A model school merger?
When students in Elizabethtown, Lewis and Westport started school this year, new signs welcomed them to the newly formed Boquet Valley Central School District.
In December 2018, voters in the eastern Adirondack communities chose to address a common park problem—stagnating student enrollments—by combining their resources. After a yearlong study and a straw poll indicated support, they approved the merging of the Westport Central and Elizabethtown-Lewis Central school districts. Then people involved with each district came together and moved quickly on making decisions and preparing for this academic year.
The to-do list was extensive, including a new district name, school colors, governance, busing and tax equalization—and myriad smaller choices.
“You name it, we had to decide it,” said Superintendent Joshua Meyer. But the transition team got it done. “We were able to start the year off right.”
That they did it at all was a rare feat in the Adirondacks. The combined district has fewer than 500 students, but there are others in the park with barely five dozen where residents have rejected the idea of joining forces. Across the state, in fact, rural communities have clung to their standalone schools as sources of community pride.
