Update on the School Regionalization Meeting

Audio: School Regionalization Meeting – November 19, 2009

Please note that some of the public comments at the very end were not captured due to low battery.

by Heather Jones DeGeorge

In reference to the previous post about potential school regionalization…

There was a decent turnout of attendees from North Plainfield at the meeting.  We were really pretty well represented and actually had a better turnout than some of the other districts involved in the potential regionalization.  Hal Hirsch did take audio that he will try to post as soon as he can.

But in a very oversimplified nutshell it comes down to this:

• Regionalization of school districts has been a hot topic for several years in the interest of reducing overhead as a means of lowering property taxes because NJ has some of the highest property taxes in the country.
• The current Commissioner of Education (whose future is unknown since they serve “at the pleasure of the governor”–which will be changing) has requested feasibility studies from each county superintendent to determine where regionalization makes the most sense–which scenarios, etc.  It was stated that this process has a due date of March 2010, but is currently in limbo.  Apparently the state was going to pick up the tab for doing these studies (estimated to cost between $10,000-$25,000 each for a total cost of just over $1M) but they have scaled back the requirements and requested that the counties come up with one potential regionalization scenario that could work and one that likely couldn’t to help identify pitfalls and benefits of regionalization.
• Our county superintendent convened a group (that I believe she said was open to “whomever wanted to participate”  although I believe that invite went out to people in the education community of the county) where they came up with 10 regionalization options in the county that were worthy of feasiblity studies.  North Plainfield only fell into one of these studies: combining with the Watchung Hills district.
• The goal was for K-12 regionalization of a district.  So currently, Watchung Hills is a regional district for grades 9-12; but the goal is for the district to be K-12 for all of the current municipalities involved plus North Plainfield (or rather, this was what was going to be studied).
• Under current legislation, a voluntary regionalization would require that the public vote on whether to regionalize or not–and if a single community in the proposed regional district voted “no”–then it would not happen.  All communities would have to unanimously vote “yes”.  The county executive superintendent noted that the commissioner COULD override and force the regionalization to happen, but that it has only happened twice in the last 30-ish years (I think–going from memory) and one of those was still in litigation after 20+ years.
• It was noted that regionalization did NOT necessarily mean that the kids moved from the buildings they were in now.  In reality, most of the buildings that exist are full so that wouldn’t even be possible.  But it meant that specific positions would be eliminated as they would now be centralized (the superintendents of the districts that were merged into the regional would be eliminated but it was unclear what level of job protection existed for the other administrators.  Teachers were pretty well protected with their tenure being preserved, etc.)
• One of the issues was that among the regionalizing districts, the contract that teachers would be bound to would be the one from the district with the most certificated teachers.  In the North Plainfield-Watchung Hills regionalization, this would actually be the Warren Twp (which is now K-8) school district’s contract–not the Watchung Hills contract.  This becomes an issue when you have a much lower paying district merging with a much higher paying district because the cost to increase the pay of the lower-paying district teachers now becomes a cost burden due to the regionalization.  Apparently this was a potential issue with regionalizing in the Somerset Hills district.
• How the cost burden was distributed in the new regional district was discussed and apparently there are some options.  This was a hot topic for the Watchung residents in attendance as apparently they are bearing an unwarranted amount of the cost burden in the current regional scenario (and the county executive superintendent did note this and explained to them how this came to happen–the schedule was set up 50 years ago and never readjusted).
• It was also noted that for the purpose of state aid, towns were still looked at separately: so in the case of North Plainfield coming into the potential Watchung Hills district, those municipalities already in that district would not have to “bear the burden” of supplying the money we currently get in state aid–the aid (if it exists from year to year) would follow the students.

So really, while the meeting raised several points of interesting information, I have to wonder if this meeting might have been called to calm people who got wind of the potential for North Plainfield to be merged into the rest of the Watchung Hills districts and “calm the concerns” so-to-speak.  The meeting participants certainly chose their wording carefully so as not to offend North Plainfield residents in attendance, but concerns about “poorer and/or underperforming districts merging with wealthier districts” came up a few times.

At one point, I stood up and noted that if the county was hoping to pair up the poorer districts with wealthier districts, but that this would require ALL of the districts involved to vote FOR that regionalization–what would incent those wealthier districts to vote “yes” for that scenario.  I noted that this really seemed like an exercise in futility.  She really had no response to that other than that she had a more altruistic outlook about educating the children of the county… In other words, “hoping that the wealthier districts will WANT to help the poorer districts”.

It really only got ugly near the very end when a comment was made about North Plainfield being a “failing” district and to be honest, I’m not sure where that person was from.  The section that woman was sitting in actually had a large number of North Plainfield residents sitting in it; but at this point most of the people were gone and she was near the door–so I don’t know if it was a person here in town that felt our schools were failing or if it was someone from another town involved that felt our schools were failing.  But a resident quipped up that we weren’t failing.  And in fact, throughout the meeting the county executive superintendent did note that there were several poor districts that bordered Abbot districts that resulted in an inability to provide the resources for a better education for their students.  These were called “Bacon districts”.   She said that because of their unique situation in being unable to draw on ratables or resources to provide better education–they were the primary focus for the state because their situations were dire.  She also noted that Somerset County didn’t have ANY Bacon districts.

That’s what I can recall.  Others in attendance may be able to add or fine tune what I’m remembering; and I’m sure Hal will post the audio as soon as he’s able.

Flu Shot Information – submitted by Frank D’Amore

Mark your calendar: Saturday, December 12th. H1N1 flu shot clinic

2009 H1N1 Vaccine Clinic Information
North Plainfield’s free H1N1 (swine flu) Walk through Flu Shot Clinic will be held on Saturday December 12th, 2009 from 12:00 – 3:00 pm. The clinic will be held in the gym of the North Plainfield Middle School  Gym located at 34 Wilson Avenue in North Plainfield.

The Somerset County Department of Health will be running the H1N1 Walk through Flu Shot clinic which will be for persons age 4 and older who are in one of the five priority groups established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   

These priority groups, based on those most likely to be affected by H1N1 are:
•        Pregnant women
•        Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age
•        Health-care and emergency medical services personnel
•        All people age 4 years through 24 years of age
•        Persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza

Pre-Registration is Required, so please follow the link below for additional information and instructions on how to register for this clinic. To save time at the clinic print and fill out the consent form below and bring with you to the clinic.  The  Somerset County Website will be updated when registration for the clinic has been opened to the public. 

To register -  https://www.securedata-trans12.com/ap/montgomerytownshiphealthdept/index.php?page=10

Consent Form – http://www.greatersomerseth1n1.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/VaccineConsentForm.pdf

FAQ: How the State’s Regionalization Plan Could Affect Your District – submitted by Mark Williams

Accessed 11/16/2009

By March 2010, the state’s 21 Executive County Superintendents will submit proposals to regionalize school districts within their jurisdictions. The primary goal is elimination of as many elementary-only and high school-only districts as possible in favor of kindergarten-through-12th grade configurations. How many school districts will be included in the regionalization proposals that appear on the September 2010 ballot remains unclear. But the potential number is large. Nonetheless, the voters—and not the state Department of Education— will have the final word on the proposals.

To help school board members understand the state’s current regionalization program, NJSBA has prepared the following questions and answers.

 Read more… http://www.njsba.org/sb_notes/20090204/images/regionalization.pdf

Forum to give status on potential consolidation of six school districts. Accessed 11/16/2009 My Central NJ.com: 
 
GREEN BROOK — Possible scenarios of what might happen if the neighboring school districts of Green Brook, Long Hill, North Plainfield, Warren, Watchung and Watchung Hills Regional High School consolidated will be the focus of a public meeting here Thursday.
 
Read more….
 
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091115/NEWS/91115010/Forum+to+give+status+on+potential+consolidation+of+six+school+districts

A Focus on the Positive

by Heather Jones DeGeorge

Since this blog is heavily devoted to navigating the obstacles that face our community, it can tend to feel negative.  After all, problems are not pleasant.

There are plenty of initiatives I would love to take on in an effort to make things better that I am stretched too thin to do.  I’m sure many of you feel that pain.  But the one thing I can do is write… and to that end, I’ve started a new blog that will highlight the positives of North Plainfield.

It’s not that I feel the issues discussed here aren’t important or that they shouldn’t be addressed–quite the opposite (which is why I started a separate blog).  But I feel like the only media dedicated to our community is all negative… always about the problems.  The newspapers, the blogs, the message boards, the general populus and their constant association of North Plainfield to Plainfield and their crime, etc.  It’s really frustrating.

How do we attract positive people to a community if we can’t market and celebrate the things that make us WANT to be here?  I mean, we’re HERE, right?  I realize some people are not financially able to leave right now–but many of the people frequenting this blog have been here for a number of years.  There’s clearly something keeping you in town.

This blog has a different focus and I don’t feel it’s right to detract from it–because it’s important and significant in it’s own right.

Hopefully, the other blog will become a marketing tool for local real estate agents who are less familiar with our community and seeking the positives to focus on.  Frankly, I meet people who have lived in town any number of years who had no idea some of the good things in town even exist (self included, and I’ve been here for 12 years).  So it can be a great resource for current residents, too.

I hope that some of you will contribute to that blog as well–and share comments or write short articles about what you love about the Borough… and help balance the bad with the good.  By no means am I aware of or knowledgeable about all of it.  But I will be kicking it off best I can.  You can see the new forum at:

http://positivelynp.blogspot.com/

You can submit your comments to add info to an existing article or you can e-mail a short article to positivelynp@yahoo.com

 

Annual Clean Up of Parkview Ave

The North Plainfield Shade Tree Advisory Board will conduct our annual clean up of Parkview Ave,. between Harrington Ave. & Clinton Ave. on Saturday, November 7, starting at 9:00 A.M. Anyone wishing to join us is welcome, just show up and sign in.

For more information, please contract Frank D’Amore at frankdsr@comcast.net

Candidates for North Plainfield – NJ.com

Experience vs. fresh ideas in North Plainfield council race

By Stephen Stirling/For The Star-Ledger

October 25, 2009, 6:05AM

Jim McGarryNORTH PLAINFIELD — A North Plainfield Republican is making a renewed bid for a borough council slot he held nearly a decade ago.

Jim McGarry will face-off against Democratic incumbent Everett Merrill for the sole open position on the North Plainfield council in the Nov. 3 election. Though McGarry has more council experience, having served from 1995 to 2000, Merrill, who was appointed to the post in January, says he brings fresh ideas and will work to continue what he says has been a progressive Democratic administration.

“There’s a lot of good things happening in North Plainfield,” Merrill said. “I feel very strongly about how the mayor and how our administration have guided the borough. Although we’re in a tough economic climate, these are very exciting times and because of the work we’ve done I’m very optimistic about our future.”

McGarry contends just the opposite.

“My boss has an expression that I’m very fond of: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging,” he said. “Well one party rule in this community over the last 12 going on 13 years has left us in a hole, so that’s just what we need to do.”

McGarry blasted the Democratic administration, saying they have increased spending annually, which he said is short-sighted in a troubled economy.

“It’s remarkable to me that our community leadership continues every year to run up the debt, run up the spending,” McGarry said. “It has to stop.”

Everett MerrillBut Merrill said in his time on the council he has worked to help insulate North Plainfield from the economic challenges plaguing the state.

“We have an aggressive tax collection in town at 97 percent. Our debt reduced by 7 percent in 2008. Our town is in very good fiscal shape,” he said. “This year the average taxpayer is going to receive a $300 tax reduction. So the argument that we’re overspending, I don’t agree with at all.”

Merrill said, if re-elected, he hopes to bolster relationships with not only surrounding communities, but also increase cooperation with the North Plainfield Board of Election so that the two governing bodies can work together to insure the fiscal stability of the borough.

“Sometimes we’re so immersed in individual issues that we forget that we can serve a greater value working together,” he said. “We’re having our our second joint meeting with the Board of Education on [Oct. 26]. I think that’s very important because we can not only broaden that relationship but get a feel for where the largest amount of tax dollars are going.”

McGarry, meanwhile, said it is integral for the borough council to take a proactive role in the coming years to not only attract new businesses to the area but work with existing businesses who may be struggling.

“Look at the closing of Pathmark. Losing that store is a problem,” McGarry said. “I was surprised to learn there wasn’t an effort to reach out to the ownership. You have to be willing to listen and be proactive. If there’s an opportunity for the town to do something, we need to take it.”

© 2009 NJ.com. All rights reserved.

Joint Meeting of Borough Council, Board of Adjustment, Planning Board: Crystal Ridge – Possible Dropping Of Age Restriction

The meeting will be held Monday, October 26th at North Plainfield Community Center, 614 Greenbrook Road at 7:30pm.

The attorneys, for the property owners of the Crystal Ridge development, have approached the borough to eliminate the age restriction. The impact on the borough, with respect to education costs, should concern all North Plainfield residents. It is important to note that a similar age restricted development has been proposed for the ‘Villa Maria’ property, now referred to as Watchung Hills. What follows the Crystal Ridge ruling could set precedent with regard to Watchung Hills and have significant impact on North Plainfield’s municipal and education expenses.  The Crystal Ridge zoning change was intended to be on the agenda for tomorrow night’s joint meeting of Council, Board Of Adjustment, Planning Board. According to Jim McGarry’s letter (below), the zoning change was removed from the agenda despite his objections. Mr. McGarry was kind enough to allow us to post his letter and he urges all residents to attend Monday night’s meeting at Vermeule Community Center, 7:30pm.

Jim McGarry is the Republican Candidate for Borough Council. The posting of Jim’s letter is in the interest of the residents of North Plainfield and not meant to be partisan.

Jim’s Letter:

You will recall that the owners of the Crystal Ridge property have applied to the Board of Adjustment (BOA) to drop the age restrictions on their property.
 
In the first public hearing before the BOA, the attorney for Crystal Ridge stated on the record that he has previously spoken with Mayor Mike Giordano, who indicated that he would favor the application, as long as it included a number of low-income housing units in the development.  I paraphrase the attorney here, but believe a full transcription of the meeting will bear me out.
 
Aside from the legal question of whether the Mayor has tainted the application and our proceedings, I am concerned as to whether a decision in favor of the Crystal Ridge application would become a matter of binding legal precedent, perhaps in favor of the developer of the Villa Maria property?  If so, the impact of the resultant increase in the public school enrollment could be enormous, contrary to Borough Attorney Eric Bernstein’s comments a few months ago.
 
Accordingly, I requested that this matter be included for full discussion during the October 26 Joint Meeting of the Borough Council, Mayor, Board of Education, Planning Board and Board of Adjustment.
 
Today (Friday, October 23rd – ed.), it became obvious that this subject has been pulled from the October 26 agenda, at the last minute, despite my objections.
 
I believe the members of NPCCR and every other concerned resident of North Plainfield should be made aware of these proceedings, attend the meeting on Monday and let our public officials know how they feel about this kind of decision-making.
 
Thanks
 
Jim

Audio: NPCCR October 20 Meeting – Candidates Night

Here’s the audio from last night’s meeting.

Bob Gatto provided an update on the NPCCR Sunshine Law petition. NPCCR contends their version of the petition is significantly different from the one passed by the borough council and wants their version of the ordinance to be voted on by the residents. In order for that to happen, Somerset County needs to rule in favor of NPCCR, in that the petition is significantly different. The ruling was originally intended to take place on October 19th. However the judge postponed the ruling because the municipal court clerk needed to recuse himself, due to his coincidental acquaintance with some of the petitioners.  The judge wants no perception of bias. The new ruling date has yet to be filed.

Following Mr. Gatto’s comments, Republican candidate Jim McGarry introduced himself to audience and spent the next hour taking questions. Incumbant democratic candidate Everett Merrill declined the invitation to participate, on advice from borough attorney Eric Bernstein, given the outstanding Sunshine Law litigation.

Clothing Bin Ordinance – Borough Council Meeting, October 13th 2009

At the BC meeting last night, a new clothing bin ordinance was discussed. The state has issued an allowance for municipalities to regulate the use of clothing bins. It was reported, some clothing collection areas (not necessarily in North Plainfield) are used by organizations other than charities. An example was provided that told of a company shipping the clothes overseas to be shredded for pillow stuffing for a profit. 

The proposed ordinance, discussed last night, included a permit fee and dollar penalty for any ‘unkept’ location. The permit and penalty would only apply to the organization providing the bins, not the property owner.  It was also suggested to set a very high permit fee in order to discourage general clothing bin use, given the tendency for these areas to be abused.

If North Plainfield doesn’t want these areas, the council should just have a ‘no bins allowed’ ordinance. There are plenty of other ways for individuals to donate clothing.  Problem solved.

If the municipality wants to offer this service to reputable charities, the fee should only cover the administrative cost of issuing the permit, including a required standarized background check.  The municipality shouldn’t ‘profit’ from permit fees when the use is for charity. The municipality should also require the signature of the property owner (where the bins are located), so the municipality can have a back up, if the bin organizer can’t be reached when there’s reports of abuse. The property owner should also be held liable for any penalties, in case the organizer fails to pay.  That may make the property owner think twice about allowing a fly-by-night company to put bins on their property. In cases when the organizer wasn’t a respectable charitable organization, it wouldn’t surprise me if the property owner received a kick back. 

The big challenge, again, would be enforcement.

Hal Hirsch, co-editor

H1N1 (Swine Flu) Vaccination Status – Board Of Health Meeting, October 13th 2009

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FLU SHOTS AVAILABLE ON OCTOBER 17TH ARE **NOT** THE SWINE FLU VACCINATION.

John Horensky of Somerset County Health Department and Brian Martin, Coodinator, Office of Emergency Management were at the Board Of Health meeting and provided a status report for the availability of the swine flu vaccination.

The H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine should make it’s way to North Plainfield between the end of October and beginning of November. In addition to getting the vaccine from your private health care provider, vaccinations will be available at local temporary clinics. North Plainfield’s middle school was discussed as a location. A number of logistics are still being worked out. Most likely there will be a reservation system to allow the process to run smoothly and keep crowds and waiting time at a minimum. In addition, there will be tier groups so those at higher risk levels can have priority.   Supply should cover anyone who wants the vaccination.

This just summarizes what was said at the meeting. For the full report, you can listen to the audio. For more information about the virus and vaccination, you can contact Mr. Horensky at the Somerset County Health Department 908-231-7155 or access their website (http://www.co.somerset.nj.us/health/index.htm). For more information about where and when the vaccinations will be available in North Plainfield you can also speak with Councilman Bob Hitchcock, who is North Plainfield’s liason to Mr. Martin at OEM.  You can probably reach Mr. Hitchcock by way of the borough clerk’s office at 908-769-2910.