NJASA Announces the School Consolidation Forum

School district consolidation, an issue that periodically surfaced in New Jersey over the past several decades is now front and center. Why one asks? The answer is very simple – local property taxes.

Back in 2006, a Joint Special Session of the New Jersey State Legislature, with the intention of lowering New Jersey’s property taxes, created the CORE Act of 2007. This recent public law created the new title of Executive County Superintendent (ESC). One of the primary responsibilities of this new position is to develop a county school district consolidation plan for each of our State’s 21 counties by March 2010.

The breadth and depth of this mandate, stated as regulations in the New Jersey Department of Education’s (NJDOE) Final Regulations on Chapter 23a Fiscal Accountability, Efficiency and Budgeting Procedures and available at http://nj.gov/education/code/current/title6a/chap23a.pdf, require a comprehensive, detailed, study-evaluation process.

NJASA, an organization of chief education officers - true community leaders, is compelled to provide a community service to inform and educate all the Garden State residents of our elected-State’s leadership directive to move forward on the issue of school district consolidation.

Change in any setting can be complex and disturbing. In the educational environment, school district consolidation is a highly perplexing equation permeated with variables such as: academic achievement, extra-curricular activities, taxes, finances, physical facilities, and identity-related issues.

There are too many questions with too few answers and as March 2010 grows near, public inquiry will increase significantly. It is the duty of NJASA and its members, chief education officers, to inform and educate all the residents of New Jersey, the stakeholders of their respective school districts.

On behalf of NJASA, I invite you to attend one of NJASA’s School Consolidation Forums on either Thursday, March 12, in Toms River, or to the work-in-progress, rescheduled date for the Monmouth County Forum. The original Monmouth County Forum, scheduled for March 2, was cancelled due to the snow storm.

You will learn from a panel of experts what school consolidation means for your children and your community. Registration is not required to attend this informative session and details are available on the NJASA website at http://njasa.net/.