WEST AMWELL: Regionalization report coming Wednesday

By Ruth Luse, Managing Editor
   WEST AMWELL — The school regionalization study’s findings will be released at a meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 8, at the South Hunterdon Regional High School auditorium.
   Residents of Lambertville, Stockton and West Amwell are encouraged to attend.
   The session will be available live online. Visit www.shrhs.org or www.facebook.com/SHRHSD to view the event.
   On Wednesday, Dan Seiter, chairman of the South Hunterdon County School District Regionalization Committee, said: “While regionalization has been much talked about through the years, we’ve never come as far as commissioning a feasibility study. Now we have, and on Wednesday, we will finally hear from a firm that has vast experience in school regionalization. Many questions will be answered on Wednesday evening, and we would like as much of the community to hear these findings as possible. We appreciate SHRHS efforts to leverage technologies to make this meeting as widely viewable as possible.”
   The study, conducted by the Princeton consulting firm Porzio Bromberg & Newman, took over five months to complete. The firm plans to provide an overview at the meeting. Questions from local residents and school or municipal officials about the study’s findings and the regionalization process will be addressed.
   ”We expect to post the full text of Porzio’s report on the website when it’s ready, probably a day or so before the Feb. 8 meeting,” said Mr. Seiter. The website is: www.southcountyregionalization.com.
   ”Hopefully, the study will contain some attractive options that would enable us to save money while also improving the quality of education for our local students,” said Mr. Seiter, who resides in Lambertville.
    PORZIO’S overview of the feasibility study is expected to concentrate on four areas:
   — Analysis of the demographics of the four local school districts, with projections about future enrollment;
   — Review of the educational quality of the four local districts’ current programs, and whether combining school districts could improve those programs;
   — Examination of the financial impact of regionalization, to determine the effect on local property taxes and whether any savings could be achieved through consolidating the four districts; and
   — Investigation of the legal ramifications of undertaking such a step, should it prove to be feasible.
   Should the feasibility study indicate that regionalization would deliver fiscal and educational benefits, an advisability report would be requested of the county superintendent.
   Jeffrey R. Scott is interim county superintendent and executive county school business administrator.
   The advisability report represents the second of five somewhat complex steps to regionalization. Ultimately, the three communities would vote via a referendum prior to implementation of any regionalization plan. A combined district would serve students (pre-kindergarten to 12th grade).
   The regionalization committee includes: Lambertville — Grant Miller (LPS), John Livingston (LPS), Vice Chairman Steve Wolock (community resident, former member of LPS board), Karen Conlon (community resident) and Chairman Seiter (SHRHS); West Amwell — Peter Gasparro (WAES), John Dupuis (WAES), Cindy Magill (community resident), Nicole Claus (SHRHS) and Dave Beaumont (community resident); Stockton — Jim Gallagher and Diane Walker-Torkelson (both board members).