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New Law Eliminates 26 Send-All Districts

Gov. Jon S. Corzine yesterday signed legislation to eliminate the 26 New Jersey school districts that send all of their children to neighboring school systems on a tuition basis.  Under the bill, S-3000/A-4141, most of the school systems, also called non-operating districts, will be merged with the districts that currently receive their children.

The mergers will not involve a vote by the citizens of the affected municipalities.

S-3000/A-4141 (Whalen, Beach, Burzichelli, Riley) was introduced, passed by both houses of the Legislature and signed into law within eight days.

Lack of Clarity  The legislation does not establish a timeframe for when the non-operating districts will cease to exist.   Rather, it states that their elimination will follow a plan and a schedule developed by each executive county superintendent and approved by the commissioner of education.

Commissioner Immediately Dissolves 13 Districts On Wednesday, Education Commissioner Lucille Davy announced the immediate elimination of 13 of the non-operating school districts. The 13 districts were those involved in a sending-receiving relationship with a single school district. The remaining 13 districts have additional considerations that must be addressed before a merger can occur.

NJSBA Opposes  In a statement issued prior to last week’s Senate and Assembly votes on the bill, NJSBA called on the state instead to address the future of the non-operating districts through the voter referendums on school district regionalization, which are planned for next year.

“There are reasons why non-operating districts have continued to exist. In almost all cases, it is less costly for these communities to provide an education by sending all of their children to a neighboring school system on a tuition basis, rather than merging with other districts,” explained Marie S. Bilik, NJSBA executive director.

“Considering the potential financial impact on their communities, the taxpayers in non-operating school districts should be able to approve or reject proposals to become part of larger regionalized systems.  S-3000/A-4141 does not allow for such a vote.”

Limited Savings  Like other districts, non-operating school systems have unpaid school boards. They have no paid staff other than a part-time business clerk.

Previous legislation, enacted in 2007, called for two changes in school district structure in New Jersey: The development of plans to regionalize school districts, which will be submitted to voters of each affected municipality in 2010; and the outright elimination of the state’s 26 non-operating districts by March 2008, with no voter-approval.

The state missed the March 2008 deadline for eliminating the non-operating districts, due in part to unforeseen complications involving the allocation of school costs among affected municipalities.

Tax Impact: Vexing  The potential of sharp property tax increases following the elimination of the non-operating districts was vexing to state leaders, who have framed the elimination of the districts as a property tax relief strategy. S-3000/A-4141 represents the administration’s effort to address the tax apportionment issue.

Under the legislation, the commissioner of education has discretion to designate the “least financially disruptive” system for apportioning school costs in the new merged districts and to phase in the changes over a period of up to five years.  Apportionment could be based on enrollment, or property valuation, or any combination of the two factors.

Future Governance After merger, the board of education of the receiving school district will become the board of the new district.  Future selection of board members will vary, depending on the governance structure of the receiving district:

• If the receiving district is not regional and has an elected board: Future board vacancies will be filled through elections conducted at large. There would be no guaranteed representation from the former non-operating school district, nor would anything preclude citizens from the former non-operating school district from becoming a majority of the new board.
• If the receiving district is a regional school system: The former non-operating district will become a constituent of the regional district, with its representation on the board determined by its resident population.
• If the receiving district has an appointed board: The mayor of the receiving district municipality will continue to appoint members to the current seats on the board.  An additional seat will be created and filled by an appointee of the mayor of the former non-operating district’s municipality.

Sponsor: Taxpayers Don’t Care about School Boards  At the bill signing, the governor and sponsoring legislators touted the new law as a first step toward reducing the amount of government and controlling costs.

“Average New Jersey taxpayers don’t care whether they have a local Board of Education, so long as they have a voice in the decision-making process,” said Sen. James Beach of Camden County, a sponsor of the bill, which eliminated the non-operating districts without public referendum.  “These hard-hit taxpayers care about the bottom line, and the bottom line in New Jersey is that property taxes are too high.”

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