What a disaster. What happened to all the change that was needed in the funding formula? Where oh where is Arrington Nation?. I see Chester Boros' point but here is is mine , the Mendhams and the Chesters are unable to merge so how is WT supposed to work on a study if no one is willing to study all the options.

There's savings in the status quo

cv, Chester Boro does not gain anything by participating in the study, so they save 10 grand.
There are probably a half a dozen reasons Chester Boro Council did not want to spend the 10K too.
I'm guessing the main reason for opting out is; any change to the school system will cause Chester boro's taxes to increase. For the same reason Chester boro voted down the merge the police dept's.

Russ Crespolini was wrong when he wrote Chester Boro will loses it's say in the matter if they don't participate in the study. The other four towns can not move forward with out them.

Pure stupidity...I agree with cv and Tom as a resident of Mendham Township. It is very curious how everyone (primarily MT) was screaming about getting a study done and looking at ALL the options, and now two of the towns are backing down. It's a frustrating cycle that seems to have no end - what's the point of ever trying if there's always a council or a group waiting to shoot it all down. Please, council members and boards, re-read Mayor Davis' comment: "The process is complicated but there are plenty of opportunities for us to veto or alter or design as the process goes along," Davis said. WHY is this not enough to move forward? NO ONE is going to force a mega district on residents of any town. This is just a result of another scare tactic by Arrington Nation. Wake up!

OMG, we elected J Hoven and J C-Napolitano and T Iversen to look out for we, the taxpayers!! They totally blew this one. Mayor Davis had it right, moving ahead could only lower our taxes. Who do they represent? Not we the taxpayers!!

@Russ thank you so much for pointing out that CBS wasnt there. This whole campaign was started by them and now they disappeared. Also I must say Russ if Chester boros' taxes are going to explode I do not think thats fair to them. Even though I am a WT resident I do not want any town getting screwed in any way.

@ Russ I am so glad all 5 towns are at least communicating and not name calling, which CBS in my opinion started.

cv, nobody said Chester boro's taxes are going to explode, quite to the contrary, if Cb would have funded the study, ANY FUNDING FORMULA CHANGE would have lowered the Cb property taxes. It is obvious CBS now controls J Hoven, J C Napolitano and T Iversen.

@Cindy I am sorry I was reading at 6:30 this morning i was a little dopey. I think if CBS is ignored from now on things will improve.

I'm a WT resident, but I applaud Hoven, Cooper-Napolitano and Iverson for standing their ground and not allowing CB to be pushed into paying for something they won't consider. WT should have done the same.

The whole point of a study is to get the FACTS. Real numbers. This can't be done unless you look at ALL the options and dollars. To say someone's taxes will increase/decrease by any amount is just an assumption based on no facts. Let's do this right. And CB currently pays the lowest of all 5 towns with a 0.3762 tax rate. that is a fact.

I need to know why there is a 10k fee for each municipality. I would like to see some paper work substantiating this.

I have to get this off my chest . As a former NYC resident only homeowners paid school and real property taxes. people that rented didnt pay any of it I cannot recall anyone ever saying that people that lived in apartment didnt pay their fair share. They were welcome to use the public schools like everyone else. even though they paid no taxes for this. I cannot believe that any of us ever lost sight of a quality education for our children no matter what is paid by an individual household.
Point being we need to move foward regroup RID OURSELVES OF CBS and think about OUR KIDS. We are all level headed people here and I think we all want this funding formula to be fair.

CV: Renters do not directly pay property taxes, but the person/company who owns the apt. does, so renters do pay tax - indirectly through their rent.

Mendham Township BOE rep Jamie Button publicly announced at the first Educational Summit meeting that he had secured funds for a study from the NJDOE after a private meeting with Commissioner Cerf and Governor Christie. Where is the money? Why haven't the mayors, particularly his own mayor Sam Tolley, held him accountable? If you believe Button, funding is a moot issue.

So why are the towns voting on this? Where's the money Jamie?

Russ reports the facts and allows an opportunity for readers to comment. Why not use your voice here to come up with positive comments/solutions? Why all the negative comments against Chester Boro Council, CBS, Ms. Arrington, etc.? I see the same people commenting on most of these articles, but none of you have come up with your own sound ideas. Why not start your own citizens' group, to counter CBS if you don't like what CBS has accomplished? I applaud Chester Boro Council members for voting on what their constituents want. I would imagine that a majority of the citizens of all 5 towns would not want a mega K-12. Russ, maybe you should add a poll, and keep tabs by town?

What exactly has CBS accomplished?

Good answer Claire that is what all the Mayors are trying to do. They werent shoving the K-12 down anyones throat they just want to weigh all the options to make an INFORMED desicion. Just because I dont agree with all of the optiions I have faith in Mayor Short to make a desicion that works for WT.

@KKC by the way if CB Mayor didnt do as his was told by his constituents they would have set up a hateful facebook page like they did to the MB Mayor.

@Tom I whole heartedly agree with you. No one seems to get that there are WAY TOO MANY ADMINISTRTORS AROUND HERE. Too many Boards of ED etc. I would feel bad if people lost jobs but remember charity starts at home and if taxes could be reduced for all then we should move foward studying every scenario.

Tom I have never seen such waste in my life until I moved to NJ.

The Chester Borough council members who voted against spending taxpayer money to study such a poorly conceived idea (the mega k-12 district) should be applauded. The Borough council was elected to do what's best for the Borough; bigger is not always better .

Each municipality should be paying a pro-rated shared of the cost of the study, based on the number of students they each have. In other words, if the study costs $40,000, then having each municipality pay the same $10,000 is only fair if all four municipalities have the same number of students in the system.

@Jon I agree. I think this study is all about smoke and mirrors they just started it to shut everyone up and now nothing will change. They will agree to disagree and back to square one.

This originated out of a belief that the funding formula for the regional high school district was unfair; leave it to the Mayors to create a monster all out of proportion to the issue at hand. Forget redistricting.

OK, so now we have another report indicating our Reg High schools rating is dropping. And now after all the pandering we have a divided BOE. We need sound education ideas brought forward. For the past 1.5 years we have only had discourse about funding formulas. How unfair, how imbalanced, how more $ are spent here instead of there. We have CBS formed by J Button to upset the status quo. They have accomplished several things: we now have a divided BOE, our school ranking is falling and we have communities pitted one against the other. Congrats to CBS. J. Button, I hope you are happy. Why not do the job you were elected to do? What education ideas have you brought forward? You complain about the falling ranking, this has occurred during your tenure as a Board member. Why not resign so we can get back to education matters instead of your witch hunt?