TST BOCES is an education-support organization serving Tompkins, Seneca, and Tioga counties. On February 12, BOCES Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer Lily Talcott and Assistant Superintendent David Parsons presented to the Board of Education (BoE) about BOCES’s proposed 2025-2026 budget. Incidentally, Talcott served as the ICSD Deputy Superintendent until the 2024-2025 school year, and this was her second visit back to the BoE.
BOCES is a non-taxing entity, unlike school districts, so its entire budget is funded by grants (both federal and state) and school district payments. Each participating district must contribute to BOCES so that it can continue to provide its services to their students. At IHS, BOCES is most widely known for its Career and Tech Education programs, as well as New Visions, a rigorous and non-traditional academic program for high school seniors.
The coming year’s proposed budget has increased by 1.97 percent. The BOCES administration costs in particular have grown by 1.95 percent, which Parsons described as “close to the lowest I’ve done since I’ve been here; and this is my seventeenth time doing this.” Funding will increase for Career and Tech Education programs, as well as both alternative and special education. Alternative education is offered via the BOCES high school across the road from DeWitt Middle School. It is a high school with much smaller class sizes than IHS or LACS, serving fewer than fifty students. By contrast, special education serves students with a classifiable learning disability, necessitating a separate learning space outside of the three participating districts. It is important to note that not all students with an IEP or 504 plan are enrolled in special education, which represents only a small minority of particularly severe cases.
Despite funding increases in the aforementioned areas, BOCES did propose cuts to their instructional support (services like technology, printing, homeschooling, etc.). They also proposed a decline in cross-contract funding, which refers to fees incurred by TST BOCES when using resources and technology from other BOCES centers around the state. Talcott was quick to emphasize that BOCES is flexible on these numbers and, if desired by the districts, can adjust them.
All three school districts: Tompkins, Seneca, and Tioga, will vote to ratify the proposed budget in mid-April. They are also required to elect new BOCES board members to represent the Candor, Dryden, and George Jr. Republic school districts.
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