By CRAIG FREILCH

As a plan to merge the Potsdam and Canton school districts is about to be put to a vote, the plan is seen by many as one in a very limited field of options if the two schools are to keep educating their students to a standard that is acceptable to parents, employers, colleges, and the students themselves.

“The main issue for us is, do we want to be able to provide quality programs for our students,” said Potsdam School Superintendent Pat Brady. That would include the ability to be flexible to meet changes in the job and college markets, and to “allow a wider range of classes” than the offerings that have diminished in recent years due to some pretty severe cutbacks, he added.

And while Brady and Canton School Superintendent Bill Gregory both hope that the state returns to the school aid formula that prevailed before the economic slowdown, that is not expected soon.

Schools in St. Lawrence County have cut dozens of staff members and many programs in the wake of the national economic downturn that made its undeniable presence felt beginning in 2008. As tax revenues tanked, the state suspended a year-old school aid program that had promised to deliver financial help to poorer districts all over the state.

In fact, the troubles have continued as state policies such as a “Gap Elimination Adjustment” – a serious cut to school aid -- and property tax caps have forced schools to tighten their belts to the point where they wonder how much longer they will still be able to call themselves schools.

Potsdam and Canton schools collectively are down $21 million in state aid from the earlier aid levels, and have cut 100 positions since aid started plummeting.

The situation looked so bad that all sorts of organizations –school superintendents’ and school boards’ associations, unions, even William Fox and Anthony Collins, the presidents of St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University, appealed to the governor and state legislators to increase funding for North Country schools.

“The funding system for our K-12 school districts is creating inequality that is being felt disproportionately in our region,” the two presidents said in a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January 2013.

For struggling schools in the North Country, “merge or die” was one of the messages Gov. Cuomo brought with him when he came to Potsdam to speak at Clarkson University in February 2013.

Anyone hoping to hear Cuomo say during his visit he was taking up the cause of more equitable funding for public schools in the North Country was left wanting.

“I do encourage school districts to save money,” he said.

During his speech at Clarkson he explained his plan for the state to pay for schools that adopt longer school days and school years and extend pre-kindergarten programs. He even supported helping out with the shock of pension cost increases.

He also said his administration would support school consolidation where it is practical.

“There have been economic pressures all across the board. Governments are having to tighten their belts and live within their means because we don’t have the option to raise taxes.”

He said it was a case of “economic realism.”

So facing this reality, the Potsdam and Canton districts began seriously considering a merger, urged on by funding for a study of the question and by a big carrot of $35 million in aid from the state to carry the plan through.

Whether or not it turns out to be a good deal for the schools and the state remains to be seen.

The study commissioned by the two schools concludes that, in the short term at least, the schools will save some money, will be able to lower taxes, and can offer a fuller program of courses.

The $35 million is to be paid out in diminishing increments over 14 years, and there’s no guarantee of what will happen after that. Superintendents Gregory and Bradley were clear on that in a recent meeting with North Country This Week recently.

But, while not endorsing a vote one way or another, they both said the merger appeared to be a good fit for both schools, and would allow avoiding impending catastrophe.

Without the merger and the extra money from the state, Canton’s fund reserves would hit zero by next year and Potsdam’s by the year after that.

“Without the merger, we won’t have merged programs with $35 million and we will be going into the red,” Gregory said, “but there are risks either way.”

In their extended round of meetings with parents and taxpayers and others over several months. it has become clear to them that “the public has a good understanding of the negatives, but we want to be sure they understand the extra opportunity for children” that a merger could provide, Brady said, at least for a few years.

“It’s a community decision,” he said.