Understanding BOCES

 

Understanding BOCES    

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

 

 

The big school bell that sits atop our garage in rural western New York has quite a history. Salvaged from a nearby one-room school that was torn down years ago, in our minds as retired educators, the bell seems to signal the birth of a sharing spectacular called BOCES, otherwise known as boards of cooperative educational services, or cooperative boards.   

 

Nowadays school bells are no longer needed.  But more than 70 years ago, hundreds of small poor rural school districts with ringing bells dotted the map of New York state.  Most could not offer the array of vocational programs demanded by our post world war economy.  Farming organizations were acutely aware of the need to realize economies of scale.  Via their statewide council, they pressed for a new type of supervisory district to meet rural needs more cost effectively.

 

In 1948 the state legislature responded by enacting legislation to create “intermediate school districts”.  Although none ever appeared, a temporary alternative for educational service sharing took root.  It was called a BOCES.  New York was the first state in the nation to create this adaptable creature.

 

 Today no two of the state’s 37 BOCES are alike.  Their built-in sharing mechanisms reflect the programs and services needed by their component districts.  Four different BOCES are physically centered in western New York.  Although between 30 and 40 other states now have something similar, virtually none renders services as diversified and responsive as ours.

 

BOCES is a unique organization.  Unlike school districts where local taxing and governing jurisdictions operate, a BOCES is a cooperative association of districts on a larger geographical scale.  Only the Big Five City districts, including Buffalo, are legislatively excluded.  Pioneer school district and 21 others are served by the Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES (aka CABOCES) which has three centers, employs about 600 staff, and spans more than 12,000 square miles.   

 

 Component school districts contract with BOCES for services and programs that cover a huge range of career and technical education, special education, planning, technology systems and management services.  Districts can choose among hundreds of potential offerings, all designed to enable educational activities to be shared more efficiently, economically, and equitably than can be provided by an individual district.  Once the state approves a service, districts that participate will budget for it and receive substantial state aid to offset their costs and those charged by the BOCES.  Special education is aided separately.

 

 As for public accountability, like local school districts, cooperative boards have specific powers and duties detailed in education law.  Elected by their component boards, up to 15 members serve three-year terms.  A few continue to serve on both local and cooperative boards.  Former Pioneer board member Michael Conroy has ably served for upwards of a decade. For several decades previously, Pioneer veteran Heinke Lillenstein represented our educational community.       

 

 BOCES flexible partnerships have proven invaluable during the current COVID pandemic.  For part of their day, our high school students still travel to and from BOCES for mostly career and technical education.  However, the BOCES have responsively transformed electronic communication links, curriculum delivery, staff development, practical advisory information routes statewide, and logistical support.

 

CABOCES superintendent Scott Payne points to support for “kids at the margins” who may need special services or internet access with free wi-fi.  Regional coordination with health department liaisons has improved contact tracing.

 

 Pioneer assistant superintendent Nick Silvaroli adds that CABOCES and Erie 1 BOCES have “facilitated meetings and discussions to stay informed, share ideas, and stay on the same page to best navigate the pandemic.” Topics have included complex executive orders related to remote instruction, safety and hygiene, food service, and student and staff attendance requirements.

 

Skip Tillinghast, Pioneer’s coordinator of public communications and webmaster, praises valuable tech support from four ITS assignees who keep electronic networks humming, devices repaired, and virtual field trips scheduled for students.

 

Skip also highlights BOCES curriculum support, with three BOCES staff members helping teachers integrate remote instruction, best practices, and assessment tools.  On-site teamwork involves BOCES itinerant staff, specialists, and aides working side by side with home district staff and in classrooms of their own.  Among component districts, the BOCES rents up to 100 classrooms so instructional support can be geographically decentralized. 

 

 In a time of crisis, New York state’s BOCES are proving their ingenuity.  As reported by state association leaders, for example, 3D printers normally used in career and technical programs at Broome-Tioga BOCES were used to produce face masks and shields for healthcare workers.  A group of nurses from Monroe One BOCES assisted call centers with contact tracing and testing.  To enrich the hands-on learning of cosmetology students, Ulster BOCES teachers packed up 47 mannequin heads, shears, smocks and other items and sent them home.  

 

 Closer to home, a recent issue of the Arcade Herald (12/31) highlights adult outreach through an upcoming series of free CABOCES sponsored Zoom-based sessions on parenting during a pandemic, virtual learning, social-emotional competencies, and reducing youthful anxieties. 

 

Despite seven decades of history, many community residents remain unfamiliar with the shared services of BOCES unless their own children or relatives have participated in BOCES programs.  Typically graduates earn a career certification and a head start on employment and college credit.  Frequently they go on to earn higher education degrees in well-compensated technical fields.

 

 While New York’s public schooling has been forced to adapt in unprecedented ways during the pandemic, BOCES has responded with abundant partnerships and a beautifully organized system for educational sharing.