No legislative help for district in tuition battle RBR officials contend arts program serves as vocational school

No legislative help for district in tuition battle
RBR officials contend
arts program serves
as vocational school

As the Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education continues to appeal the court decision over who should pay for some out-of-district students attending the school, local state representatives told it not to expect assistance from the Legislature any time soon.

At a special board meeting last week, state Sen. John O. Bennett III (R-12), who is the Senate majority leader, told the board that a bill that could help alleviate the concerns is currently languishing in the Senate’s education committee. He said the bills are not expected to come up for a vote during this lame duck session, which runs to Jan. 8.

All current bills before the Legislature will expire at the end of the session

"It is extremely doubtful at this time that it would pass," Bennett said of the bill the district seeks.

The legislation was proposed after parents of out-of-district students attending RBR for its performing arts program initiated a lawsuit in an attempt to have their home districts cover the cost of tuition at RBR.

There are districts that do pay the $8,600 tuition, but Long Branch, Shore Regional, Rumson-Fair Haven, and Middle-town school district officials balked at paying.

Those districts maintain that the programs they offer are comparable to what is offered by Red Bank Regional, and because the high school is not an official part of the county’s vocational school system, they are not obliged to pay for students from their district who wish to attend RBR.

As it currently stands, the state requires districts to pay to send students to vocational programs. They are not obligated to pay to send students to schools in other districts, as long as the home district has a comparable program.

The court ruled against the parents’ contention that RBR is indeed a vocational school, in a ruling handed down over the summer. That ruling upheld the other districts’ position that they were not required to pay tuition for their students wishing to attend RBR’s program.

That decision was appealed to the state Board of Education, and the state’s commissioner of education also ruled against the parents. But the Red Bank Regional district (which had filed a separate but similar petition with the court) is in the process of appealing that decision, explained Edward Westervelt, the district’s superintendent.

James P. Granello, the attorney representing Red Bank Regional, said the programs offered at the regional high school are considerably more substantial than what is available in surrounding districts.

Actually, he said, only four districts in the state, none of which are in Monmouth County, offer arts programs comparable to RBRs.

"The visual and performing arts are a very limited and unique program," Granello explained, requiring students to audition before being accepted.

It also is the district’s position that it is indeed a vocational school, and it is appealing the decision determining otherwise, Granello said.

Because of the lack of movement in Trenton on legislation that would help bolster the district’s case, Bennett said that the board should reach out to all the parties and discuss the situation, and hopefully find a solution that is amenable to all concerned with the possibility of placing caps on the number of out- of-district students permitted to attend the school’s arts program.

"Hopefully, we’ll get to a time when there could be a trade-off," Bennett said.

Part of the reason that the senate bill has not progressed, Bennett explained, is because it is opposed by some legislators, including state Senator Joseph A. Palaia (R-11), and Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr. (R-13), who represent Long Branch and Middletown, respectively, communities with parents involved in the suit.

"As you have found difficulty in dealing with your peers in this matter," Bennett told the board, "so have we."

Assemblywoman Clare M, Farragher (R-12), who also attended the meeting, said the situation is much the same on the Assembly side with that house’s version of the bill. And she added, the Assembly has only one committee day left in this session, in December, and this issue is not likely to be discussed.

"It’s been a problem getting it listed," Farragher said.

Bennett said he would be willing to reintroduce the bill in the next session.

Bennett and Farragher said there has been some discussion of establishing a visual and performing arts program at the county vocational level. According to the two legislators, this is redundant, and would be an unnecessary expenditure of resources.

"We don’t need to have the county vocational school to add a new performing arts program," Bennett said. "We already have a great program.

"We could end up with, instead of one outstanding program, something else," the senator added.

The concern among the other districts is the loss of students and money, as well as the insistence that the regional high school, as the court determined, is not a true vocational school and, therefore, not entitled to mandated tuition.

"We have a performing arts program that is second to none," said R. Armen McOmber, an attorney representing the Long Branch Board of Education. "Why should we have to pay to send students?

"It would be suicide for any board to permit this," he said.

But Bennett’s position is, "Nobody is saying they’re [the students] coming to the school because there’s something wrong with the other schools. Red Bank, in my opinion, is not going to do anything that is detrimental to the other districts," he said.

Also, according Westervelt, it is unfair to deny students access to the program, because of their districts’ unwillingness to pay, especially if the students and their families are unable to afford the $8,600 annual tuition.

"We feel it’s not equitable that students with parents of means can send their children if the districts won’t pay," Bennett said.

Currently there are 300 students in the school’s visual and performing arts program, with approximately 70 percent coming from other districts; 16 of those districts are paying to send students, according to Westervelt.

A decision on the district’s appeal will probably be made by spring, "and we’re still hopeful we’ll prevail and we don’t think parents should have to pay for it," Westervelt said.