Not counting private schools, children in Philipstown predominently attend eitherĀ  Haldane, Garrison, or Highland/Montgomery, with a smattering in Fishkill and Wappingers. Each school district has the same hierarchic organization: school board, superintendent, director of operations, business agent, principals, assistant principals, teachers, teacher aides, custodial and other staff and students. Each has its own calendar that includes the state mandated 180-days of student instruction, holidays, vacations, breaks, superintendents days and snow days. Each manages its own transportation system. Each raises the majority of its annual budget from a tax levy on district resident’s property. Each is dealing with a poor economy and delayed/reduced state aide. Each must follow the rules and regulations of NY state.

In all the ways that they are the same they are also different. Each has a different mechanism for creating the annual budget. Each determines what days count or do not count in the mandatory 180. Each decides when winter break will begin and when classes will resume. Each schedules its own bus runs although there is collaboration between districts. Each decides how much information will be made public or not and how easy it is to access. It’s like four puzzle boxes each with the same pieces, but which create four different pictures when the pieces are assembled.

With our Schools section of Philipstown.info we would like to create a new puzzle picture comprised of all the pieces from all the schools. We will explore those differences and similarities and seek out the common and uncommon stories behind them. We will cover issues of immediacy such as the proposed housing development in Fishkill which threatens to inundate Haldane with potentially over 100 new students. We will cover annual events such as the budget process, which occupies school boards for nearly half of each school year. We will explore the pro’s and con’s of each district’s approach in the context of the individual districts, between districts and within the county and state.

Philipstown.info requests your help and encourages your feedback. If you have ideas and suggestions for these stories or if you think you would like to contribute, please contact us at: [email protected].

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Mell is a freelance journalist and former editor at The Current.

4 replies on “Philipstown Schools”

  1. Thanks for covering the schools.. Just a clarification – there is no Fishkill School District; Fishkill is in the Wappingers Central School District. A small northeastern section of Philipstown is in the Wappingers District. Many more Philipstown children, who live in the Continental Village neighborhood, attend the Lakeland School District. Some high school age students in the Garrison Union Free School District do attend James I. O’Neill HIgh School in the HIghland Falls/Fort Montgomery Central School District, since Garrison funds a choice of two high schools for graduating 8th graders. So, Philipstown students attend a total of five public school districts.

  2. One school district in Philipstown that always seems to be forgotten is the Lakeland School District. Continental Village residents, who pay Philipstown taxes, pay school taxes to this Westchester County school system. I would be interested to find out how many children in Philipstown attend school in the Lakeland School District. I would also encourage other Continental Village residents to send in news of their children’s accomplishments, news of issues that are raised at the Continental Village Property Owners meetings, events in the community and perhaps some local history. It’s a unique section of Philipstown and deserves some coverage.

  3. I spoke with someone from Philipstown.info last summer (2010) to correct the misperception that causes Lakeland students who live in Philipstown to be ignored again and again in our local media. Is it too much to ask that the Education page on this site and the information given here be corrected?

    Thanks to Kathleen Kourie and Anita Prentice for pointing this out as well. Kathleen, your suggestions for getting a little notice are good ones!

Comments are closed.