Elementary changes at C-A met with pushback

ATHENS―The Coxsackie-Athens Central School District is getting pushback on changes that will reconfigure certain elementary classrooms this fall.

The plan, triggered by financial strain, would put all fourth grade students in Coxsackie Elementary School and all kindergarteners at Edward J. Arthur Elementary School in Athens. It’s a shift from the established system that assigns students to an elementary school based on where they live, not their grade level.

“The community is somewhat in the dark about what is going to be happening at EJA,” said Athens Village Mayor Amy Serrago.

She was speaking to Dr. Patrick Darfler-Sweeney, interim superintendent of schools, who was invited to Wednesday night’s village board meeting.

“The major reasons for this are pretty apparent,” said Darfler-Sweeney.

“The community already knows we are in a financial bind. We had a deficit approaching $3 million that forced us to decide to cut 11 teaching positions, seven of which were the elementary school,” he explained, noting that $2 million was applied in reserves to balance the 2026-27 budget which is “not a sustainable thing.”

In May, district voters approved a $38.7 million budget that came with a 2.8% tax levy increase.

“The school district, then, once the budget was passed, had to decide how to best employ the remaining teachers we had at the elementary school,” he added.

Darfler-Sweeney said he directed principals and teachers to come up with “the best makeup.”

“The decision was made by the board [of education] and trusting of their educational leaders, their principals and teachers to do such a thing,” he said.

Letters were sent out to parents of incoming fourth graders and kindergarteners, notifying them of the change. But Serrago said that wasn’t enough.

“I am wondering why it wasn’t shared with the community―the taxpayers who fund the school―sooner,” she probed Darfler-Sweeney.

“This community has been through this several times. And here we are. And this time, we got no information. We got no chance to say anything unit it was basically a done deal,” said Serrago.

“I found out about this from an irate angry citizen of the village. I just think what we are most concerned about is the lack of transparency on this and it does feel like sleight of hand because we just went through this a couple of years ago and the community vehemently fought it back,” she added.

Most recently, in 2021, the district considered reconfiguring grade groupings to make EJA a K-2 building and send all district third and fourth graders to Coxsackie Elementary.

“The school has tried a few times to make a reorganization plan that’s been met with a lot of resistance,” noted Darfler-Sweeney, adding that opposition clearly still exists.

“But despite all that, we had to make a decision on what is best for the kids because they are not doing well, and to do what we can to best keep EJA a vibrant part of our school district using it to the best of our abilities,” he said, noting earlier that Coxsackie-Athens’ students have not been performing well on state tests.

Village Trustee Alison Phoenix questioned what the change would mean for class sizes.

“They are at a comfortable 13 to 16 kids right now,” she said. “Are you going to be putting us into the realm of 20 plus?”

“There will be for some of those,” replied Darfler-Sweeney.

“And you have concerns about how these kids are doing in school and you think they are going to do better in a class of 20 plus? Maybe your issue is the teachers,” Phoenix said.

Darfler-Sweeney also pointed to enrollment, which has been declining at Coxsackie-Athens for years. According to New York State Education Department data, the district currently has 1,108 students. Ten years ago, that number stood at 1,374, down from 1,594 in 2006.

“Next year, the three biggest classes are going to be your seniors, juniors and sophomores. All three of those classes are between 93 and 98 right now. And the rest of the class sizes go down precipitously from there,” he said. “In fact, your next big grades are two grades that are three years apart and they have 81 children. The rest of those grades are between 60 and 70 on average.”

Moving kindergarteners to Athens would put them in the same building as Pre-K, providing for better focus on early literacy, Darfler-Sweeney said, while moving fourth grade to the same campus as the middle school would allow for a smoother transition next year.

“For this community it feels like a gut job,” said Serrago.

“Now, the older kids that could be role models for the younger kids are going to be gone to another place all day. They are going to be traveling longer. That takes away from their family time. That takes away from their extracurricular time and their homework and study time,” she added.

“I know it is not what you want, but unfortunately it’s the cards we’ve been dealt right now and this is the best solution that we think we can find,” said Darfler-Sweeney.

“The decision, I want you to understand, was not done as sleight of hand. It was not done to stick it to anybody. It was done with a lot of thought and a lot of care about the kids,” he continued. “In fact, I asked the administrators and teachers to forget the outside noise and concentrate on the children since that is our primary concern.”

Questions were raised about how the district could generate more revenue, with suggestions ranging from paying administrators less to selling off district-owned property.

“The board of education is in the middle of making a strategic three to five year plan so that we can get out of this hole,” Darfler-Sweeney said, adding that they have approached Rick Timbs, a nationally known forensic accountant who works entirely with schools.

“He will be looking at our processes, what we do, when we do it, are we maximizing all the investments that the school has, what else they could be doing,” Darfler-Sweeney said. “We certainly do not want to be in the same position as we were the previous few years where the district is scrambling in February to try to figure out a budget.”

Darfler-Sweeney has been serving as interim superintendent since February, following the retirement of Randall Squier. In March, the board of education hired Dr. Daniel Kalbfliesh to fill the position. He starts on July 1.