BILL NUMBER: S6900

SPONSOR: MARCHIONE
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act in relation to legalizing, validating, ratify-
ing and confirming certain transportation contracts of the Taconic Hills
central school district

 
PURPOSE:

This bill would correct a clerical error caused by extenuating circum-
stances, between the Taconic Hills Central School District and the State
Education Department in the 2015-2016 school year in an effort to
restore transportation aid to the School District.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 legalizes, validates ratifies, and confirms transportation
contracts E264632, E412975, E264580 and E273436, in connection with
transportation contracts of the 2015-2016 school year.

Section 2 directs the Department of Education to consider the contracts
              

for transportation aid. Section 3 sets the effective date

 
JUSTIFICATION:

It is through extenuating circumstances that the Taconic Hills Central
School District discovered that the New York State Education Department
did not have the District's transportation contracts for timely filing
in order to receive transportation aid in full.

Taconic Central School District submitted its transportation contract to
NYSED in September 2015, in advance of the District's due date of Janu-
ary 7, 2016. As reported to the police, a break-in occurred at the
office of the Transportation Supervisor of the Taconic Hills Central
School District sometime between July 15, 2016 and August 3, 2016. All
copies of NYSED transportation contracts, extensions, bidding documents,
receipts of mailing and notations dating back to 2006 were stolen along
with private employee personnel files. On August 4, 2016, the transpor-
tation Supervisor notified the Office of Pupil Transportation Services
at NYSED of the theft and asked if NYSED could supply the district with
copies of the 2015-2016 contract documents for reconstruction. NYSED
replied that they did not have the 2015-2016 files and asked him to
reconstruct the 2015-2016 contract documents with original signatures
for State purposes. The documents were subsequently filed with NYSED on
September 16, 2016.

Because copies of the original timely filed transportation contracts and
their mailing receipts were stolen, Taconic Hills CSD is unable to
demonstrate that the original contracts were indeed sent to NYSED in
September of 2015. NYSED is only in receipt of the reconstructed trans-
portation contracts one year later, past the due date and past the
transportation contract extension which allows the contract to be filed
within 120 days of the first day of service.  Ironically, the break-in
at the School District was the tickler that enabled the District to find
out that NYSED did not have the original transportation contracts on
file so that the District could resubmit a reconstructed contract, albe-
it "late". This supposed late filing by Taconic Hills CSD is denying the
District $173,404 in State transportation aid.

Without the restoration of this transportation aid, the residents and
students in the District will face either a cut in quality education or
a raise in real property taxes. In this instance, extenuating circum-
stances dictate the Commissioner of the Department of Education to
consider the contracts for transportation aid as valid and proper obli-
gations of the Taconic Hills Central School District.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.