State eyes consolidation of local schools

By Davy James, Staff Writer
   CRANBURY — Middlesex County Executive Superintendent of Schools Patrick Piegari will meet with the Board of Education at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 in the school cafeteria to discuss consolidating the Cranbury School District with the Princeton Regional School District.
   ”I’m going to be doing a review with the board about new regulations that are required for me to develop a plan for K-8 consolidation into a K-12 structure,” Dr. Piegari said. “We will be talking about the process of the study I will be conducting and the procedures I’m required to follow as per state legislation. This will include timelines for the process and we will open up a question and answer session with the board following the presentation.”
   Dr. Piegari had a similar meeting with Jamesburg in September and Monroe and Jamesburg in the spring.
   Cranbury School officials said they are unsure as to what the consolidation plan would entail, including issues related to busing and other details of enrollment.
   ”Dr. Piegari doesn’t know what the plan will look like yet because he’s still gathering data,” said Cranbury Chief School Administrator John Haney. “The way the process works is, Dr. Piegari recommends a consolidation plan because he’s been directed to do that. He’ll produce a study of what the consolidation might look like, timelines, how the process would work and other issues related to it.”
   Mr. Haney said the findings would be presented to the voting public after the study is complete. The plan would go to a public vote in March 2010 in both districts. If either Cranbury or Princeton vote no, the consolidation would not occur. However, the state may mandate consolidation anyway, according to Mr. Haney.
   ”It becomes a possibility, but we don’t know how likely it would be,” Mr. Haney said.
   Board officials are concerned about the ramifications of a possible consolidation with Princeton.
   ”Many people in Cranbury are not supportive of consolidation,” said board member Wendi Patella. “We have a unique K-8 building that’s the center of the community.”
   Ms. Patella said the board is anxious to hear what recommendations Dr. Piegari will discuss because of concerns she has about the differences in the two districts.
   ”They don’t have a K-8 structure in Princeton,” Ms. Patella said. “They have one middle school with 750 kids and four K-5 elementary schools.
   ”We have concerns about busing young students and what kind of representation we would have on the school board, which is based on the percentage of students. If Cranbury students make up 10 percent of the total student body, then we would only get a percentage of seats based on that.”
   Cranbury students attend Princeton High School and the school board has a representative who sits on the Princeton Regional school board and votes on issues that directly affect Cranbury students attending the district.
   Dr. Piegari met with the Princeton school board on Oct. 7 for a similar meeting. Princeton officials did not return calls requesting comment as of the Cranbury Press’ afternoon deadline. A similar process is ongoing for consolidation of the Monroe and Jamesburg school districts.
   ”We had a meeting in late spring with officials from Monroe and Dr. Piegari for a preliminary discussion about consolidation and shared services,” said Jamesburg Superintendent Gail Verona. “Dr. Piegari also came to our Board of Education meeting on Sept. 25 to explain a timeline for the study. It was basically an overview of the initiative and laying the groundwork to make more specific plans.”
   Ms. Patella said it’s vital for residents to attend the meeting in Cranbury to gather as much information as possible.
   ”This is important because this could change the entire community,” Ms. Patella said. “This community revolves around our identity and the strength of our identity is the Cranbury School.”