Public deserves more

Edward R. Padilla, Lambertville
    Last week John Sunkiskis of Lambertville did a wonderful job of outlining the cost and benefits of maintaining and operating the South Hunterdon Regional High School.
   I am sure everyone in the communities that send children to the school want the children attending SHRHS to get a good education and they are willing to pay a reasonable amount of taxes in support of that goal.
   I have also noticed there has been a slight improvement in the test scores of the area schools that was recently reported by the New Jersey Department of Education report. Those grades could be considered good, but they certainly were not great.
   The issue, as Mr. Sunkiskis points out, is that it now costs $24,196 per year for each of the 345 students that now attend SHRHS and that annual cost is the highest cost per student in any high school in the entire State of New Jersey.
   The problem, as I see it, is that there is no way the school will ever be able to reduce these burdensome costs to the taxpayers of our area unless one of the three options below become a reality:
   Option 1 — That the number of students now attending the school be increased substantially within in a short period of time so that overhead and operating costs of the school can be amortized over a larger student enrollment base thereby reducing the annual cost per student.
   I doubt seriously this can ever happen. Where would this increase in the student enrollment come from, especially when one considers the school’s modest, but not great test scores? What would be the incentive?
   Option 2 — That the school implement a massive cost-reduction program that would enable it to achieve a cost per student equal to the statewide per student average of $14,598. That, as Mr. Sunkiskis points out, would require a reduction of $9,076 per student per year amounting to a total cost reduction of $3,311,310 per year.
   Again, I doubt that anything close to $3,311,310, (345 students times $9,076) in savings could be achieved for the costs of the school are spread over more than just teacher’s and administrative salaries and benefits.
   The overhead cost of the building and grounds in this option would basically stay the same and I doubt the teachers and administration of the school would or could agree to such massive cuts in both employment and/or compensation. So saving their way out of the problem doesn’t appear to be realistic solution, but neither is the concept that the taxpaying public is willing to continue to pay very high taxes for inefficient school systems with modest test scores.
   Option 3 — This option suggests that SHRHS will never be able to substantially reduce the unacceptable annual cost per student and based upon the assumption that Alternatives 1 and 2 above are not realistic or achievable, then the high school should be closed and the student body over time be transferred into another regional school that would have the capacity to absorb the students now attending SHRHS.
   Let’s assume that folks at the New Jersey Education Association and the teachers and administrators were willing to evaluate this alternative:
   A. Students from SHRHS could be transferred to Hunterdon Central High School or Delaware Valley high schools or if the decision-makers wanted to really be creative, consider sending some of the students to New Hope/Solebury High School.
   B. The present building and grounds of SHRHS could be utilized as regional elementary school and middle schools for the Lambertville, West Amwell and Stockton communities.
   C. If none of these schools were acceptable to the parents or students, then the school system could issue vouchers worth $15,000 per year. These could be used at other nearby New Jersey high schools and still save $9,076.00 per year per student.
   D. Under this option, the children would also benefit by having more access to special educational and social programs not now available at SHRHS and they would be able to be part of a school whose academic achievement is better that those at SHRHS.
   Lastly, each community participating in such a plan would benefit not only by lowering the existing school tax burden, but also by providing a model for further consolidation of community services such as police, fire and maintenance functions.
   It would be interesting to see how the numbers would roll out under such a restructuring plan
   Frankly, this type of thinking will eventually have to be implemented because the tax-paying public deserves more for its tax dollars than they are now getting from their investment in the South Hunterdon Regional High School.