Some Tuition to Decrease

East Hampton High and Middle School tuition for students who live in outlying districts is set to decrease next year, but kindergarten through sixth-grade tuition, affecting students from the Sagaponack and Wainscott School Districts, will go up. The impact on the sending districts will vary based on the number of students.

The 2016-17 school year will be the second in a row that high school and middle school rates fell. The general education cost for each high school student will go from $25,945 to $25,830, with a 5-percent discount for the Montauk, Springs, and Amagansett Districts, which signed five-year contracts to send students to East Hampton rather than Sag Harbor or Bridgehampton, bringing the fee down to $24,539. The base special education tuition for high school students will go from $72,493 to $71,711 and to $68,125 with the 5-percent discount. 

In Montauk, where tuition makes up about 20 percent of the budget, Jack Perna, the superintendent, estimated a savings of about $250,000 next year, given the decrease and a lower number of students attending high school. He called it “welcome news.”

Springs and Amagansett, however, are predicting their tuition costs will increase despite the tuition reduction because they will send more students to East Hampton next year. About 25 percent of the Amagansett budget is for tuition, according to its superintendent, Eleanor Tritt. The district sends 7th through 12th graders to East Hampton and expects seven more students going to the middle and high schools next year. Springs, which educates middle school students in its home district, is projecting an increase of at least 13 students going to the high school. It spends about 32 percent of its budget on tuition.

  Sagaponack and Wainscott, which send some students to John M. Marshall Elementary School, will pay $28,877 per general education student, compared to $26,729 this year. For special education, tuition will rise from $73,068 to $74,758. Sagaponack and Wainscott did not sign five-year contracts with East Hampton last year so do not enjoy a 5-percent discount.

Tuition rates are fixed by a state formula that includes teachers’ salaries, curriculum materials, and supplies, among other expenses. Isabel Madison, the East Hampton School District assistant superintendent for business, said after a March 1 school board meeting that the decreases in tuition for next year resulted from removing the costs of “lead” teachers and curriculum coordinators from the calculations, as now required by the state. “It’s kind of a balancing act,” she said.