seen increases in expenditures, just like we have. So, GEA is what really kind of got things going to send us down a bad path about 15-16 years ago.”
DiFulvio pointed out that in past years, CCSD made it a point to have low or no tax increases. While those decisions were considerate of local taxpayers, the lack of consistent revenue increases makes the district vulnerable to economic downturns. In other words, it lacks a buffer to absorb unexpected financial shocks.
In 2023, CCSD sought a supermajority budget vote due to its ongoing financial constraints. Voters approved the budget, which, according to DiFulvio, “helped close the [budget] gap a little bit.”
A budget requires approval by a supermajority (60 percent or more) of voters if the proposed tax levy increase exceeds the district’s tax levy limit, calculated using the NYS property tax cap formula. If the proposed tax levy increase is within the limit, a simple majority of voters (50 percent + 1) is required for budget approval.
CCSD sought another supermajority budget vote in May 2024. Voters rejected the original proposal and ultimately passed a revised budget. The approved budget was at the district’s calculated tax levy limit and included a reduction of approximately $400,000 compared to the rejected proposal.
According to DiFulvio, the failure to pass the supermajority budget last spring has added to the budget deficit the district is faced with this year.
DiFulvio’s presentation highlighted the district’s history of efficient spending and its demonstrated ability to operate effectively with limited resources. However, it also acknowledged that the budget deficit created by current inflation, salary increases, changes in state funding, and other factors is significant, and a tax levy under the district’s levy limit is insufficient to address the current financial shortfall.
The district was recently estimated to be facing a $2.35 million gap between estimated expenses and estimated revenue. According to Finnerty, that estimate does not account for appropriated fund balance or spending cuts. It does account for going out at the maximum allowable tax levy increase.
“It’s important to remember that these numbers are subject to change as more information is learned,” Finnerty said. “The tax cap calculation is not finished yet, and final numbers for state aid and expenses are not known yet either; they will become clearer over the next few months. We will likely see a different gap amount on Monday at the budget workshop as more [information] becomes available and I have time to enter them into my budget model.”
CCSD’s foundation aid from the state is projected to increase by $151,171 next year, reaching $7,709,723, a two percent rise from the current year’s $7,558,552. With the foundation aid increase, the district is still expected to experience a deficit of funds.
To address its budgetary challenges, the CCSD community must make big decisions, according to DiFulvio. He presented the following options: consistent tax increases — an estimated five years of supermajority budgets — to meet increasing costs; cuts to programs, athletics, and services; use of fund balance, which is projected to be depleted in five years if it continues to be appropriated at the current rate; and merge for increased state aid.
Merger exploration: potential next steps
CCSD and ME expect to hear back about their merger study grant application sometime toward the end of the school year.
“At that point, if we get the grant, either board could still say they are not interested and walk away,” said DiFulvio. “They may say, ‘We got the grant, we are going to do it,’ or they may say, ‘We didn’t get the grant, we are going to do it.’ We don’t know.”
If commissioned, the study would explore the potential impacts of merging on education, finances, the community, governance, administration, and long-term sustainability.
The analysis would take about nine months, during which focus groups would gather community, faculty, staff, parent, and student input.
The NYS Education Department (NYSED) would review the results, which would present information on academic performance, program offerings, educational facilities, cost savings, state aid, tax implications, debt service, demographics, transportation, stakeholder input, district leadership, collective bargaining, legal and regulatory compliance, enrollment projections, and strategic planning.
The school districts would consider the findings and share the information with the public through presentations in both communities.
The CCSD and ME boards of education would then individually decide to reject the merger, delay its decision, reevaluate the merger plan, conduct further analysis, modify the merger plan, or move forward with the merger process.
According to the state regulations at the time of the town hall, the school boards would have two options for moving forward. The district communities could have separate non-binding “straw votes” to see if the public supports the merger, or the boards could appoint individuals to collect petitions from the communities.
If the school communities favor the merger, NYSED would assign a date for separate binding votes.
“[There] is potential that the straw vote goes away,” said DiFulvio. “There is discussion on that. . . . Community members have reported that it is confusing to have two votes. I don’t know what they will do.”
Merger implementation: what could it look like?
DiFulvio explained that if both communities approve the merger, the districts will begin the process of merging operations,
which can be a complex and multi-year undertaking.
“I’m not going to promise it would be perfect,” DiFulvio said. “It’s reasonable to expect bumps in the road. We would focus on [the] kids.”
According to the superintendent, merged school districts have used their increased funding for various purposes, including reducing expenses; using the money for 15 years to prevent exceeding the tax cap; making contracts competitive; maintaining employees; freezing, stabilizing, or lowering taxes; and creating long-term financial stability.
“I can’t promise what a new district would do, I can only tell you that these have been typical practices,” DiFulvio said.
Regarding the geographical size of the merged district, DiFulvio reported that the 113-square-mile CCSD and 79-square-mile ME would combine into a medium-sized district. In terms of student population size, he stated that if all the ME students were to arrive at Cazenovia tomorrow, CCSD would be roughly the size it was 20 years ago. At that time, CCSD’s enrollment was 1,824; today, a combined CCSD and ME enrollment is 1,967.
DiFulvio and Molloy next outlined three possible centralization scenarios. In any scenario, a new board of education would be established for the merged district.
In Scenario A, the “Merge but Stay the Same” model, students living in CCSD would continue to go to Burton Street, Cazenovia Middle School, and Cazenovia High School, and students in ME would continue to attend ME Elementary School and ME Middle/High School.
“You’ve got the Cazenovia Lakers and the Morrisville Mavericks,” said DiFulvio. “That’s the scenario that Superintendent Molloy originally proposed to the Cazenovia School District.”
DiFulvio stressed that because it is impossible to predict or dictate the actions of a future school board, he thinks it is important to be transparent about what other scenarios could play out and what they could look like.
“There are no guarantees about what the new district would decide to do,” he said. “Part of the study is gathering input. Until we have that input, it will be difficult to know exactly what the school communities would be most interested in. However, slow and steady wins the race, and we believe that [if the districts were to merge,] continuing to operate all buildings [is] the most practical approach . . .”
Molloy presented Scenario B, which he described as his favorite but the least likely to occur.
In that model, students living in CCSD would go to Burton Street, and students in ME would go to the ME Elementary School. For grades 5-7, all students would go to the current ME Middle/High School building, and for grades 8-12, everyone would attend Cazenovia High School.
“I like it because it utilizes our facility, and it has a little bit of sharing on both sides of the community,” Molloy said. “[However,] it is unrealistic to think this would actually be a real future because of the community structure of Cazenovia. All your schools are central, right in the village, and I can’t envision the Cazenovia community wanting to have their kids walk to elementary school and walk to high school but have to be bused 15 minutes away to go to middle school.”
In the more likely Scenario C, students living in CCSD would continue to attend Burton Street, Cazenovia Middle School, and Cazenovia High School. Students in ME would go to the ME Elementary School building for pre-K through seventh grade and then combine with the CCSD students at Cazenovia High School for grades 8-12. The ME Middle/High School building would be closed.
The final topic of the presentation was identity integration, a key part of the merger process that would involve students, community members, and both districts.
Molloy pointed to cultural integration as one of the most challenging aspects of merging school districts, noting that it can be particularly hard for students in their final years of education who have deeply rooted expectations about their school experience, programming, and traditions.
“The ‘Merge but Stay the Same’ approach acknowledges this difficulty,” he said. “. . . Instead of immediately consolidating into a single high school on day one, an approach that could disrupt these long-standing identities, this model proposes maintaining the existing [schools] while unifying under a single administrative and district umbrella. This structure would preserve the essence of each school community while allowing for a smoother transition. Meanwhile, the ‘Let Evolution Take Its Course’ approach recognizes that, over time, operational efficiencies and economies of scale may make the transition to a single high school inevitable. Rather than forcing an immediate shift, this strategy envisions a gradual, strategic, and methodical evolution, ensuring that changes occur in a way that gives students, families, and staff time to adjust. By allowing the district to adapt naturally over time, rather than implementing abrupt changes, this approach prioritizes both stability and long-term sustainability.”
The town hall concluded with a public comment period, during which attendees were invited to ask questions and provide feedback.
Additional town halls are scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Fenner Town Offices, Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. in the New Woodstock Library Children’s Room, and Thursday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. in the Cazenovia Public Library Community Room.
A merger FAQ and other information about the merger exploration process are posted on CCSD’s “Merger-Reorganization Information” webpage. Additional FAQs and information will be added after the town halls.
CCSD Board of Education meetings are open to the public, and community members are encouraged to attend. Meeting dates are listed on the district website and the school calendar. For more information, visit cazenoviacsd.com/board. To contact the entire board, email [email protected].
Anyone not directly affiliated with CCSD can sign up for the ParentSquare Community Group to receive newsletters and other information. Sign up at parentsquare.com/community_signups/94dc9c19-0570-4ecd-bd7a-868cb499bc46/new.