The Chautauqua Lake Central School District has been partnering with other school districts in the area for years. This includes a history of collaborating on various sports programs, delivery of mental health services and a long-term participation in a consortium with Brocton, Ripley and Westfield school districts called ASSET (A Shared Services Education Team).

As an outgrowth of the ASSET consortium work, in February 2013 the Ripley school district held a vote to determine whether their community was in favor of sending their students in grades 7 through 12 to another district on a tuition basis. Following a vote to pursue such an arrangement, the Ripley Board of Education voted in March 2013 to designate Chautauqua Lake as that district.  Together the districts negotiated a tuition rate designed to cover the full expense of adding approximately 130 Ripley students to the Chautauqua Lake Secondary School. 

This bold initiative brings a revenue source to Chautauqua Lake and stabilizes critical programs that will allow students from both districts to grow and compete in the post secondary environment.  Classes such as electives, Advanced Placement courses and college credit bearing courses will have increased class size.  In addition, athletics and co-curricular offerings have increased student participation.

Chautauqua Lake has a strong history of partnering with others to improve service to students while controlling costs.  This includes numerous relationships with outside agencies and collaborations with other districts.  Although not a complete solution to the financial and programming challenges faced by our district and other districts like us, we believe this is a very important step in enhancing our capacity to meet student needs in a fiscally responsible manner.

Efforts continue to encourage New York State to develop legislation to allow a regional high school.