Nina Karbacka

Jamestown – Jamestown School Board member Nina Karbacka has been named the president of the New York State Association of Small City School Districts (NYSASCSD) for the 2019-20 school year.

Karbacka has been a member of NYSASCSD for three years and a Jamestown Board of Education member for four years. Her background is in education. She has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from SUNY Fredonia and 40 years of teaching experience, at all grade levels, in the Jamestown Public Schools district.

“I am honored to accept the presidency of New York State Associations of Small City School Districts,” Mrs. Karbacka. “It is an exciting challenge to work to promote efficiency and economy in the small city districts, and to communicate the educational and financial needs of our students to the public and New York State legislature.”

Karbacka is an active community volunteer having served as President of the Board of Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet, Southern Chautauqua County Retired Teachers Association, Jamestown Concert Association, Chautauqua Regional Youth Symphony, which she also founded, and Ring School PTA, and on the executive board of the Arts Council, JHS PTSA, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Community Music Project, Success by Six, and the JCC Arts Community Advisory Panel.

Currently, Karbacka is teaching an Intergenerational Suzuki String Program at Lutheran.

On Tuesday the school board received an update on the ongoing lawsuit – now 10 years in the making – including what will likely happen now that a State Supreme Court judge in Albany last month ruled against the eight small city districts that are part of a lawsuit against the state, claiming they are not receiving equitable funding and the state needs to comply with the State Constitution, which requires the provision of a “sound basic education” for all children.

Jamestown is one of those eight districts. The seven other small cities districts joining Jamestown are Utica, Poughkeepsie, Mount Vernon, Kingston, Newburgh, Port Jervis and Niagara Falls. Because districts can not directly sue the state, the eight districts are members of a group that is paying the legal fees to help the case move forward and each district pays a membership fee to that group.

In 2009, at the outset of the case, then known as Hussein v. State of New York, the Supreme Court trial court denied the State’s motion to dismiss. In 2011, the intermediate appellate division court affirmed, and in 2012, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, also affirmed, allowing the case to proceed. In 2015 the Maisto trial was conducted in State Supreme Court in Albany, in front of the Honorable Kimberly A. O’Connor. In 2016 O’Connor issued a ruling dismissing the plaintiff’s claims. That ruling was appealed and in 2017 the appellate division reinstated the lawsuit, sending it back to O’Connor to be reviewed again. O’Connor’s decision in January 2019 was the latest outcome in the ongoing legal saga.

Jamestown School Board President Paul Abbott tells WRFA it’s frustrating because the case has dragged on for several years, with the previous ruling having already been appealed only to have it punted back to the same Supreme Court judge in Albany.

“When it’s gone back to certain judges it seems that it’s gets batted back at us and we are again in front of appeals court judges that tell us, ‘No, small cities schools, you are correct. These other judges were wrong.’ And then it just becomes that cycle. That’s when you have decide when it is time to step out of the ring and turn your focus to other things,” Abbott explained.

Abbott adds that if the district were to stay financially invested in the case, the cost wouldn’t be a lot, but at some point the board has to determine when is the district throwing good money after bad.

“The district is spending a little bit of money to support our legal representation in this battle. The board’s role in this is to decide if we continue to support it or to make the decision that it’s time to – whether we know we’re right or not – perhaps its time to give up the fight if it’s becoming not responsible to stay in a fight which we don’t feel that we can win,” Abbott said.

Abbott adds the board will take the advice of legal council before making the decision on how to proceed, as well as consider input from its liaison in the case – former school board president Joe DiMaio – who continues to speak with the attorneys and officials from the other districts involved with the case. Joining DiMaio in that effort is current school board member Nina Karbacka.

Both DiMaio and Karbacka gave the school board an update on the lawsuit during Tuesday’s board meeting- weighing both the pros and cons of being involved in the lawsuit.

Both agreed it would be worthwhile for the district to remain involved in the case rather than sitting on the sidelines, mostly because as active participants who are helping to fund the case, they have a direct line with the attorneys involved and can offer direct input on a monthly basis.

Abbott said he was unsure of when the board would make a decision on making additional payments, saying it would likely depend on when the attorneys involved request a new round of funding to keep things moving forward.

Joe DiMaio

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown School Board President Joe DiMaio is the new leader of a statewide group who’s goal is to look out for the interests of small city school districts.

DiMaio was recently elected President of the New York State Association of Small City School Districts and will serve a one-year term. The Association was formed in 1985 and consists of Superintendents and members of the Boards of Education in the 57 small city school districts, representing approximately 240,000 students across the state.

Among the goals of the association is to advocate on behalf of small-city districts to effect change in state laws, regulations, and policy; as well as to raise awareness of small city issues and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among similarly situated city school officials.

In a media release from the Jamestown School Distirct, DiMaio said he felt it was important to serve on the board because small cities are continually under-funded as well as inequitably funded.

According to school officials, Jamestown is the 6th poorest district in New York State, yet 200 schools in New York get more state aid per pupil.

The 57 small city school districts serve approximately twice the number of students than the “Big 4” school districts of Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Yonkers combined – about 240,000 vs. 120,000 students.

Several small city school districts, including Jamestown, have also filed a lawsuit against the state to provide better equity in school funding. That case has already been argued with closing remarks being made in March – but it could be the end of this year or early next year before Acting Albany Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Connor issues her ruling.