While the final disposition of the regional high school district may still be uncertain, the K-8 districts that serve Mendham, Chester and Washington Township have begun shared service initiatives that they hope to expand going forward.

"Chester and Mendham Township engaged in a shared professional development day on Tuesday, Sept. 4," said Chester Superintendent Christina Vanwoert. "We hosted renowned educational speaker Steve Barkley to start off our school year on an inspirational note."

Vanwoert said the Chester staff was joined by over 100 visitors from Mendham Township at the Dickerson School for the event.

"There was a lot of interesting discussion between the staff of the two districts," Vanwoert said. "There were a lot of great ideas that came out of it."

For her part, Vanwoert felt the shared program was an effective use of professional development funds for both districts.

"We look forward to planning more professional development initiatvies together," Vanwoert said.

Also in the planning stages is the development of a joint Spanish curriculum amongst the teachers of Chester, Mendham Borough and Washington Township.

"This is the first time that the three districts have researched and written a curriculum here in Chester under my direction for the elementary school and in Mendham Borough for the middle schools," VanWoert said. "We are very proud of this work and look forward to engaging together on more cross-district initiatives."