BY LARRY HLAVENKA JR.
Staff Writer
The Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education has voted to keep established attendance area boundary lines in effect for the 2007-08 school year.
A 5-3 vote to keep the attendance areas in place came at the board’s Sept. 11 meeting held at Howell High School.
Board President Patricia Horvath and board members Diana Cappiello, Kathie Lavin, Bonnie Rosenwald and Michael Wright voted to keep the boundary lines in place.
Board Vice President Ron Lawson and board members Bunny Hammer and Joan Leimbach voted against the measure, all noting that they wanted more time to review school enrollment and capacity numbers.
The same issue arose last year when district administrators adjusted the boundary lines and assigned more than 100 incoming ninth-graders who live in Howell to attend Colts Neck High School. Previously, those students’ Howell neighborhoods were zoned for Howell High School.
Leimbach, who had addressed the issue of the redistricting of Howell students before she was elected to the board, said she was uncomfortable making the decision to maintain the attendance area boundary lines for 2007-08.
“I’m not comfortable with moving or keeping [the lines] in place,” said Leimbach, who is one of two board members from Howell. “I really don’t feel I have the information to make a decision on this issue tonight.”
Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Patricia Emmerman told the board members they had to act now because current eighth-graders need to know where they are going to high school next year.
“It’s not a question of a few students not getting noticed,” Emmerman said. “It’s every eighth-grader not getting noticed about where they are going to school.”
Howell resident Cathy Rinaldi spoke during the public session. She said she lives one mile from Colts Neck High School and does not understand how children who live in her neighborhood are assigned to Howell High School, which is several miles away.
“I am just asking you to reconsider and look at these numbers,” Rinaldi said. “I hope it doesn’t fall on deaf ears; look at these lines and reconsider. I don’t see how the safety issue is there. I don’t want my child driving 25 minutes [to school].”
Mary Cerretani, the president of the K-8 Howell Board of Education, also spoke during the public session. She said, “Next year, I am very worried about the number [of students] here at Howell High School.”
In commenting on the issue of high school assignments for students, FRHSD Superintendent of Schools James Wasser said, “What boggles my mind is that when you make a change, people complain, and when you don’t make a change, people complain. There’s no happy medium.”
The district presently enrolls a total of about 11,800 students in its six high schools. That is an increase from 11,700 students in September 2005 and 11,470 students in September 2004.
Lawson, who is also a board member from Howell, said he was worried about making a decision without additional public input.
“I have a problem making a decision without necessary information,” Lawson said. “Without the confidence and trust of the public, we are a meaningless entity. I am concerned if the perception is that we are making a decision without necessary information.”
Rosenwald said she believed the board had the necessary information to make a decision for the 2007-08 school year and cautioned the panel that appeasing one sending municipality might upset another.
“The problem I see is that we are more than one community, we are eight,” Rosenwald said. “To gain trust of one community, you may lose the trust of seven.”
Lawson also commented on the policy of letting eighth-graders know their high school assignment a full year ahead of when they will enter ninth grade. He agreed with that stipulation, but asked that the board members be notified earlier so they would be able to review the information.
Wasser tried to assure board members and the public that the current attendance area boundary lines are in the best interest of the district.
“We’ve been balancing lines to make sure no one school is top-heavy,” the superintendent said. “Things should level off. I don’t see it as a crisis in 2007-08.” He went on to say, “We’re all going to fill up, these schools are going to fill up. If anyone thinks this will go away, it’s not going away.”
Before the final vote to keep the attendance areas in place for 2007-08 was taken, Wasser once again brought up the topic of building a seventh high school, or at the very least, discussing the options the district has to deal with enrollment concerns in the coming years.
Wasser has previously asked local elected officials to consider making land available to the FRHSD should the need arise to build a seventh high school. Most recently the superintendent has said that he would not immediately recommend the construction of a new building.