By: Frank C. D’Amico
In conjunction with a demographic study, the Western Monmouth Panhandle Alliance is looking to canvas its member municipalities – Allentown, Millstone, Roosevelt and Upper Freehold – on the subject of school regionalization.
Millstone School District Superintendent William Setaro said the alliance wants to conduct surveys in the four towns to collect data and public opinion about the prospect of regionalization.
Dr. Setaro said the survey will have a dual purpose.
In addition to collecting information about how the public feels about combining school districts, it also will help the four municipalities prepare five-year facility plans.
"We didn’t want to look at it solely for regionalization and have towns duplicate efforts," Dr. Setaro said.
This way, the survey could cover the four municipalities at once and provide information that would have been collected anyhow, Dr. Setaro said.
He said school districts have to come up with a five-year planning program every five years. A plan is necessary to qualify for certain state funding.
Dr. Setaro said four different polling organizations have been contacted, including Gallop and Quinnipiac College, the Connecticut institution which conducts presidential polls.
The types of questions would include "a ton of things" in addition to regionalization, Dr. Setaro said.
"We’ll address areas such as how the district is operating its programs and class size," he said.
Also, the type of poll that will be conducted, whether it be a telephone survey or otherwise, will be up to the polling company.
"We want to have the method that would yield the best results," he said.
Dr. Setaro said there is no set timeline on the project, but interviews will take place some time next month.
The alliance is working with a $75,000 state grant to conduct a regionalization study, he said.
"Hopefully all four towns are going to benefit from the information we’ll collect," Dr. Setaro said.
