DA, Regionalization Program Draw Best Attendance in Years

DA, Regionalization Program Draw Best Attendance in Years

On Saturday, Nov. 22, in Plainsboro, NJSBA held its semi-annual Delegate Assembly and a panel discussion on regionalization. More than 230 attendees were present for the panel discussion, while 194 board member delegates participated in the business portion of the meeting. The attendance at Delegate Assembly marks the highest turnout in 14 years.

In addition, three mandatory training programs held in the afternoon attracted 44 board members.

Harry J. Delgado, NJSBA’s president, had set increased participation in the Delegate Assembly as one of his first goals. NJSBA’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Delegate Assembly called for transforming the Association’s major policy-setting body into a forum for training and discussion.

The panel discussion—“Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of School District Regionalization”—provided timely debate, as state law gives the Department of Education’s executive county superintendents until March 2010 to devise plans to consolidate school districts in each county into K-12 configurations. Those plans to regionalize will ultimately be put before voters.

Michael Aron, senior political correspondent for NJN, served as moderator. Panelists included Dr. Gerald Vernotica, the assistant education commissioner who will spearhead the state’s regionalization effort; Assemblyman Scott Rumana of the Assembly Education Committee; Vito A. Gagliardi Jr., a school board attorney who has represented various districts in regionalization disputes; and Michael Vrancik, NJSBA’s director of Governmental Relations.

Vernotica could not estimate how many districts will be affected, but he added, “The intent of the law is clear: To create K-to-12 districts.”

He said it was a “dilemma” that there is no state funding to pay for regionalization feasibility studies, which, he suggested, can range from $20,000 to $40,000. He also noted there is no state assistance to offset rising property taxes—because regionalization brings a change in tax apportionment, which almost always means one town’s taxes decrease while another town’s taxes increase. “There has to be some kind of incentive, based upon apportionment,” said Vernotica.

“Almost every time, it becomes like a Rubik’s Cube, where you can’t configure it so each town saves money,” said Gagliardi. “If the idea is savings, it will never happen. The law, as it exists, won’t allow it.”

Rumana, an Assemblyman from Passaic County, echoed NJSBA’s belief that any proposal to regionalize districts must go before voters. “If there’s any change at all … the community must be a participant,” he said.

The panel also debated the detailed, sweeping, and sometimes micromanaging accountability regulations that were recently unveiled by the state Department of Education.

“It’s a result of abuses that have occurred,” Vernotica said, adding that districts end up paying “for the sins of a few.”

Gagliardi said it would take serious resolve among state officials to bring about meaningful savings, adding that, “Instead, we have several hundred pages of regulations that talk about mileage allowances and how many sandwiches you can eat.”

NJSBA has already begun discussing its programming to hold in conjunction with the May 2009 Delegate Assembly.

EDUCATION BY THE NUMBERS NJSBA'S DELEGATE ASSEMBLY

121 Average attendance in 2007

194 Attendance at the business portion of the Saturday, Nov. 22 Delegate Assembly

161 Attendance goal for Year One of NJSBA’s three-year plan to increase DA attendance*

189 Attendance goal for Year Two of NJSBA’s three-year plan to increase DA attendance

220 Attendance goal for Year Three of NJSBA’s three-year plan to increase DA attendance

230 Attendance at the Nov. 22 panel discussion program on regionalization

* NJSBA’s three-year plan aims to increase Delegate Assembly turnout by 15 percent in the first year over the attendance levels of the May 2008 DA, and by another 15 percent in each of the following two years.