Williamson High School

In April 2009, W-FL BOCES was awarded a $45,000 grant by the New York State Department of State, Local Government Efficiency Program to fund a study to explore the concept and the feasibility of shared services including the concept of a Regional High School in Wayne County. Prior to the grant submission, Williamson along with all of the Wayne County school district’s Boards of Education agreed to participate in the study.

The primary focus of the study was to engage the community in a discussion about how to creatively and constructively provide the best educational opportunities to the students in Wayne County. A community meeting was held in the fall to explain the purpose of this study and all community residents were surveyed as a way to gather the community’s values and thoughts on the future of High Schools in Wayne County. The survey results showed that students, staff, and community members expressed overwhelming opposition to the creation of new “regional high schools” as an option for consideration. Residents want to maintain their school environments as they currently exist. They also agreed that the following were important:

increasing academic rigor
increasing the number of electives in high school
increasing the depth of program offerings, and
increasing opportunities for specialized programs like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate

And, at the same time, to

control the costs of operating schools, and
have schools maintain their local identity

A second community meeting was held at the end of January and the following options were shared as options to consider:

Wayne Student Exchange – where students could take classes at nearby high schools for upper level math and science, foreign languages or business classes.

New Visions Programs – ½ day program for seniors in career exploration environment with embedded academic credit. BOCES programs include: Medical, Engineering and Renewable Energy but other programs include Law and Government, Education, Business and Communications.

Thematic High School Programs – usually a three period program for students to participate in programs not offered at their home high school. These programs include Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate program, Project Lead the Way with other options such as Arts, Bioengineering or Environmental Science.

College Level Courses – all districts have college credit opportunities for their students but the goal should be to equalize the opportunities across the county.

E-Learning – Districts would be able to offer on-line courses not only for homebound students, but also for classes that currently have a low enrollment or electives. Distance learning could be offered for foreign languages, advanced math and science or other low enrollment classes.

Alliance High School – This is a full-day four year program at BOCES with a central theme such as health occupations. Students would acquire their high school diploma or credits with community service, job shadowing and internships as part of the curriculum. Students would graduate from their home high school.

The final report will be published in March once all of the second set of meetings have been held. Once the district has received the final report it will be posted on our website (www.williamsoncentral.org) and discussed at a Board of Education meeting. It will be up to each Board of Education in the county to decide on any next steps and options they would like their district to consider.

To see the full Presentation made by Phil Martin from Castallo & Silky Education Consulting firm on January 27, 2010 to the Board of Education click on the link below. The presentation represents the results of the Regional High School Feasability Study.

If you have any questions after reviewing the presentation, you may contact me at (315) 589-9661 or via e-mail at mehresman@williamsoncentral.org.

Regional High School Feasibility Study (pdf file - 39 KB)

pdf file: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 7 or higher) to view this file. Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader for PC or Macintosh.

Williamson Central School District
P.O. Box 900
Williamson, NY 14589
(315) 589-9661