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Conflicts in state law, along with complicated state practices, could impede school district efforts to share services with other districts and municipalities, according to a report released Tuesday by the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers-Newark.

NJSBA commissioned the report, “Shared Services in School Districts: Policies, Practices and Recommendations.”

Shared services are expected to be critical components of school district and local government finance due to recent laws that emanated from the state Legislature’s special session on property tax reform and the establishment of a new school funding formula.

Key to Improvement “The concept of shared services is nothing new, but the interest and need among school districts continues to grow,” said Marie S. Bilik, NJSBA executive director. “As the IELP study concludes, with appropriate changes by the state, we can make collaborative services a key element in property tax reform and improvement of services.”

Lead researcher Brenda Liss, former IELP executive director, cited several conflicts in law and practice, which the Legislature and administration need to address to encourage school district efforts to share services. In all, the report lists 10 recommendations for change, including:

• Clarifying language in New Jersey’s 2007 Uniform Shared Service and Consolidation Act to ensure that school board activities are authorized by the law.
  
  
• Changing the Department of Community Affairs’ interpretation of the law governing state SHARE grants so that school district-only arrangements could become eligible for the funding. Current SHARE grants must include a municipality.
  
  
• Simplifying the Department of Education review and approval process for sharing school business administrators and clarifying the Uniform Act so that districts may also continue to have the alternative of sharing business administrators through interlocal agreements.
  
  
• Establishing stronger state Department of Education efforts to collect data on shared services and to broker new arrangements.

97% of School Districts Share Services  According to the IELP’s statewide survey, 97 percent of New Jersey’s school districts engage in some type of shared services.  Most frequent are transportation, insurance, supplies and special education, according to the report.  The major benefit of sharing services is savings, cited by 79 percent of school districts.  Improved service was identified by another 36 percent.

The major benefit of sharing services is savings, cited by 79 percent of school districts. Improved service was identified by another 36 percent.

Best Practices In addition, the research project includes a “Catalogue of Best Practices” that describes 20 successful programs and efforts in New Jersey’s public school districts. The activities range from shared administrators to shared custodial services, libraries and banking. The catalogue also identifies successful out-of-state programs, as well as technical resources within New Jersey and elsewhere.

“Our intention is for the Catalogue of Best Practices in Shared Services to become a major resource for local school districts in New Jersey,” said Bilik.