By alison granito
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE — After giving the public the summer to go over the results, the Millstone Township Board of Education will hold a forum on the Panhandle School Regionalization Study next week.
The session will be held Monday in the elementary school cafetorium at 7:30 p.m.
The study undertaken by the Western Monmouth County Panhandle Alliance, which cost $75,000 and took two years to complete, looked at several options for school regionalization among Millstone, Allentown, Upper Freehold, and Roose-velt.
"After the end of the first meeting on the regionalization study, our board wanted to hear more, and we thought since there was not very big attendance that there should be another opportunity for the public to hear this," Millstone Schools Superintendent William Setaro said Monday.
"There will be time for the public to ask questions, and the board will discuss the issue publicly," he added.
Setaro said the demographic, financial, and facilities experts behind the study will be available for questions at the forum.
According to the superintendent, if all the communities involved decide to continue down the road to regionalization, the next step would be to undertake a feasibility study.
"Anywhere along the continuum, every one of the communities would have to agree to separate or make changes to the situation," he added.
The study lays out the current and projected demographics of the four communities, contains a public opinion component which surveyed a cross section of local residents, and details the tax and financial impact that different types of school districts would have on all the towns down the line.
The study also looks at several scenarios for regionalization,
• A completely regionalized K-12 district encompassing all four communities
• Two separate K-12 districts, one for Millstone, possibly encompassing Roosevelt, and one for Upper Freehold/Allentown
• A 9-12 regional district with Millstone, Upper Freehold, and Allentown participating, and three independent K-8 districts for each of those towns
• Maintaining the current arrangement
Under the present arrangement, Millstone pays tuition to the Upper Freehold Regional school district, sends its high school students to Allentown High School, and maintains its own K-8 district. Roosevelt maintains its own K-6 district and sends its middle and high school students to East Windsor schools.
If the four communities decide to implement full, K-12 regionalization, taxes would go up in Millstone, Allentown, and Upper Freehold, and fall in Roosevelt.
If the scenario in which two independent K-12 districts were formed, taxes would go up dramatically in Millstone, Allentown, and Upper Freehold.
If the districts were to remain in the present arrangement, taxes in Millstone would go up, Roosevelt’s taxes would remain stable, and Allentown would see its tax rate rise, as would Upper Freehold.
If Millstone were to split from Upper Freehold Regional and two separate K-12 districts were formed, Millstone would need to build a new high school and a new middle school, according to the study
For the purposes of the study, a new high school in Millstone was projected to cost a total of $36 million, $25.2 million of which would have to be raised by taxpayers assuming a state contribution of $10.8 million. A new middle school is projected to cost $30 million, $21 million of which would fall to the taxpayers after the expected state contribution.