School regionalization proposal gets $75,000The Western Monmouth Panhandle Alliance’s plan to study school regionalization got an official start at last week’s Millstone Township Committee meeting, although work on the project has been under way.
By: Frank C. D’Amico
MILLSTONE – The Western Monmouth Panhandle Alliance’s plan to study school regionalization got an official start at last week’s Millstone Township Committee meeting, although work on the project has been under way.
On Dec. 6, state Sen. Robert Singer and Assemblymen Melvin Cottrell and Joseph Malone, Republicans whose districts include western Monmouth County, presented the group with a check for $75,000 to fund the alliance’s study.
The group wants to study the possibility of regionalizing the school districts of Allentown-Upper Freehold, Millstone and Roosevelt. The alliance, an ad hoc committee of political and educational leaders, has been meeting monthly to discuss issues that affect the four municipalities.
"Success for any open discussion on regionalization has to start with the cooperation of the Township Committee and the Board of Education," Sen. Singer said.
Sen. Singer said regionalization affects "the whole town" and is not an issue limited to the school board. He also pledged to work with the alliance, whatever solution is found.
"Once you’ve decided what to do, we’ll do what we have to do to accomplish that," he said.
The alliance’s study is expected to be completed by April or May. It will be divided into three parts: a demographics report, a telephone survey, and a financial impact analysis.
The alliance has hired Burgis Associates Inc. of Westwood to handle the demography report, said Roosevelt Mayor Michael Hamilton, spokesman for the group. The report will cost $6,500.
He also said the alliance has hired the Andrew Brown Research Group of Pennington to conduct the telephone survey at a cost of $27,000. The alliance still has yet to hire a financial consultant for the third part of the study.
"We expect the demographics to be finished by the end of the month and the survey to be done by the end of January," he said.
Mayor Hamilton attended the meeting, along with Roosevelt Superintendent Dale Weinbach and Board of Education President Charlene Ellentuck.
Also, the entire Millstone school board attended, as did Superintendent William Setaro and Business Administrator Brian Boyle. In addition, Upper Freehold Regional School District Superintendent Robert Connelly and board President Lynne Meara were there.
Roosevelt has one school, for students in kindergarten through sixth grade, and sends its older students to the East Windsor Regional School District.
Millstone has an elementary school and a middle school and sends its high school students to the Upper Freehold Regional School District’s Allentown High School.
The Upper Freehold Regional School District has two schools: the Upper Freehold Elementary/Middle School and Allentown High School.
A regionalized school district could take several forms.
It could cover all grades, K-12, in a single district, or it could create a new district for students in grades 7-12. A third option would have the districts maintain their lower grades but send high school students to Allentown High School. A separate school board could be created for the school.
In 1998, the Millstone school board and the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education commissioned a regionalization feasibility study. Roosevelt was not part of that study. Both boards rejected the study, in part, they said, because it failed to adequately illustrate the financial impact.
Since the study died in early 1999, all three school districts have hired new superintendents. Dr. Weinbach replaced William Presutti in Roosevelt in May 1999, Dr. Setaro took over for Ernest Donnelly in Millstone in January of this year and Dr. Connelly started in Allentown-Upper Freehold in May.
All three superintendents have been receptive to regionalization discussions.
"To see four communities get together, it’s pretty remarkable," Mr. Malone said.