HOWELL — A special meeting of the Township Council has been scheduled for April 17 at Howell High School, Squankum-Yellowbrook Road, starting at 7 p.m.
The meeting is being convened in order to give residents a chance to gather and inform the governing body and other representatives what they expect from the Freehold Regional High School District as regards the issue of future student redistricting, according to Mayor Timothy J. Konopka.
Expected to be in attendance at the meeting are Howell’s representatives on the FRHSD Board of Education, Ronald Lawson and Terry Kraft, as well the district’s superintendent of schools, James Wasser.
Joan Leimbach is a Howell resident who in recent months has become involved in attending district meetings and educating other parents in the district about what the board is doing. She has become the de facto representative of a gathering faction that she said is dedicated to making sure that in the future Howell’s interests in the regional district will be presented and attended to equally with the other sending towns.
Leimbach and Konopka both said they believe parents in some of the district’s sending communities have been shown deference with regard to demands for their children to only attend the high school in their community.
The regional district is comprised of eight sending municipalities: Marlboro, Manalapan, Englishtown, Colts Neck, Howell, Farmingdale, Freehold Borough and Freehold Township. Manalapan and Marlboro are the only two towns in the regional district whose students have not been forced to attend a high school outside of their hometown.
"Howell has always been a great supporter of the regional concept and has played by the rules, but seems to be the one hurt," the mayor said.
Konopka said Howell residents have "been good sports and lived up to the concept of a regional district, unlike other towns" that demand that students only be assigned to the district high school in their community.
The FRHSD operates high schools in Colts Neck, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro.
Leimbach agreed with the mayor, saying, "Howell has always cooperated and we have a right to expect that we will be treated fairly."
She said that if Howell is to be taken seriously "as a force to be reckoned with," parents or any concerned residents of the township have to "show up at the April 17 meeting to give Howell a voice that will be heard."
Howell Councilman Fritz Kirchhof said that ideally, the best solution would be for Howell to pull out of the regional district and become a K-12 district with its own high school. He said he knows the costs involved with that option are not likely to support such a decision, but he is concerned about the "shuffling of Howell kids all over creation."
At present, Howell residents of high school age may, depending on where they live in the community, be assigned to one of three high schools in the district: Colts Neck, Howell or Freehold Township.
Numbers provided by the district indicate that more residents of Howell attend Freehold Township High School than do residents of that community.
Kirchhof said he is coming to the April 17 meeting to hear what his constituents want.
"I’d like to see residents from the community show up in full force," the councilman said.