Mendham Township Authorizes School Study Funds

After much consideration and deliberation, the Mendham Township Committee passed an amended resolution Monday evening giving the township committee the authority to appropriate more than the allotted $10,000 to the regional school study.

The resolution originally stated the committee was to offer the same amount of money as the other towns, but Brian Cavanaugh, of Cherry Lane, argued that Mendham Township's savings would be more in the long run — with regards to what he says is $3.3 million that Washington Township receives each year — than the other towns so they should offer more.

The number Cavanaugh suggested was about $15,000. He said that if the committee is reticent to go above and beyond what the other towns give it could lead to yet another impasse in the process which has been going on for quite some time.

Other amendments to the original resolution lessened some potential roadblocks. 

The mission statement now will no longer require school districts to contribute money to the study or require other towns to contribute specific amounts to the study.

The committee agreed that equal money from each town is not the main issue, but rather getting everyone engaged is paramount.

"Instructing other towns what they must do is the surest way of making sure nothing will ever happen," Committee member Sam Tolley said.

Deputy Mayor Maribeth Thomas agreed with Tolley, adding that in the past Mendham Township was perceived as a bully, and that was something they needed to be careful to avoid going forward.

"We do need to have a little softer touch as far as working with the other towns is concerned. We really need to start with collaboration. I've always been a fan of that," Thomas said. "I've never been a fan of do as I say. We do need to light a fire under this because it has been dragging on."

Thomas, who ran the meeting in the absence of Mayor Rick Merkt, helped incorporate the residents requests into the amendment for the resolution.  A common theme among those assembled was to move the process along.

"What I don't sense here is any sense of urgency. We have a major issue that should have been addressed last year, it's time to be addressed this year. I understand everybody's working very hard, but I don't feel any urgency on the committee's part," said Cardie Saunders, of Hilltop Circle.

"We have to go after this in the most aggressive [manner] we can. We have the greatest savings of all; therefore we should be the leader, not the borough, not Chester, not any of these other organizations. Mendham Township should lead since we have the most to gain."

However, the feasibility study, which would lead to the dissolution of the regional school district, still has more hills to climb despite the passing of the resolution. Committee member Robert Strobel said it could take another eight and a half months just to get it to a vote.

"First thing that has to happen is we have to agree on an RFP scope, which is kind of a question mark of how long it would take," Strobel said. "The towns and the school boards would have to be involved to have their questions answered. Mr. Cavanaugh has suggested that RFP responses could come back in 15 days, that's probably reasonable, [because] vendors are eager for business."

Strobel estimated it would take approximately 30 days from there to award on contract because multiple towns and school boards would be involved.

"Then the next step is the hard part, that's the wild card as far as I'm concerned. Three school boards in three towns have to agree on a course of action, then they have to apply to the towns," Strobel said. "I don't know how long that's going to take, but I'll say optimistically 30 days."

After that, the county superintendent has 60 days to issue an advisability report and Strobel said due the complexity of the request, he would expect it to take the full 60 days. After that, Strobel said only one town is needed to apply for the state pro-vote.

"They have to do that within 30 days. I would think if we achieved things in the study that make us believe that there's an option that makes sense to pursue, we could act pretty quickly," Strobel said.

After applying to the state, the other towns have 15 days to respond and at that point the state will conduct a hearing on whether voting will be allowed within 60 days. Stobel said he felt it would take the full 60 days to get an answer.

"The date on which we would have to file to have the issue on the ballot this November is Aug. 16. Even if we had started at the beginning of the year, it would have been tough to make the Aug. 16 date," Strobel said. "I just want to set the expectations. We'll push this forward, but people shouldn't expect that it's going to be on the ballot in November."

Thomas posed the possibility of a special election, which would allow a vote to take place outside of the normal election date. According to administrator Steve Mountain, such an election would cost between $5,000 and $7,500.