Members of the school community are invited to the Sweeney Center for Public Policy’s Conference on School Regionalization in New Jersey.
The conference, “School Regionalization in New Jersey: Issues Opportunities and Challenges,” will be held Feb. 7. Stakeholders can attend in person or virtually.
Registration and breakfast begin at 8 a.m. at School Business Hall at Rowan University, with programming scheduled from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
The conference will lay out the major changes in New Jersey’s new school regionalization statute enacted in 2022 and go over the requirements of the School Regionalization Efficiency Program grant program. Attendees will discuss the progress of regionalization initiatives undertaken since the enactment two years ago of S3488, the first major revision of the state’s school regionalization law in a quarter-century.
Speakers include:
- Jacquelyn Suarez, acting commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, and Richard Richardella, chief of the Bureau of Local Government Assistance, who will discuss the School Regionalization and Efficiency Program grants that fund the full cost of regionalization studies.
- Mark Magyar, who negotiated the new law with the New Jersey Education Association, New Jersey School Boards Association and other stakeholders, will discuss the provisions of the new statute.
- Tara Beams, Henry Hudson Regional Schools superintendent, and regionalization consultant Brian Falkowski, who will discuss the public process that resulted four months ago in the first successful regionalization vote in New Jersey since 2013.
- Kennedy Greene, former Newton superintendent, and Scott Oswald, former Collingswood superintendent, who will discuss the regionalization study process.
- Michael Gorman, Salem Community College president who headed the effort to create a countywide district in Salem.
- Lucille Davy, former state education commissioner and David Lindenmuth of the Rowan College of Education, who will discuss the implications of the new regionalization law for the ongoing school desegregation litigation.
To register for the free conference, please click here.