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When the 1,013 elementary school students in the Hendrick Hudson School District returned to the classroom Thursday, they may have found themselves in unfamiliar surroundings.
Why? Because the 2022-2023 school year kicked off the district’s first endeavor with the Princeton Plan, where its three elementary schools were
realigned as Pre-K-1 (Frank G. Lindsey), 2-3 (Buchanan-Verplanck), and 4-5 (Furnace Woods) buildings, rather than the K-5 arrangement that had been in place prior.
It is also the first year Hendrick Hudson offers Pre-K. Currently, 34 students are enrolled.
After much community debate, the Board of Education voted in April 2021 to implement the Princeton Plan. The move was made as district officials grappled with ways to deal with the closing of the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan and the $25 million annually Hendrick Hudson would be losing. Indian Point has been supplying funding for almost one-third of the district’s operating budget for years.
“The decision was it brings greater financial stability and mitigates larger tax increases each year,” Superintendent of Schools Joseph Hochreiter explained this week. “It also addresses equity in that we can better control for class sizes and distribution of students, demographically, than in the former model. Those are just two examples. In short, the Princeton Plan eliminates school boundaries by geographic lines and assigns students to schools by grade.”
Hochreiter has said switching to the Princeton Plan could save the district an estimated $2 million annually and result in a 4.5% property tax avoidance. One of the downsides is about eight staff positions in kindergarten through fifth grade were eliminated.
Several other school districts in the region have adopted the same learning model, including Somers, Ossining, Yorktown, Peekskill, and Brewster.
Meanwhile, it was announced a few weeks ago by State Senator Pete Harckham that Hendrick Hudson would be receiving an additional $1 million in financial aid this year.
“We remain strongly committed to helping the entire Hendrick Hudson community with the negative impact caused by the loss of tax revenue during the closing and decommissioning of Indian Point,” Harckham said. “The taxpayers in the school district, especially homeowners and small businesses, are facing challenges through no fault of their own, and this infusion of funding will help ensure students here receive the educational opportunities that they deserve.”
Hochreiter said every $1 million the district receives equals approximately a 2.25% tax levy increase avoidance.
“The intent was for the money to offset future tax levy increases. So, we can use the $1M in future years to keep potential taxes down,” Hochreiter said. “We are in regular communication regarding Indian Point-related initiatives and work well together to advance our interests regarding additional funding, as well as increased safety and security measures as the plant enters decommissioning.”
An editor at Examiner Media since 2012, Rick Pezzullo has more than 40 years of experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. Prior to Examiner, he was managing editor for 10 years at the former North County News in Yorktown Heights, where he first got his start in journalism as a freshman in high school. He also worked for The Peekskill Herald, The Daily Voice, and The Hudson Independent. He’s a big fan of the Yankees, Steelers, and Knicks, WWE pro wrestling, and the Rocky movies (yes, even Rocky V).
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