Aug 1, 2025
P-J photo by Sara Holthouse The Clymer, Sherman, and Panama school boards met for a joint meeting on Wednesday to discuss moving forward with the feasibility study for a potential merger of the three schools.
ASHVILLE — The boards of education of Clymer, Sherman and Panama central schools have agreed to move forward with a joint feasibility study to look into a potential merger or reorganization of schools.
Wednesday’s joint board meeting was held at the Hewes Educational Center in Ashville and began with an introduction by David O’Rourke, BOCES superintendent. David Elliot from the state Education Department was also in attendance. O’Rourke asked each school superintendent to begin by discussing why they were there having this meeting.
SIMILAR ISSUES
Beth Olson, Clymer’s superintendent, said the Clymer district is unified in supporting immediate, collaborative action to pursue a formal feasibility study with Panama and Sherman.
“This critical next step will allow us to assess the reliability of a merger that could enrich educational opportunities and ensure long-term sustainability for our communities,” Olson said.
Olson said like many rural school districts in the state Clymer is facing multiple intense challenges such as declining enrollment, citing that as of 2025 every elementary class at Clymer has less than 21 students. Rising costs also strain limited resources, and Clymer is facing staffing shortages. Olson also discussed the potential of loss of state aid. Olson noted that the current partnerships between the schools through sports and shared positions show that a partnership between the three schools will work. Additionally, she said while the past merger vote between Clymer and Panama failed, the past can teach valuable lessons and should not make them afraid or paralyze their future. The more current vote shows renewed interest in this potential merger from the Clymer community for the future, Olson said.
Both Bert Lictus, interim Panama superintendent, and newly appointed Panama Superintendent Emily Harvey were in attendance at the meeting, and Lictus gave a statement in regards to Panama’s views on the feasibility study. Lictus cited multiple struggles each school district faces, including the same ones that Olson noted, saying that is what led the three districts to Wednesday’s meeting.
“Seven years ago we explored the option of combining our schools, Clymer and Panama, for the same reasons,” Lictus said. “Nothing has changed. We cannot continue to ignore the severity of our circumstances.”
All three districts are concerned about the future and finding ways to continue to provide for students to help make them successful in their education, Lictus continued. CSP is known as champions in sports, and Lictus said there is no reason they are not able to take that same attitude and apply it to arts and academics and be state champs in all aspects of their schools.
Sherman’s Superintendent Carrie Yohe spoke third and, much like Lictus and Olson, cited ongoing challenges like the declining enrollment and financial uncertainty.
“We believe this study is an important step in how we can strengthen and expand our learning opportunities for all of our students,” Yohe said. “It will help us assess our options that may improve long term sustainability and ensure that we continue to provide high quality education in the face of reality.”
Following the opening statements from each superintendent, O’Rourke said some of the information on the table will be the same as the past merger attempt between Clymer and Panama, but some things are different such as a dramatic increase in state aid available for merged schools. A presentation highlighting this information was included in the meeting, going through what all is involved in a merger process.
“We often use this term, ‘merger’ and the state prefers the term ‘reorganization’,” O’Rourke said. “That is to create a new school district from two or more previous districts and the school districts may reorganize when one or more school districts merge or consolidate to form a single, larger school district.”
OPTIONS ON THE TABLE
O’Rourke discussed the history of reorganizations between schools in New York state, something he said used to happen quite often but slowed down in the 1990s. He noted that school district boundaries are not fixed and were created and designed to allow for flexibility and changes as needed. Some important factors when considering school district boundaries, he said, are the ability to support student needs and having a sufficient tax base.
O’Rourke said some reasons why districts consider reorganization is student population, the tax base, more resources and the ability to apply for larger state aid amounts, as well as more sustainability and additional programing and support services in the future. There is also a separate incentive for state building aid, allowing for the improvement of the building and grounds or construction of new buildings and grounds to meet the needs of the newly organized school system.
The total amount of state aid for reorganization when Clymer and Panama previously pursued a merger study, based on a time period of 14 years, was around $16.4 million. With the new revision of the law that recently occurred to reflect the current times, state incentive aid today for the potential merger between the three districts, also over 14 years, amounts to $68.8 million. O’Rourke noted that this is a dramatic increase just by changing the formula and looking at the current year’s operating aid, and it is not just an increase because there are now three schools coming together. There are more incentives available through the building aid as well.
O’Rourke briefly discussed potential tuitioning options, though he said there is no state aid available for tuitioning students. He then moved into options for reorganization, beginning with centralization of the three merged districts, which would include the entire area of the districts being merged. Annexation is another option, where a new district would be created and the annexed district would be dissolved and become part of the new district.
To begin a reorganization process O’Rourke said schools in New York state should share some type of services or expenses directly or it can be done through a shared BOCES service.
“The Clymer, Sherman, Panama partnership is a notable combination of athletic programs that has been very successful and it’s made it possible for students to have access to more programs than they would’ve otherwise had access to had the districts tried to go it alone,” O’Rourke said. “But there are other types of activities as well that could be shared and instruction, and in time it might be important and obvious that we need to be thinking about a potential reorganization or merger.”
TAKING A FIRST STEP
This is the first step towards a potential reorganization, and O’Rourke said this comes after the three districts’ asked an exit poll question to their communities that supported moving forward with a feasibility study. If the boards agree, he said the next step is asking for a request for proposals and once a responsible vendor is determined by all three boards of education, an award can be made to one organization for a feasibility study. O’Rourke discussed grant possibilities and potential funding from BOCES with BOCES aid for the study, saying that while the communities get to have a vote the state education commissioner gets to decide whether or not there is enough support from each community for a study, which is why the vote is important. Once the department is satisfied with the results of the study and the information there, then the commissioner can lay out a new district.
A number of public meetings will be held along the way of the feasibility study. O’Rourke talked about the options of how to show the state commissioner that there is enough support from the public for a study, before talking on what all a feasibility study will show in regards to enrollment, staffing, programs, transportation and fiscal implications. If a vote shows the districts are in favor of reorganization then a new district will be formed and a new board elected.
There was further discussion of state aid incentives, building options and aid, and the timeline for a study, which O’Rourke said is normally between 18 to 24 months. O’Rourke also said the state education commissioner has rarely rejected a feasibility study proposal. Board members and members of the public also had questions, including the possibility that the study may show there is an option for the merged district to use all three current school buildings. The boards then voted and approved to take the next step in the process with a Request For Proposal.
“It just means that we’re going to work on gathering up proposals, approaching teams that could potentially do this work in New York state and then coming up with some bids and presentations for the boards to consider,” O’Rourke said. “And then at that point, the board would have a second decision about whether and to whom to award this bid to help move the study forward.”
The request for proposals will be developed for free by O’Rourke and BOCES.
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