Consolidating school districts on the table
Legislation sets timetable for districts to go K-12
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Correspondent

After many years as merely a talking point, consolidation of school districts is finally taking shape as a way to cut property taxes in the state.

According to Richard Vespucci, spokesman for the state Department of Education (DOE), new legislation, known as A-4, addresses shared services and consolidation throughout all state agencies, including the DOE.

The legislation, which passed both the state Assembly and Senate in February, includes not only incentives for all governmental bodies to share services, but also puts into place a three-year timetable for all school districts that are not currently K-12 to create a plan either to expand the district to include all grades K-12 or to join with other nearby districts to create a new K-12 district.

"There is one catch with this timetable," Vespucci said in an interview last week. "Voters in the school district can vote against merging with other districts. This should stimulate a lot of discussion, but there has to be a willful mandate at the local level for this consolidation not to happen."

This new law, according to Vespucci, will only come into effect after Gov. Jon Corzine makes appointments for the new positions of executive county superintendents of schools for each of the state's counties. The new administrators would possibly replace the current county superintendents.

"This new position would give the county superintendent of schools new powers and new responsibilities," Vespucci said. "It would mean a more active role in what's going on in school districts."

Formerly, the county superintendents reviewed school budgets within their counties and determined whether budgets met the standards for a thorough and efficient (T & E) education as mandated by law.

"With the new law," he said, "in addition to making sure that the budget would fund a T&E education, it will also look into what might be wasting money and be more prescriptive in the budget-making process."

Vespucci said the state is also encouraging school districts to share services with municipalities, in ways such as ordering supplies jointly or making joint contracts for lawn-mowing services.

"There is no law that prohibits whoever cuts the grass at city hall or at the library can't cut the grass at the school," he said.

The Red Bank Public School District has had a shared contract with Red Bank Borough for snow-plowing services for several years.

The Red Bank Public School District is a pre-K through grade eight district and sends students to Red Bank Regional High School in Little Silver.

School districts in both Little Silver and Shrewsbury also only go up to grade eight and those towns send their students to Red Bank Regional High School for grades nine through 12.

RBR Superintendent Dr. Edward Westervelt said in an interview Monday that the consolidation of school districts makes sense from an educational point of view, but he is skeptical about how much money the new configurations may actually save taxpayers.

"Much of this is prompted by trying to save taxpayer money," he said, "but by some studies that I have read on the subject, there would be some savings, but not quite what people in the Legislature anticipate."

According to Westervelt, because the new, larger school district would not only need a superintendent, but several assistant superintendents, the savings would not be nearly as substantial as some believe.

"The difference between the salary of a superintendent and an assistant superintendent is not great," he said. "We'd still need all the principals. We'd still need all the teachers. That wouldn't change. And there's legislation that states that when there is a school consolidation, all teachers' contracts must reflect the highest scale of salaries.

"So if the teachers at Red Bank Regional make more than the teachers in Little Silver or Red Bank, all of the teachers would be moved to the scale of that of Red Bank Regional. That, in itself, would mean an increase in cost for the first few years at least."

Vespucci called the A-4 legislation "aggressive action at the local level," and said that it is "easier for high schools to expand downward than to create a high school where there currently is none."

Although Westervelt said he agrees with that statement, and understands that if RBR consolidates with other districts, it would likely be the center of the consolidation, there are obstacles that he believes could make the process difficult in ways not considered by the legislation.

He said that since the total majority of voters in the three municipalities that are the main sending districts to RBR would determine if the districts consolidate, it means that if voters in Red Bank vote to approve the change and voters in Little Silver do not, the consolidation could proceed.

"Some communities like the schools their children attend to be close," Westervelt said, "and they like things small. If this happens and districts consolidate, there is the consideration of transportation. Some students from some districts will likely be transported to schools in other towns. This could have a profound effect on the issue of diversity that could be a hurdle."

Westervelt said that assumption of the debt of one district by all districts is another issue that will have to be dealt with, as well as the integration of business offices and basic philosophical issues unique to each municipality.

"In many ways," he said, "consolidation could result in savings and better consistency, but being in New Jersey, people are used to smaller being better. People believe that when schools are smaller there is better communication with parents and more control, which translates to better quality control.

"When things get bigger, they get more bureaucratic. Anyway, it will take many years to occur, if it occurs. By and large, most superintendents I've spoken to don't believe this is a move in the right direction."