New Jersey preps study of school consolidation
12 school 'clusters' to be studied in Monmouth
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer
The State Department of Education is moving forward with plans to study the consolidation of school districts and will work with a handful of public colleges and universities to assess its controversial school consolidation feasibility studies.

The universities and colleges, which have not yet been named, will conduct the first few feasibility studies to ensure that they adequately answer the state's questions concerning the possible merging of its non- K-8 school districts.

Monmouth County Executive Superintendent of Schools Carol Knopp Morris made the announcement about the schools' involvement with the studies during a public information session on the topic held at Shore Regional High School on June 3.

The purpose of the information session was to update parents and taxpayers on the status of the feasibility studies and what their outcomes could mean for schools in the region.

"This is not the most popular of subjects to be talking about, but it certainly is one that has energized the interest and attendance at these kinds of meetings throughout the state," Morris quipped at the start of the two-hour meeting.

In addition to Morris, state Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-12th District) and Assembly members David Rible and Mary Pat Angelini (both R-11th District) were also on hand to discuss the consolidation studies.

Announced in March, the feasibility studies are expected to be conducted in an effort to understand what, if any, benefits the consolidation of non-K-12 school districts would have for the education of students and residents' tax bills.

With the studies, which Morris explained have not yet begun, the state is seeking to eliminate all non-operating and non-K-12 school districts.

A district is considered non-operating if it does not have its own school building and instead buses its students to other operating districts.

According to Morris, New Jersey has some 670 "school entities" for its 566 municipalities.

These school entities, Morris explained, account for public districts as well as vocational schools, county services, educational service commissions and charter schools.

Such a large disparity between districts and municipalities, Morris said, is generally perceived to be the result of a duplication of services and waste.

It was this suspected waste, Morris explained, that in 2007 caused the state Legislature to pass the law that calls for the school consolidation studies.

"It was one part of a group of laws that addressed problems that were pretty much typical to education in a general sense and required more regulations to then be developed by the Department of Education," Morris explained.

"One of the areas contained in that law was a reference that all [districts] should be K-12, and the way this was to be done was by some kind of consolidation," Morris said.

The purpose of a consolidation would be to create more K-12 districts, the grade system currently endorsed by the state.

In Monmouth County, Morris is calling for 12 separate feasibility studies to be conducted on 12 different district clusters.

These clusters, Morris said, were chosen to be studied for possible consolidation due to similarities they have, including their populations, tax rates and student populations.

Prior to conducting the feasibility studies, Morris was required to provide an explanation as to why she chose each particular cluster for study to state Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy for review.

"In Monmouth County I had recommended to the commissioner at least 12 different studies that I thought were necessary," Morris explained.

Locally, Morris has called for a study to determine if a consolidation of the Ocean Township, Deal, Interlaken, Allenhurst and Asbury Park school districts, as well as the Eatontown, Tinton Falls, Monmouth Regional High School and Shrewsbury Borough districts would be appropriate.

She is also seeking a study to look into the consolidation of the Shore Regional High School, West Long Branch, Oceanport, Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach school districts.

According to Morris, these particular studies have alarmed many area residents who see the studies as not an investigation, but rather an outright mandate to consolidate school districts.

However, Morris explained, the studies are simply being used to determine if towns within a district cluster should have a proposal to consolidate their schools brought to a referendum.

That referendum, Morris explained, would then have to be universally accepted by all of the towns involved in the proposed consolidation in order for it to be approved.

If any one town refuses such an action, the referendum would be defeated.

"These are studies that no one should fear," Morris said. "And I said this from the very beginning: if they are done correctly … they will produce a document that clearly says to the taxpayers and boards of education and administration, 'This is a very good idea that these districts unite in this cluster; seriously propose and submit to the voters a referendum for regionalization.'

"Or that feasibility study will say, which is very possible as well, 'This is the very worst idea, financially for taxpayers and educationally for the students, that could happen,' " Morris said. "So, the study is extremely important."

While the feasibility studies are looking into the possibility of widespread school consolidation, Morris explained that they will also look at other forms of consolidation, including opportunities for districts to share services.

"There are all kinds of different — and I think I've heard them all — definitions or references to consolidation," Morris said. "And let me say right up front, as far as I'm concerned, looking at Monmouth County, there is no one way to consolidate in this particular county or in this state.

"So when people immediately say, 'All consolidation is bad and we want nothing to do with it,' I think that is premature and in some ways a position that no one should ever take, because there are some ways that consolidation can produce savings for taxpayers without being disruptive to the educational system," she added.

Although she said taxpayers and parents should be open to the prospect of consolidating school districts, Morris did acknowledge that many residents and school boards have already said that such action could prove harmful to their students' education.

"I've heard a lot of people share with me their feelings," Morris said, explaining that a common argument is that a kind of consolidation of school districts was looked into in the 1980s but was found to be unpopular and ineffective.

However, Morris addressed such arguments by explaining that past studies would not have the same results as a new study, due to changes in tax rates and the number of children in the region.

"Obviously today isn't 1980," Morris said. "So the property value issue alone will look far different today in a study than it would look back then."

Like Morris, O'Scanlon expressed his support for conducting the feasibility studies.

"When it comes to educating our children, we all realize how important that can be on their lives, and their livelihoods throughout their lives," he said.

Although in favor of the studies, O'Scanlon said he was wary of Gov. Jon Corzine's administration, alleging that although some regions might reject a consolidation referendum, Corzine could force such an action in the future.

While O'Scanlon assured the public that he believes Morris would not be a party to such an action, he did accuse the state's current administration of alluding to such a move.

O'Scanlon went on to allege that the state's cuts in aid to smaller municipalities during the state's last two budget years was in fact a veiled attempt on Corzine's part to force municipalities to begin merging, adding that a similar action could be taken to force consolidating schools.

Although cautious of a statewide consolidation mandate, O'Scanlon called on residents to keep an open mind and follow the feasibility studies and their results.

"We need to keep an open mind and we need to at least look at these studies," O'Scanlon said. "It's well worth doing them, especially if they are going to look at ways that they can do facility sharing and merging

of individual districts." During the public portion of the meeting,

Sea Bright Councilwoman Dina Long echoed O'Scanlon's comments about the study, but said that before consolidation can be looked at, the state must first examine how funding for the new districts would be dispensed among its member towns.

The Sea Bright Borough Council has long been fighting what it says is an unfair distribution of cost for the borough to send its students to Shore Regional.

Shore Regional's sending towns are West Long Branch, Oceanport, Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright.

According to Long, the borough sends the smallest number of students to Shore Regional but still pays 13.3 percent of its total school budget.

Under the district's 2008-09 budget, Sea Bright taxpayers were responsible for paying some $80,000 per student for its 27 students, while West Long Branch, which sends 359 students to the school, was responsible for paying $12,969 per student.

A similar situation unfolded in the Ocean Township school district this year, when, as a result of the state's new school funding reform act, school taxes for Loch Arbour residents, who send their students to the Ocean Township school system, increased by $4,600 annually.

"You can consolidate and merge all you want, but we still need buildings, we still need teachers, we still need administrators, and you still need supplies," Long said.

"Everyone decries the waste and the excess of the big government, and yet creating a super regional or a consolidated district could potentially create exactly that," she said.

"I believe that until we deal with the fundamental questions of how we pay and who pays what, consolidation will not work, and in fact it can potentially harm those who have the least burden on the system and the least ability to pay," Long said.

"… Let's not run from this issue or blame others, but let's work together and roll up our sleeves and learn how to work with it," she added.

Contact Daniel Howley at

dhowley@gmnews.com.