Letters

I applaud The Southampton Press’s June 20 editorial, “Merger Is Overdue.”

Although The Press comments that “it is hard to get the voters on board when one district in the merger appears to be winning and the other losing, at least financially,” I believe both districts are presently losing financially and will be losing even more if the merger is not enacted.

Presently, the Southampton School District budget projects a cost of $64,000 per student. For the 100 students from Shinnecock Territory, the district receives $5 million, or $50,000 per student. So Southampton School District taxpayers are already subsidizing the territory’s students.

The present Tuckahoe School District budget has a $100,000 cost per student. Getting additional government money from adding Shinnecock students will never come close to covering the cost of operating a high school — the most expensive students: chemistry, calculus, foreign languages, extracurricular activities, etc.

Adding a high school to this area is such an obvious nonstarter, it is shameful to waste taxpayer funds on feasibility studies and referendums. It is also shameful that our politicians are so weak that they are wasting time and resources to placate the Shinnecock Nation.

Each of you needs to attend Southampton and Tuckahoe school board meetings and demand that they stop this nonsense of a Tuckahoe high school and demand that the boards immediately pursue the merger.

David Rung

Southampton Village