Franklin supports stopping Sussex Tech tuition

FRANKLIN — Bob Walker, Interim Superintendent at Wallkill High School, has pleaded his case across the county for the past few months to eliminate the “user fee” that is being charged to local school districts that send students to Sussex Technical School.

At Franklin Borough’s Council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9, Walker secured a passing vote from the Borough Council, the only vote in the Wallkill Valley sending township he was lacking.

“(The committee) and I were kept in the dark three years ago, and most of the public, when they decided they would start a tuition at Tech," Walker said. "For 43 years they didn’t have tuition. So far we have taken out $276,000 a year (from our classrooms). Multiply that by 10 years, and look at how much we have lost. $2.7 million."

Currently, Wallkill Valley serves 194 students from Franklin and 31 of them attend Sussex Technical School.

In addition, Walker stresses Wallkill’s need for additional money to support special-education students, since Sussex Tech officials reserve the right to pick and choose which students they want and will send back a student if they feel he/she cannot handle the coursework.

“We are happy to have every kid, but we need the additional dollars to support their education," Walker said. "I currently have three paraprofessionals for 150 kids. We may be spending money to upgrade our technology, but Wallkill didn’t have computers for years. For some reason, some folks didn’t find it was important to keep abreast of the change. Now I am working with a board who is helping me make changes are necessary to bring us into the 21st century. We want to spend more money on paraprofessionals and to allow a 9-period day so we can offer more electives, like journalism and forensic science. But we can’t do it without some money."

In addition, Walker explains how Sussex Technical School has a “bottomless pit” of money to spend on whatever officials want. Unlike all public schools in the area, Sussex Tech does not have a 2 percent tax cap.

“(Sussex Tech) put out ads in (local papers) and spent $7200.00 for part-time positions," Walker said. "Who pays that kind of money? The reason they can spend that kind of money is because they can. It is our tuition money that they are spending. We can stop this. Enough is enough. No one pays 'user fees,' they just slipped that fee in.

“We have the nicest kids in the world, come on over and meet them," Walker added. "They are not learning the way they should be. We just don’t have the money. I just get the 2 percent we deserve and they deserve."

A few committee members were torn on their decision, and Mayor Paul Crowley put his 2 cents into the conversation.

“The money will be added onto the budget on the county level," Crowley said. "If the money is brought back to the high school and is spent, there will be a hole in the budget at Tech. The only way the money will be made up is to go back to the Sussex county taxpayers and it will be added on to the budget in the county. It will be good for Wallkill, but it will be more taxes for the county taxpayers. Will the county replace the money or will they cut it? I don’t know.

Council member Joe Limon didn’t feel as comfortable voting that evening.

“I would like to hear the other side of this,” said Limon.

When it came time for a vote, two committee members, Limon and Mark Zschack voted against, and the remaining four committee members Nicholas Giordano, Fredrick Babcock, Gilbert Snyder, and Joseph Martinez voted for it. The resolution passed 4-2.

Walker first presented his case to the Franklin Borough Council three months ago. Since then, the resolution has been passed by Hamburg, Ogdensburg and the Ogdensburg Board of Education, Franklin Board of Education, Wallkill Board of Education, and Hardyston, who passed it with a revision.