Judge rules board may
conduct regular business
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
It’s back to business as usual for the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education.
U.S. District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown, sitting in Trenton, lifted a temporary restraining order on Dec. 31 that had prevented the board from voting on most issues relating to the operation of the district.
Brown put the temporary restraining order in place on Nov. 18 as he considered an action filed by the township of Marlboro against the FRHSD. Based on the results of the 2000 census, Marlboro is challenging the board’s voting system. Marlboro’s action claims the results of the census warrant a change in the voting points allotted to each of the board’s eight constituent sending communities.
Brown’s lifting of the injunction on the final day of 2002 means the board can conduct all of its regular business, including proceeding with a student assignment plan that is scheduled to take effect in September.
That plan will assign a group of eighth-graders who live in Marlboro to Colts Neck High School, instead of to Marlboro High School. The board’s redistricting plan will also assign some eighth-graders who live in Manalapan, and all eighth-graders who live in Englishtown, to Freehold Township High School, instead of to Manalapan High School, and all eighth-graders who live in Farmingdale to Colts Neck High School, instead of to Howell High School. Additional students from Howell will be assigned to Freehold Township High School.
Marlboro, as a township, has objected to the involuntary assignment of students to Colts Neck High School. Since Marlboro High School was built in the late 1960s, all high school age residents of the township have been assigned to attend Marlboro High School.
FRHSD administrators have said that overcrowding at Marlboro and Manal-apan high schools is the reason why some students from those towns are now being assigned to attend a high school in a different community. No student who currently attends a FRHSD school is being moved to a new building.
The FRHSD board member who represented Farmingdale on the panel for most of 2002 requested that Farmingdale students be assigned to Colts Neck High School instead of Howell High School, and the board approved that request.
The board approved the redistricting plan in September. Representatives from Englishtown, Farmingdale, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell and Manalapan voted in favor of the plan, while the representatives from Colts Neck and Marlboro voted against the plan.
Meanwhile, hearings on the school board vote apportionment issue that forms the basis of Marlboro’s federal complaint are expected to resume before Brown later this month.
Attorney Nathanya Simon, who represents the FRHSD board, told Greater Media Newspapers that in his ruling on Dec. 31, Brown "indicated that the temporary restraints that he had granted on Nov. 18 would be vacated and that the township of Marlboro’s request for a preliminary injunction against the board voting on many substantive matters before the reapportionment case is completed would be denied in its entirety. I thought the judge gave an extraordinarily strong, factually based, decision (which was) well founded in case law, which he cited."
On Dec. 30, Brown heard testimony from Michael Maddaluna, the Monmouth County superintendent of schools; James Wasser, superintendent of schools in the FRHSD; Marlboro Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco; and a parent. He ruled on Dec. 31 that the temporary restraining order he had placed against the school board a month earlier would be lifted.
"He understood the urgency of getting a decision to the parties (involved), so that when school open(ed) (on Jan. 2) we (the school board) can start to function," said Simon.
She said Brown had indicated that injunctive relief was very extraordinary and that judges have to be very careful in making decisions that affect the status quo or any interest that could change the status quo.
"He felt that an injunction in this particular case actually changes the status quo by prohibiting the board from functioning, and this is a moving body (where) time makes thing change," said Simon. "(They) have to vote on things and (therefore) an injunction remarkably changes the status quo. He (Brown) did not feel that was warranted in this case."
The attorney said that in further looking at irreparable injuries, the judge noted that Marlboro did not show irreparable injuries. The attorney said that is a prerequisite for injunctive relief.
In looking at issues which deal with the balancing of interests and hardship on the public’s interest, Simon said Brown found in favor of the board on those two issues based on the affidavit and testimony of Wasser, and the oral arguments that she, Simon, made.
"By finding that Marlboro did not prove irreparable injury, and in fact he (Brown) said he thought the board had more injury involved than Marlboro, as well as finding in favor of the board on the issue of balancing of hardships and the public interest, he could not continue any kind of restraints and would not sign an order for injunctive relief," said Simon. "We’re very pleased as far as the board is concerned, because now we (the board) can continue to function."
Attorney Lance Kalik, representing Marlboro, said, "We obtained temporary restraints for more than one month and I think the fact that Judge Brown did issue restraints shows that this is a very serious issue and one that does have merits. In dissolving the restraints, I believe that Judge Brown displayed his unwillingness to stop the ongoing operations of the Freehold Regional (High School) District. However, in so doing he did not pass any judgment on the merits of Marlboro’s claim that they do not have equal representation on the Freehold board."
Kalik said he remains confident that Marlboro will be vindicated and will obtain equal and fair representation on the board.
"We also filed a petition in state administrative courts challenging the redistricting plan," they attorney said. "That case has obviously just begun."
Commenting on Brown’s Dec. 31 ruling, Wasser said, "I’m very glad that this is over and we are (now) able to start moving forward for the betterment of all the students in the regional district. There have been a lot of activities that have been put on hold, like the mailing of the redistricting that has to go out to the students so they know what school they go to next year, the eighth grade orientations that are being planned as we talk and just getting back on the whole planning schedule for the 2003-04 school year."
FRHSD public information coordinator Ilse Whisner said it is expected that redistricting information will be sent out within the next two weeks.
"We reviewed the list of streets that were on it in November and there are no changes," said Whisner. "There may be a street that was inadvertently omitted, but, pretty much, there is no change. We’re advising in the newsletter that will be sent to parents that if they live on a street that is not listed, but they border or live in an area where everybody surround(ing) you goes to a particular school, give us a call. Do not assume anything. If you’re the only street in the development that is not on the list, do not assume where you’re going. Call us."
Simon noted that Marlboro has the right to appeal Brown’s Dec. 31 ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.