Tuckahoe Board of Education Amends Long Standing Employee Policy

In a move rarely seen at a school board meeting, the Tuckahoe Board of Education discussed and eventually approved what was referred to as a “walk-in agenda item” this past Monday night, reversing a long-standing district policy that in the past allowed the children of school employees living outside the Tuckahoe Union Free School district to attend Tuckahoe schools free of tuition. 

The item in question was added to Monday’s agenda at the last minute, as the Board of Education was informed only last Friday that it in fact had the power to alter the policy, after being told a few months back by district attorneys that this was not possible.

It is unclear why the district attorneys originally told Board members that altering the policy was outside of their control, however the issue was eventually resolved after Board of Education President Julio Urbina urged new Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Edward Reilly to clear up the misunderstanding with the attorneys, which in the end led to the Board being permitted to vote as it did on Monday evening.

In the future, students whose parents are school employees but live outside of the district will be treated as regular tuition students and pay the roundabout tuition figure of $13,000. According to Urbina, free tuition for these children in question was simply “no longer something we could offer given the economic situation.” 

Although all Board members agreed that the policy should in fact be changed Monday, the issue of when the change should go in effect was less clear, and led to what Urbina described as “healthy discussion.”

In the end, and after considering many options – including having the students in question pay tuition regardless of whether they were already registered for the upcoming school year– it was decided by a vote of 3 to 2 that those already registered as of August 22 would be “grandfathered-in” according to the old district policy and receive free tuition. As of August 23, any child of a school employee living outside the school district which registers or enrolls at a Tuckahoe school will be treated as a regular tuition paying-student.

Urbina was quick to emphasize that any child attending the Tuckahoe schools for free would be held to some specific qualifying standards, including a requirement to maintain a B-point average and avoid any write-ups or suspensions on their records. Urbina also noted that the children affected by the new policy are less than 10 out of over 1,000 district students.

As far as how the parents and families directly affected by the policy change will react, Urbina said he is not exactly sure, although he is confident that the Board’s actions Monday will go over well with the broader public, who he says have been waiting a long time for a change.

“I can’t anticipate how employees will react to this,” Urbina said. “I’m sure that there are going to be some people that are not going to be happy with our decision. This has been a long-standing procedure, but the community has asked us to do this, and there has been overwhelming support for it.”