Board establishes timeline
for redistricting decision
A tentative general timeline dealing with the issue of redistricting is before the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education.
"The board approved a resolution at its last meeting which said we would get additional input from the public and we would have the plan in place no later than June," said Superintendent of Schools James Wasser. "I tried to establish a tentative timeline with some specific dates that will occur."
At the end of February there will be a meeting of the supervisors of the district’s specialized learning centers, and a fact sheet will be developed regarding the regional district, which will be used at town meetings.
Also at the end of February, a public meeting similar to the one being held tonight in Freehold Township will be held in Manalapan so that residents may express their concerns and comments. No date has been set for the meeting.
Wasser also expects to meet again with the mayors from the district’s sending communities.
According to the tentative timeline, a joint meeting with mayors, the superintendent, principals and board representatives will be held in March.
Also in March, meetings at the high schools, hosted by principals and board members, will be held to hear citizens’ concerns and suggestions.
There will also be a board workshop meeting held to address philosophical issues related to school assignments.
The tentative timeline calls for a second board workshop meeting, sometime in April, to hear a summary of the community meetings and to begin discussing scenarios for school assignments, including the recommendations of the Student Attendance Advisory Committee which studied the issue from August to December 2001 and made a recommendation to the board in January.
That recommendation, to proceed with a redistricting plan for September, was not accepted by the board. Administrators subsequently indicated a redistricting plan would be put into effect for September 2003.
At the end of April, the administration will provide the board with its recommendations for school attendance boundaries.
During May, the tentative timeline calls for a board workshop to discuss area recommendations.
It is expected, according to the tentative timeline, that the board will adopt a school assignment plan sometime in June to take effect in September 2003.
In other district business, Wasser noted that a medical-sciences meeting was held on Feb. 8 regarding the potential of a computer science academy at Freehold Borough High School for September 2002. A report to the board will be forthcoming on Feb. 25 regarding the plan. It was also suggested that it would be advisable to find out how many students at the eighth-grade level would be interested in this program.
The following dates and locations have been provided by the board for upcoming meetings: Feb. 25 and March 4, Freehold Borough High School; March 18 and March 25, Colts Neck High School; April 8 and April 29, Marlboro High School.
(Students in Howell attend the six schools in the Freehold Regional High School District)