Mayors, Boards to Meet, Talk Feasibility Study
April 18 gathering will be closed to the public.
Photos
What began as a team of four looking for a fifth player has now evolved into a starting lineup with a full bench.
On Feb. 23, at a presentation by the New Jersey Department of Education to address the West Morris Regional High School district’s funding formula, area mayors Ken Short (Washington Township), Bob Davis (Chester), Bill Cogger (Chester Township), and Neil Henry (Mendham) requested Mendham Township mayor Sam Tolley jump in and join the effort to fund a feasibility study.
“We’re a team,” Short said at that meeting in February. “A basketball team has five players, if you play with four it doesn’t work.”
The DOE presentation, requested by the four mayors to shed light on the facts behind the district’s funding as well as its achievements, spurred those four mayors to all put in $10,000 line items to their municipal budgets in 2012, pooling the money to fund a feasibility study.
That feasibility study will be used to decipher the figures behind potential changes to the district–possible consolidation among the area’s five school districts, dissolution of the regional district, or withdrawal of any one town from the regional.
While Tolley did not participate in the DOE presentation, he was in attendance, and heard to call-out loud and clear.
“I want work to with them,” Tolley said after the presentation. “But … I want the School Board to be involved.”
The five mayors then met in March, according to Davis, and “planned the next steps in the process toward continuing toward educational improvement and looking at the funding formula,” he said.
“In that meeting we agreed to invite two representatives from each of the boards (of education) to a closed meeting to organize and plan,” Davis said. “We all then agreed to have open meetings after that.”
And now the time has come for the team to unite and step on the court together.
On Wednesday, April 18 at the Washington Township Municipal Building, the five mayors, along with representatives from each of the town’s school boards, will come together and go discuss what’s happened up to this point, and what is expected to happen going forward.
Wednesday's meeting will be closed to the public, after the mayors decided it would be easiest to communicate without any external interference, Short said.
Based on the Open Public Meetings Act, as long as no individual body–government or school board–is represented by a quorum of its members (a majority of the group’s representatives), the meeting may be closed to the public.
“We want to get the education people involved,” Short said. “They’re the experts on the issue, and they know what’s best for the schools, we’re just trying to facilitate the process.”
Short said the mayors have been meeting as a group for the last eight months, but without the accompaniment of the school boards.
“I expect (school board members) to be full members,” Tolley said. “As such, they need to be part of all decision making.”
“The feasibility study will help answer questions that are out there,” Short said. “How is a change to the district going to make the education process better? What outcome is best for the students? What’s best for the residents?”
As of this writing, the Mendham Township Municipal budget did not include their $10,000 share of the study.
"We need to know what we are studying before we commit any public funds to it," Tolley said.
Board vice president James Johnston (Chester) and John Meyer (Washington Township) will represent the West Morris Regional School Board. Board president Mike Rec and member Kathleen Koop will represent the Washington Township School district.
Board president Bridget Poole will represent Mendham Borough Schools. Board president Raymond Trevisan, vice president Kerri Wright, and member Gary Lakritz will represent the Chester consolidated school district.
The team’s first practice won’t be open to spectators, but it hopes to iron out the kinks before the fans are allowed in.
Barbara
7:26 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
External interference, spectators and fans. Is that how the governing bodies view their constituents? If you want the team to unite and step on the court together, you need to include all the stakeholders. A team can't survive for long when the fans are denied admission.
Linda Alexander
8:59 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
Barbara...though I agree with you in theory, but this is one meeting to organize, get to know one another, and plan next steps. I see no harm in that. Why don't we, the public, let some of the process unfold, watch diligently, and attend the open meetings...you can also contact your town's reps anytime for input and concerns...
KKC
9:53 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
Since when are your constituents "external interference". It's been almost a year since the 1st summit this go around, and nothing's been decided - we've barely budged an inch. A team with this record, would have been kicked off the league by now. What should give us any confidence that these mayors will make the best decision. They are quite aware of the subject, which has been an issue for a very long time. We need transparency and action. Not another closed door session where "we the people" are not allowed to be heard.
Barbara
9:58 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
Linda- Please help me understand this. What gives this group of mayors the authority to decide which stakeholders are important "enough" to include in the next meeting? What makes Board members important (enough) yet the public (spectators) represents an "external interference." The public (the ones paying the taxes) represents the largest group of stakeholders. Denying the public a "position on the court" and not allowing the public to watch from the "stand", is not the way to win public support. This is a fatal error in judgement.
Russ Crespolini
10:39 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
Barbara, while the external interference was a characterization attributed to Mayor Short, all of the spectator and fan jargon is a little piece of literary license I applied to the mayor's meeting after the first basketball team reference was made. Jason and I have kept that metaphor going since. Thanks so much for reading.
Marcia Asdal
10:43 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
Is it not ironic that the public is being excluded from attending this meeting, while it was this same public that first brought this issue to the foreground! The disproportionate funding issue was not on any municipal governing body's agenda, or any Board of Ed's agenda, for the last 10 years until the public demanded it be examined. I am disappointed in this decision to conduct this strategy meeting behind closed doors - transparency should be the watchword going forward.
Barbara
10:59 am on Monday, April 16, 2012
Russ- why don't you poll the public and see whether they would like to be included or excluded from this meeting?
Russ Crespolini
12:59 pm on Monday, April 16, 2012
Barbara! Patience! Its coming! Most likely tomorrow.
La Quin
2:24 pm on Monday, April 16, 2012
i honestly think it's a crime that mendham, with a per capita income of 57,946, which is the 17th wealthiest town in the richest state in the nation is claiming that long valley, with a per capita income of 36,711, which is 141st is not paying the same AMOUNT as they are.
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this is not a question of what is best for the students, it's a question of what will save the 1% the most money.
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i think every rich town in the country that has more then one school should do the same, who needs the poor - when we can just throw them under the bus and run over them a few times.
Domino
3:03 pm on Monday, April 16, 2012
I think that it is wise that the elected officials from each community meet behind closed doors for this meeting. They will have to clear the air and heal the wounds from what has gone on so far. And what we have seen so far is individual mayors like Frank Ciopettini pandering to his pals from CBS, founder Jaime Button and Chairperson Charlene Arrington. CBS has shown itself to little more than an organization that takes great pleasure in spreading lies and innuendos about the school district, BOE members and even the Superintendent. It's main accomplishment to date is running an excellent superintendent out of the district by employing nasty smear tactics. And if Mrs. Asdal wants transparency, she should explain her contribution to the movement to attempt to recall her fellow Chester board member and "friend" Jim Johnston. With friends like these, who needs enemies?