Thursday, October 1, 2026
The East Meadow Board of Education expressed opposition to the State Department of Education’s newly implemented regionalization plan, which seeks to standardize educational services in schools across New York.
The education department presented the initiative as part of a collaborative planning process, and includes all school districts outside of Albany, Buffalo, Mount Vernon, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Yonkers, which are city school districts that are already consolidated.
The department’s stated goal is to expand educational opportunities, especially for smaller and financially strapped districts, by pooling resources across regions.
East Meadow’s board held a public meeting in late October to voice to the community and stakeholders its opinions regarding the plan. Board President Jessica Ricco Simeone told those in attendance that board trustees and Kenneth Rosner, East Meadow’s superintendent of schools, recently attended a webinar to learn more about the plan, adding that it left them “more confused than when we entered.”
“I have questions that were posed that they seem to think they answered, but it still didn’t seem like we got an answer that made us feel better about it,” the board president said. “What you will hear tonight is all that we know as of right now, but I can say — and I’m speaking for myself, and my other trustees will chime in later — we are not okay with what we see so far.”
Rosner led a PowerPoint presentation, highlighting the plan, while also expressing concerns.
“This comes directly from the New York State Education Department: Regionalization refers to a broad tool for addressing student needs and operational efficiencies through shared resources grounded in the process of continuous needs, assessment and cross-district coordination,” he said. “So we’re talking about things like shared staff, advanced coursework, extracurricular activities, industry partners, shared support services — this is all under what they feel a regionalization plan would look like.”
The education department’s published objective for the plan is to “create equitable educational opportunities for students and improve operational efficiencies” across the state. As described on the department’s website, the initiative is not intended to enforce mergers or consolidations, but rather to foster “cross-district conversations” and encourage shared programs and resources among component districts in each of the state’s 37 Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES, regions.
The regional superintendent, known as the BOCES superintendent, is tasked with leading these discussions and overseeing the resulting plans. Nassau BOCES, Western Suffolk BOCES and Eastern Suffolk BOCES are the three BOCES regions on Long Island.
According to the regionalization plan’s document, component districts, under the direction of the superintendent — in East Meadow’s case, Rosner — must work with Nassau BOCES, to develop regionalization plans in five steps by slated deadlines. The first requirement for the district to submit, labeled “Strengths and Needs Tool,” is due by early December, Rosner said.
“We have 56 school districts in Nassau County — all 56, right now, are in the process of filling out this first part of it,” he said. “When (we) first looked at it, something just didn’t seem right with what we were filling out. It just seemed like a lot of information, and we didn’t understand why they were asking for this information.”
The district must file a report on items such as test scores, finances, transportation and special education services. “It’s an extensive, extensive survey,” he said.
Specific details about the regionalization plan began circulating in September, Rosner said, despite the state’s claims that conversations were being held about it since spring. An emergency ruling, which pushed the regionalization effort through, was used to bypass input from stakeholders, he added.
Rosner said he has a “serious concern” about the emergency rule and how this plan was implemented, adding that “no conversations” were held.
Some of the plan’s language, Rosner said, suggests local control will be taken away from districts.
One section of the plan states: “The district superintendent (BOCES) shall act as an intermediary between the department, BOCES and component school districts (like East Meadow) to facilitate the successful execution of education initiatives within the sole supervisory district, including translating state educational priorities into actionable regionalization plans that align with the unique needs and resources of the component school districts.”
Rosner said he’s concerned how the plan will impact local district autonomy, particularly when it comes to budgeting, staffing and education programming decisions. Stakeholders — like district taxpayers — may be left out of formal decision-making, and school boards could be forced to use taxpayer resources on students outside their community.
The East Meadow board encouraged community advocacy regarding the subject, and suggested district residents contact their state legislators.
The board has drafted a letter, which was sent to David Frank, the assistant commissioner of the Office of Education Policy in New York, opposing the plan.
“We urge you to consider and pull back this emergency rule and commit to strengthening individual districts,” the board wrote in the letter, “while fostering a collaborative approach.”
Information regarding the meeting held in October and related documents, including the board’s letter, can be found on the district’s Board Docs page, accessible from EMUFSD.us. To view the meeting in full, a video is available on the Board of Education’s YouTube page, EMUFSD Board of Education.
