year is too close
to stop redistricting
Marlboro will not
appeal FRHSD ruling
Council says school
year is too close
to stop redistricting
By larry ramer
Staff Writer
The Marlboro Township Council has decided not to continue its legal fight against the Freehold Regional High School District over the district’s redistricting plan.
Under the plan that is scheduled to begin in September, some high school freshmen who live in Marlboro will be assigned to attend Colts Neck High School.
Other parts of the redistricting plan will send some freshmen from Manalapan to Freehold Township High School, residents of Farmingdale to Colts Neck High School, and additional students from Howell to Freehold Township High School.
Marlboro had sued the FRHSD to overturn the plan, but a judge dismissed the case on July 1. Township officials could have filed a written exception to the New Jersey commissioner of education; however, the council, following an executive session meeting held July 17, elected not to take that step.
A number of factors contributed to the decision, council members said. One problem is that school starts in about six weeks, complicating Marlboro’s ability to force the FRHSD to adopt a new, orderly redistricting plan.
"Since it’s already July and school starts in September, [further] litigation would be disruptive to students at this point. Most have already come to terms with the situation," Councilwoman Mary Singer said.
"It’s too late to stop the children from being sent to Colts Neck. No judge will stop the plan," council President Ellen Karcher added.
Other factors in the decision were the cost of continuing the litigation against the FRHSD and the opinions of township attorneys, who said Marlboro did not have a good chance of winning the case.
"We’re not going to continue spending the taxpayers’ money for lawyers on a course of action that our attorneys have advised us is now futile," Karcher said.
Karcher and Singer both said the council would now focus on attempting to negotiate with FRHSD administrators about future redistricting plans and options.
Meanwhile, Marlboro will continue to seek a change in the FRHSD Board of Education’s voting points system. The town is currently in mediation on the issue with the FRHSD and the other seven sending communities. Marlboro claims the results of the 2000 census indicate that it should have additional voting points on the board.
There are, however, fundamental differences within the council on the question of future litigation against the FRHSD.
Councilman Barry Denken-sohn was the only member of the council present at Thursday’s meeting to support going forward with the appeal to the commissioner of education.
On the opposite side of the issue, Karcher said she does not believe litigation will be necessary in the future.
"I don’t understand why we need to litigate further and dig our heels in the sand on something that won’t work. We should work together and negotiate with [the FRHSD], rather than litigating every time we have a problem," she said.
Councilman James Mione said he does not support further litigation at this point, but added that the council would continue to "explore all options."
Singer also took a middle position, saying that litigation may be necessary in the future.
Meanwhile, the idea of Marlboro building its own high school and assigning all high school age residents to that building — an idea previously discussed by the council and the town’s Advisory Committee on Education (ACE) — came under fire from Karcher.
"My gut feeling is that it would be so prohibitively expensive for us [to build a high school] and provide the same quality of education to our students. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it would be tremendously expensive for us to acquire property, build a school, outfit it for 2,000 students and staff it," Karcher said.
Singer, Karcher and Mione said they would not be able to support releasing a draft report prepared by an independent consultant who had been retained by the town to estimate the cost of building a separate high school for Marlboro students.
Karcher said she was relying on the advice of the township attorney in declining to release the report, while Mione said it would be kept under wraps as long as necessary in order to "protect our children’s’ interests."
Releasing the document might undermine the town’s negotiating position with the FRHSD, said Singer.