Community Message - School Building Reconfiguration

Mount Vernon City School District:

Dear Mount Vernon Families and Community Members:

As you are aware, the Mount Vernon City School District is weighing options for a school building reorganization. Our most recent plans will be presented at our next town hall on Friday, December 6, 2024, at Graham School and on Zoom. While no decisions have been made, our Reorganization Committee must make a difficult choice. Our most recent discussions have considered the closures of Cecil H. Parker School, Mount Vernon Honor Academy and Mount Vernon Leadership Academy.

Discussions surrounding this reorganization have been taken very seriously and, unfortunately, have been heart-breaking when we think of our students and families at those schools. But we must act. The district’s current financial situation is the primary reason a significant change is imperative. With aging buildings, costly operations in the K-8 neighborhood school model, decreasing enrollment and cash-flow concerns, the district needs to move forward with a plan that is sustainable to ensure we have both a near and distant future for the Mount Vernon schools and its students. 

According to the New York State Comptroller, Mount Vernon is one of three districts in the state that is in significant fiscal distress. While we recognize that there have been minimal tax increases in recent years, we also must acknowledge that the Mount Vernon community voted down an increase of only 0.5% in 2022. This makes it challenging for our district to increase its revenue because we, like all public school districts, are bound by state law to place tax levy increases before our voters in our annual budget vote. We are not like municipalities, such as the City of Mount Vernon, that can raise their own taxes when necessary. 

The K-8 model that was implemented through the 20/20 Vision Bond, which was passed in 2016, is not currently financially stable. At the time, the planning of that bond did not account for the high costs of operating 13 middle schools. This number of middle schools is unsustainable, especially when considering the declining enrollment in our district. At the time of the bond, the district had an enrollment of over 8,000 students. At one point earlier, the district had over 10,000 students enrolled. Projections estimate enrollment to fall to 6,000 students by 2027 and only 5,000 students by 2033. 

Despite declining enrollment, the district’s staffing levels have actually increased during that time due to the staffing needs of the K-8 model. In this model, many teachers need to teach at multiple schools because they are certified to teach secondary students only, an inefficiency that contributes to our high staffing levels.

To make up for budgetary shortfalls, two weeks ago the district took out a $17 million tax anticipation loan (TAN). School districts need access to money to fund payroll and maintain operations, so this loan was necessary to help the district’s cash-flow shortage. However, short-term borrowing will not improve the district's fiscal situation. 

Contributing to the fiscal stress, the district is owed approximately $24 million from the City of Mount Vernon. This includes uncollected taxes, which the district has no means to enforce, such as property foreclosures, despite collecting its own taxes. The city has two years to pay any taxes owed to the district, and it is currently making monthly payments of about $450,000 for 2019-2020 taxes. The district is expecting back taxes from 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 to be paid by May 2025.

Another factor to the financial shortfall is the utilization of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (or PILOT) program throughout the city. As an economic development tool, companies typically are allowed to make lesser payments than what would be their traditional property taxes. However, these agreements the city is making with developers results in limited school taxes coming from these properties while bringing students to our district. 

For example, one commercial building that contains apartments entered into a PILOT agreement, and the building houses over 30 district students. Due to the PILOT, the revenue from this property is minimal, and the students in the building are not accounted for in the budget revenue. The district is in a position where we are required to educate these students, but we are not receiving taxes from their homes. Of the 30-plus students in this building, twelve of them are classified as special education and one has a 504 plan.

The district has an enrollment of 6,772 students. Of those, 755 are homeless. All students deserve equal access to education, but the absence of property tax revenue from 11% of the student population further makes providing for all students financially challenging. Many of the homeless children are placed in Mount Vernon by the county and New York City. This adds extra stresses on the school district taxpayers.

There are also large numbers of English as a New Language (ENL) and special education students in the district. ENL students make up 8.96% (607 students) of the student population, and students classified as special education make up 18.06% (1,223 students) of the student population. These two programs require additional financial support above the cost of general education. The average cost of educating a special education student is approximately $100,000 per year.

Further, our transportation costs increased significantly in the past year. After going out to bid on transportation contracts, the district is projected to spend $19 million in transportation this school year, up from $8 million last year. For students who require door-to-door pickups, the district mostly uses shorter buses for ease of access, but these are more expensive per student. 

The charter schools in the city and surrounding areas provide an additional financial burden to the district, as we must provide funding for each Mount Vernon student who attends one. A portion of Mount Vernon students also attend schools in other districts or are homeschooled. There are 596 students living in Mount Vernon who do not attend schools in the district. Three of those are ENL students, 318 are in special education and 35 are homeless.

To be clear, no decision has been made yet on a path forward to financial health for our district or closing schools. However, we are considering the closure of Cecil H. Parker School, Mount Vernon Honor Academy and Mount Vernon Leadership Academy. Our reasoning is they have lower enrollment, need the most repairs of our buildings, and are marketable properties.

We know that the closing of these schools will be difficult for Mount Vernon, especially Cecil H. Parker School as she was the first African American teacher in Mount Vernon. We are very proud of her legacy and are committed to it. Acting Superintendent Dr. K. Veronica Smith attended Cecil H. Parker School when it was called Nathan Hale Elementary School. Cecil H. Parker and the school have personal significance to her, and this is a personally difficult decision for her as well as other members on our Reorganization Committee. However, we know there are many factors that support this tough and necessary decision. 

While dramatic changes can be extremely difficult, this is a time for people in Mount Vernon to unite. In this pivotal moment, we are asking the community to unite for the future of the school district and to help us move forward with a fiscally responsible and sustainable model for Mount Vernon students.  

This change is vital to our district’s future. If we do not make a change, we will quickly fall into a catastrophic financial situation. These closures represent a long-term fix, ensuring the viability of our district for our students and avoiding further budgetary constraints. 

We will present configuration options for our schools at our next Town Hall Meeting. Community members can reach out to us via contactus@mtvernoncsd.org with any questions or concerns about the reconfiguration. We will address concerns regularly via our building reorganization website page, our Board of Education meetings, and at the Town Hall Meeting at Graham School on December 6, 2024, at 6 p.m., which can also be viewed on Zoom. We encourage you to attend or watch to learn more about this important decision for the future of Mount Vernon and its students.