East Hampton school officials have reached a new five-year tuition agreement with districts in Montauk, Springs, and Amagansett, allowing the latter three to send students to East Hampton schools after they age out of their home districts.
The new contract calls for an approximately 7.6-percent increase in base tuition rates for the 2025-26 school year, with the following three years’ increases set at about 1.8 percent and the final year at 2 percent. According to the contract, which was posted online this week by the Springs School District, tuition for general education students will rise from $25,087 to $27,000 next year, eventually going up to $29,054 by the end of the new contract. Tuition for special education students, who typically require more intensive services, will similarly jump from about $66,500 this year to $71,500 next year and up to $76,940 in the 2029-30 school year.
In an email to The Star yesterday, Adam Fine, East Hampton’s superintendent, said the new tuition rates “represent the costs of our per-pupil expenses for secondary education. The remaining four years of the contract were negotiated with our partners at rates that are at or under the property tax cap increases.”
Amagansett’s superintendent, Michael Rodgers, put it this way: “We’re correcting it, because tuition was a little bit lower than the per-pupil rate right now.”
In signing the contract, Springs, Montauk, and Amagansett have agreed to send all their graduating students exclusively to East Hampton, except for those special education students whose educational needs call for out-of-district services. In return for the exclusivity clause, those districts will receive a 5-percent discount on all tuition payments each year.
Two more school districts, Sagaponack and Wainscott, are also expected to sign a five-year agreement with East Hampton for certain elementary school grades as well as the secondary grades, while maintaining similar contracts with the Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor districts.
“We want to thank the sending districts for an excellent, collaborative, and cooperative process in determining the tuition rates for the next five years,” Mr. Fine said. “Our six districts worked together to find rates that supported the East Hampton High School educational
program and also protected the interests of the taxpayers in each of the districts.”
Ultimately, the community will have the final say. With Springs and Montauk signing the contract on Tuesday and Amagansett on Feb. 4, voters in each district will see a corresponding proposition on the May 2025 budget ballot asking for approval of the five-year contract. The New York State Education Department commissioner will also need to sign off on it.
“I’m very proud of the relationship that the surrounding districts and Montauk have all built with each other,” Josh Odom, the Montauk School’s superintendent and principal, said during Tuesday’s school board meeting. “It’s a very productive process that we’ve been through here. I believe the contact is fair, both for East Hampton and the taxpayers in Montauk.”
Even though the base tuition rates are going up, it may not automatically mean sharp spending increases because enrollment fluctuates. For instance, in Springs, according to its Feb. 7 enrollment report, 105 seniors are expected to graduate from high school this year, while the incoming freshmen class has just over 60 students.
Mr. Rodgers, Amagansett’s superintendent, said his district will be graduating 15 seniors this year, with only nine slated to enter high school next year so far. “We did work collaboratively to make sure it works with all the districts’ budgets,” he said.
Montauk’s graduating class this year is also larger than the class rising into ninth grade the following year, making the 2025-26 school year a “good year for us to absorb” the increase, Mr. Odom said.
Other Springs School Updates
In other news, on Tuesday the Springs School Board approved a measure stating its intent “to stay within the property tax cap limitations” as it develops its 2025-26 budget plan. This move is largely in line with Springs’s budgetary practices since New York State initiated the tax cap in 2012, the exception being the current school year, for which the community approved an over-the-cap spending plan in May 2024.
Springs also approved a new five-year contract with its administrative team, retroactive to the 2023-24 school year and remaining in effect through June 30, 2028. School district leaders will receive a 3-percent salary increase this year, with a subsequent increase of 2.25 percent next year and 1.75 percent the following two years. Each administrator will also receive up to 17 paid sick days and longevity stipends for every five years they maintain their employment at Springs.
East Hampton has also agreed to rent school buses to Springs. According to the agreement, signed on Tuesday by the Springs School Board, East Hampton will make “one or more school buses . . . available for occasional rental.” Springs will be responsible for providing the driver. The daily rental rate will be $200, including a full tank of gasoline; terms also stipulate that Springs is to return each bus to East Hampton’s transportation depot with a full tank of gas at the end of each day of the rental.
“This is an agreement in case we need to rent a bus for the day. We recently had two buses offline that needed to be repaired, and we wanted to be sure that we had a backup plan in place in case we need another bus to take care of our students,” said Nancy Carney, the Springs superintendent, on Tuesday night.
The school board also accepted the donation of a kiln from the Springs PTA.
“We’re just so excited to have a kiln in our art room so that our kids can have pottery as part of their curriculum. . . . I still have different pottery pieces that my children made when they were here at Springs many years ago, so I think that’s something our kids will really enjoy.”
With Reporting by Denis Hartnett