South Brunswick school board pans education proposals

Board President Martin Abschutz says legislation would erode local control and might not save taxpayers money.

By: Joseph Harvie
   The township Board of Education says a proposal that would create an executive county superintendent with authority over local districts may not work that well, especially in South Brunswick.
   Assemblyman Joseph Roberts, a Democrat from Gloucester and Camden counties, has proposed a bill that would create the position of executive county superintendent.
   School board President Martin Abschutz said the bill takes critical decision making out of the hands of local authorities, especially when it comes to hiring local administrators. He also said it would give the county too much power over local school spending plans.
   The proposal is one of four being proposed by the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services. That panel is one of four joint committees that were formed when Gov. Jon Corzine called for property tax reform in the state.
   According to Mr. Robert’s proposal, the executive county superintendent would review and hire local superintendents, have the ability to disapprove any part of a local school budget and propose ways for districts to share services.
   The county executive superintendent would have the power to recommend eliminating "unnecessary state education mandates" and give the Legislature 90 days reinstate the proposed cuts or the mandates would be eliminated, according to the proposed bill.
   The county superintendent also would be able to recommend the consolidation of school districts within the county. Those recommendations would then be put up for a referendum vote in the municipalities.
   Mr. Abschutz, speaking on behalf of the board, said Mr. Robert’s proposal would take too much power from the local boards.
   "The bill and the concept that the bill signifies erodes local control," Mr. Abschutz said.
   Mr. Abschutz said the superintendent would also have too much control over local school district budgets. Currently, a budget is approved by the board of education, and then it goes to a vote in April. Under the proposed bill, the county superintendent would be able to disapprove any section of a school district’s budget.
   "The executive county superintendent would have line item veto power over our budget, even though they don’t call it that," Mr. Abschutz said. "But it effectively is what it is."
   The township currently holds public hearings on its budget, and its budget committee meetings are open to the public, Mr. Abschutz said. He said the public has a lot of input into the budget, and that the county oversight is not necessary.
   Mr. Abschutz said the board also felt that allowing the county superintendent to hire local superintendents impedes on the local board’s power to choose the right administrator for its district.
   In addition, the board is concerned that the proposed bill wouldn’t save the state that much money, Mr. Abschutz said, because when regionalizing schools the highest pay scale among the districts is usually used.
   "Under the current law, when any sort of regionalization takes place, the salary guide that is implemented is the salary guide of the larger districts," Mr. Abschutz said. "Most times, in a regional district, the larger district has larger salary guides."
   In addition, the board currently works to share whatever services it can, Mr. Abschutz said. The proposed bill states the county superintendent would introduce and recommend ways to share services.
   "Clearly the incentive is there to (share services) already," Mr. Abschutz said. "We try to do more of it because we want to keep the bills down."