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Schenectady officials outline Capital Region regionalization plan, urge collaboration on pre‑K, special education and shared services
Summary
Deputy Superintendent Joe DiCaprio told the Oct. 8 Schenectady Board of Education that Capital Region BOCES and 24 regional superintendents submitted a two‑part regionalization plan to the State Education Department on Oct. 1 to catalog partnerships and recommend shared services in areas including special education, pre‑K and transportation.
Deputy Superintendent Joe DiCaprio briefed the board on a regionalization plan developed by 24 Capital Region districts through Capital Region BOCES and submitted to the New York State Education Department on Oct. 1.
“The purpose of this plan is to begin to showcase collaborative efforts across regions and identify where we’re going to need supports,” DiCaprio said. He described the plan as two parts: (1) cataloguing existing regional activity and partnerships; and (2) recommending areas where districts could build cooperative programs and seek legislative or state support.
DiCaprio said the plan’s current focus areas for Schenectady include special education, leadership development, distance‑learning options (both in‑person and virtual), universal pre‑K approaches, transportation and workforce pipelines, and implementing approved artificial intelligence policies into practice.
He told the board the plan requires each superintendent in the 24‑district group to certify the recommendations; Schenectady’s superintendent completed that certification and the plan was submitted to the State Education Department (SED) for review. DiCaprio said state review is underway and that the regional plan is expected to evolve over a multi‑year horizon — he mentioned a working window of roughly five to 10 years for regional implementation.
Board members asked about cost‑sharing, space limits and how special education would be handled across districts. DiCaprio said those conversations are in “infancy” for special education: the region is exploring where shared expertise, specialized staff and dedicated small‑group spaces could be used to meet individual students’ needs across multiple districts.
DiCaprio and Superintendent Carlos Cotto said Schenectady is participating in early pilot activity tied to Proctor’s Collaborative, in which neighboring districts can send students on a trial basis to expanded programming (for example, fine‑arts instruction at Proctor’s Theater) to evaluate demand and capacity.
DiCaprio closed by saying the effort is “a working document” that will be refined with SED feedback and district input, and that Schenectady’s leaders envision using existing local programs as a launching point for broader regional offerings.
