Posted in the Press of Atlantic City, July 28, 2009-Diane D'Amico, Education Writer
TRENTON - The state Department of Education will announce the first group of school consolidation feasibility studies early next month.
The studies are expected to be completed by December and would still have to go before the voters in the affected municipalities.
County executive superintendents submitted the proposals to the state, and the DOE has recruited state colleges to do the feasibility studies. Representatives of Rowan University and Richard Stockton College said they have agreed to participate.
Each college will be assigned one or two studies in the pilot group, according to a timeline provided by the DOE. In late August, the participating colleges will meet with DOE representatives to provide a cost analysis and look at alternative ways to complete the studies. The draft reports will be due in late fall for review, and the final reports will be released in December.
Harold Sahm, director of continuing education at Rowan, said the colleges will likely be assigned studies in their immediate or neighboring counties.
"We already have relationships with these districts," Sahm said. "And we want to stress that we will be providing facts, not opinions."
The studies will look at education quality, facilities, debt and the property-tax impact for the affected districts in each proposal. The first group is expected to include a mix of fairly easy consolidations and some more challenging proposals to get an overview of the scope of trying to convert all of the state's more than 600 districts into K-12 systems.
The consolidation challenge is to create K-12 systems of about 5,000 students per district in a way that will appeal to all of the affected parties. All final plans will have to go before the voters in each affected district, and under current law, if just one district in a proposed consolidation votes the plan down, it fails.
Atlantic County Executive Superintendent Thomas Dowd met with school and city officials in June to review the plans, and his final proposals include some changes. Dowd said the plans are just recommendations that need more study.
"We really need the feasibility studies to provide information on how the proposals work with diversity, facilities, capacity and the educational environment," he said.
Absecon Superintendent James Giaquinto said residents there are just becoming acquainted with the process, and with more than one option available, he will wait until the feasibility study is done before taking a more active role.
"We will have more information then, and the final say does rest with the voters," he said.
Consolidation proposals for Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties were not available Monday.
Atlantic County proposals
The following Atlantic County proposals have been submitted to the New Jersey Department of Education to be considered for feasibility studies.
Proposed study 1: Egg Harbor City, Galloway Township, Hamilton Township, Mullica Township, Port Republic, Absecon, Green Bank, Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School.
Option 1: Three K-12 districts: Absegami High School with Galloway Township; Oakcrest High School with Hamilton Township; and Cedar Creek High School with Egg Harbor City, Green Bank, Mullica Township and Port Republic.
Option 2: The same as option 1, but adds Absecon to the Cedar Creek High School district.
Option 3: The same as option 1, but adds Absecon to the Galloway/Absegami district.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
State set to announce feasibility study for school consolidations
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5 comments:
Am I missing something here? Egg Harbor City now goes to Absegami, but will go to Cedar Creek when the school opens, therefore Absegami won't have EHC kids any longer. Why can't Absecon then send their kids to Absegami. I would think Absecon has less kids or the same amount as Egg Harbor City. Besides that, what would it cost to bus kids from Absecon to Cedar Creek? Also, Absecon is much closer to Absegami then Cedar Creek.
We should all support these studies. If nothing is done, we are on a road to financial ruin. The taxes required to support the current 600+ school administrative staffs throughout the state will increase exponentially and the quality of education will ultimately suffer.
Why would Port Republic and Absecon attend Cedar Creek instead of Absegami?
We will remain on the road to financial ruin with the high teacher's salaries, and high pensions at age 55.
We don't have a good measure regarding quality of education. Every state makes their own tests for their public school students, instead of using a universal nationalized test as done in private schools. The tests are proctored by the school's own staff members, who "Teach to the Test". NJ public school students currently only have to score 40-42%correct in language arts/math to be considered proficient. Raising the bar to 50-52% correct is still very sad.
The consolidation study is pointless because after it is completed each constituent district must vote in favor of the consolidation in order for it to happen. Obviously the study will favor some districts and hurt others financially. Those districts that will be financially impacted by the consolidation will vote against it and we are back to square one. Nothing will happen unless the change is mandated by the state as they have done with the non-operating school districts.
RE: 11:57 PM comment
Port Republic, Egg Harbor City, Green Bank (Washington Township, Burlington County) and Mullica Township were originally supposed to all attend Cedar Creek. The only change would be adding Absecon.
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