NJASA Representative Assembly Offered All the Right Ingredients

The cold, damp, wet snow of Friday morning, March 20th, quickly dissipated with the warm welcome remarks of NJASA President Ken King at the Association’s Annual Representative Assembly, at the McKinley Community Elementary School, in New Brunswick.

In his opening remarks, NJASA President King commended the chief education officers on their accomplishments for moving education forward through their instructional leadership and the Association’s leadership for designing a Representative Assembly agenda with all the right ingredients.

These ingredients included: a 60-minute open dialogue with Education Commissioner Lucille Davy; an informative discussion of retirement-related issues with NJASA Pension Consultant Mort Reinhart; and an insightful exchange of ideas with Assembly Education Committee Chairman and NJ State Democratic Committee Chairman Joseph Cryan, (D-20, Union).

The dynamics of the Commissioner’s and Assemblyman’s presentation on school consolidation evoked various responses from the audience. Essentially, their remarks focused on the relationship of finances to school consolidation and did not address the academic concerns of maintaining and improving a quality public education for all New Jersey students.

Both Commissioner Davy and Assemblyman Cryan also acknowledged NJASA for its cooperation and willingness to work side-by-side with State legislators and Department of Education personnel by attending meetings, serving on committees, and providing valuable and well-researched testimony on a number of issues, such as the high school redesign initiative.

There are, however, occasions when NJASA positions differ with those of the New Jersey Department of Education and the State’s-elected leadership. In these instances, it is the responsibility of the chief education officer to lead the conversation with constituents to ensure that they are well-informed of opposing viewpoints.

Interaction at the local level is the foundation upon which the fate of statewide issues and initiatives can be cast. A significant example is that of Washington Twp., Gloucester County, where the chief education officer was able to address and forestall a legislative initiative for a pilot countywide school district. The voices of the more than 3,500 individuals were heard by their respective State-elected representatives.

There will be a number of significant topics identified as the Department of Education and its consultants move forward in the investigation of school consolidation. It is imperative that chief education officers working with their respective communities ask the hard questions about the Department’s recommendations to ensure that the members of their communities will be able to make informed and well-educated decisions as New Jersey education moves forward.