Regionalization and Consolidation of School Districts in New Jersey
The CORE Legislation (P.L. 2007, c. 63) which was approved by the New Jersey State Legislature in April, 2007, included some significant changes with implications for local school districts. The previous position of County Superintendent of Schools was renamed “Executive County Superintendent.” This new position has enhanced authority and oversight over local school districts in the county. Executive County Superintendents are appointed by the Governor and have the following powers and duties:
- Promote administrative and operational efficiencies and cost savings
- Recommend the consolidation of administrative services between districts
- Recommend the elimination of unnecessary state education mandates
- Eliminate non-operating districts (many of these districts, such as Millstone in Somerset County) were eliminated as of July 1, 2009. A non-operating district is a district that does not have its own schools and sends its students to another district on a tuition basis.
- Present to the Commissioner a school consolidation plan for all non K-12 districts
- Promote coordination and regionalization of pupil transportation services
- Review and approve all employment contracts for superintendents, assistant superintendents and school business administrators
- Extensive power in the review of school district budgets, including the ability to disapprove any portion of a school budget if it includes “excessive non-instructional expenses”
- Promote cooperative purchasing of instructional materials and textbooks
- Assess local district special education programs with regard to type and capacity, assess local district use of out-of-district programs and make efforts to increase in-district special education programs, sharing services and the expansion of inclusive education
Implications/Rules/Regulations
What happens with the employees of the individual districts when regionalization occurs?
Tenure and seniority laws apply in this situation. All affected employees of the existing constituent school districts retain their legal protections. Any affected tenured employees are able to exert “bumping” rights into the new regional district over less senior or non-tenured employees. Staffing the new regional district is determined by seniority, not by any qualitative assessment of staff members. If the creation of a regional district results in a demand for fewer employees that are currently employed by the individual sending districts, then the least senior, non-tenured employees would be subject to a reduction in force if their positions were not needed in the new regional district.
Which contract would cover the new regional district employees?
Under current law, the existing collective bargaining agreement that covers the largest number of teaching staff members would be the agreement utilized for the new regional district teachers until its expiration and until a new agreement is negotiated. In this case, the Watchung Hills Regional High School District currently employs the largest number of employees and would become the contract in force for the new district. Placement of the new district’s workforce on the existing guide can present some challenges. The law states that no tenured staff member may be reduced in salary, but the precise placement on a particular step on guide can be a complex task (Are staff placed on the same numerical step as their previous guide, which may represent a different number of years of actual service than the new guide? are they placed on the step closest in dollar value to their current salary? Are salaries frozen until a new guide is negotiated?)
How would a Board of Education for a new regional district be formed?
If a new regional district is approved by the voters, the Executive County Superintendent would appoint the necessary number of qualified board members from each constituent school district. If there are nine or less constituent districts, each constituent district would have at least one board member with the remaining seats being apportioned by the Executive County Superintendent according to the population of the constituent districts. For example, in the case of a regionalized district that included Green Brook, Long Hill, Warren and Watchung – each community would have 1 seat. The remaining 5 seats would be apportioned based on the percentage of the total regional district population represented by each municipality. The apportionment is done based on the population as reposted in the most recent United States census.
Based on the 2000 census information (Green Brook – 5,654, Long Hill Township – 8,777, Warren Township – 14,259, and Watchung Borough – 5,654) The configuration of a regional board would likely be 3 Warren Township Members, and two members from Green Brook, Long Hill Township and Watchung.
Board seats are reviewed and reapportioned only once every 10 years when a new census has been completed.
How are taxes apportioned in a regional district?
A newly formed regional district would choose the apportionment method from among three choices:
- Equalized property valuation (property values)
- Pupil enrollment
- Any combination or equalized valuation and pupil enrollment
How costs are apportioned may be the deciding factor in whether a community chooses to vote for regionalization. Whenever a new regional district is created, there frequently are winners and losers from the perspective of tax impact. Who wins and who loses are determined by the ultimate decision on how taxes will be apportioned within the newly formed district.
Once determined, any changed to the apportionment method an only be approved by a majority vote in each constituent municipality.
Consolidation of Administrative Services
New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-2.3) requires the Executive County Superintendent to study the potential consolidation of local district administrative services. The code indicates that this study is focused on districts that:
Ø Have less than 1,000 students (Long Hill enrollment is currently below 1,000)
Ø Have five school buildings or less (Long Hill has 3 school buildings)
Ø Are two or more contiguous districts with a combined enrollment of 2,500 or less (Long Hill/Watchung)
Ø Are sending-receiving districts with a combined enrollment of 5,000 or less (WHRHS/Greenbrook)
Ø Are limited purpose regional districts* with a combined enrollment of 5,000 or less
Ø Have per pupil administrative costs in excess of 125 percent of the county median administrative cost per pupil
*A “Limited Purpose Regional District” is any regional district that serves anything less than a K through 12 grade configuration.
The study that the Executive County Superintendent is directed to undertake must include consideration of shared leadership models, consortiums, cooperative bidding, joint purchasing models, shared technology systems, other consolidated administrative service and non-instructional services arrangements and other alternatives. The Executive County Superintendent has the ability to conduct a survey of all local districts within the county to determine the scope of administrative service providers to provide these services.
When the Executive County Superintendent has completed the study, they will make a recommendation to the Commissioner of Education to either:
v Mandate the impacted districts enter arrangements to consolidate administrative services
v Utilize the services of an administrative services provider, or
v Expand the existing service provider’s level of services
School District Consolidation Plans
An additional new role assigned to the Executive County Superintendent is the requirement that they gather input from the community, through a local Advisory Committee, and develop a school district consolidation plan to eliminate all school districts, other than those that are county-based, such as the vocational-technical high schools and preschool/kindergarten through grade 12 districts in the county. As a pre-K through 8 district, Long Hill is targeted for consolidation, as are our sister districts in the WHRHS region – Greenbrook, Warren and Watchung. The Executive County Superintendent was required to submit a Consolidation Plan to the Commissioner of Education by March 15, 2010. The plan must contain:
1. A general description of the proposed all purpose (meaning preK through 12) regional school district(s), including the names of the districts, school building and grade levels by district and the total proposed regional district;
2. The proposed structure of the new board of education;
3. An analysis of administrative staffing, collective bargaining agreements and compensation guides;
4. An analysis of the educational program of the proposed district;
5. An analysis of the potential opportunities for greater effectiveness and efficiency in the areas of special education services, transportation, technology, administrative and finance systems, food services and other operational and curricular areas;
6. An analysis of the socio-economic and demographic information including enrollment impact, racial composition, food eligibility status and attendance;
7. A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposal; and
8. A comparative analysis of tax impact if regionalization/consolidation is recommended.
Once the Commissioner has approved the plan, the Executive County Superintendent would require each local board of education impacted by the plan to hold a special school election to vote upon the proposed regionalization. Under current law, in order for the proposal to pass, each impacted community must vote to support the plan.
What’s Happening in the Long Hill Township School District
As district superintendent, Dr. René Rovtar, is a member of the Executive County Superintendent’s Advisory Committee in Morris County. Because Long Hill Township sends it high school students to Watchung Hills Regional High School, Dr. Rovtar was also invited to be a member of the Advisory Committee for Somerset County.
Since Long Hill Township has been a part of the WHRHS district since its creation, it makes sense to continue this “over county lines” association as possible K-12 consolidation plans are contemplated. Over time, Long Hill residents have invested heavily in the construction of the WHRHS school district facilities. It makes economic sense for our students to continue to attend the high school. A number of feasibility studies are currently being conducted across the state. Unfortunately, due to limited state funding, not all possible consolidations could be approved for feasibility studies. The WHRHS consolidation was not approved for a feasibility study.
Why not consolidate with a Morris County district, such as Chatham? While Chatham neighbors Long Hill, the School District of the Chathams – a regionalized district of Chatham Borough and Chatham Township - would not have room for our high school students without adding additional space to their high school. It would not make sense to construct additional school space when space already exists to house Long Hill students at WHRHS.
An informational meeting on regionalization and consolidation for the WHRHS community is expected to be scheduled for sometime in November. This evening meeting will be held at WHRHS. As soon as a date has been confirmed, it will be shared. As indicated above, Executive County Superintendents was required to submit their Consolidation Plans to the Commissioner of Education by March 15, 2010.