Smithtown Schools Send Race to the Top Funds Back to State

Smithtown school officials have taken the stance that protecting their students's personal information is more important than $2,000 in federal Race to the Top funds. 

Smithtown Board of Education voted unanimously on Nov. 13 to opt out of a program that would give local access to a data dashboard - a collection of three companies collecting student data throughout the state, Times of Smithtown reports. These companies are DataCation Compass, eScholar myTrack and Schoolnet.

Instead, the school district will return approximately $2,000 in unspent federal Race to the Top funds to the New York State Education Department. 

While the $2,000 is only a small portion of the Smithtown Central School District's annual $224 million budget, school administrators hope the action will show the state the district will do what it can to remove itself from policies it doesn't agree with. 

Interim Superintendent Judith Elias said "did raise considerable concerns about sharing [student] data," according to Times of Smithtown. 

Smithtown school trustees previously moved to join more than 40 other districts on Long Island in signing a resolution challenging New York State Educational Department review its current system and the federal government to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, better known as the "No Child Left Behind Act." 

Read more on the Times of Smithtown about the district's decision to send back funding instead of collecting student data.