Study to recommend whether five Central Jersey school districts should regionalize
The state has awarded $135,000 for a study to explore shared services opportunities and possible regionalization among five school districts – Warren, Watchung, Green Brook, Watchung Hills Regional and Long Hill.
Four of the school districts - Warren, Watchung, Green Brook and Long Hill - have their own elementary and middle schools but send their high school students to Watchung Hills Regional High School.
The Watchung and Watchung Hills school boards applied for the grant under the state's School Regionalization Efficiency Program. The grant pays for the full cost of the study with no cost to the school districts or local property taxpayers.
An informational Zoom meeting for residents will be held at 7 p.m. May 20. A recording of the meeting will be posted on each school district's website. Information on registering for the Zoom meeting will also be posted on the district websites.
The study, conducted by the Rowan University School Regionalization Institute, will be led by Kathleen Helewa, a former Warren Township Board of Education member who previously served as senior manager of field services for the New Jersey School Boards Association.
Other members of the study team include former State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy; G. Kennedy Greene, former president of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators; Mark Magyar, a principal author of the 2022 school regionalization legislation and Brian Falkowski, a school finance consultant.
The year-long study will receive input from an advisory committee that includes representatives from all five school boards, school administrators and municipal officials.
The study will analyze the preschool through high school educational programs for students in the five districts, including curriculum coordination, special education programs and transportation costs.
The study will also include a demographic analysis of future enrollment in the five districts, forecast state aid trends based on those figures and evaluate budgetary implications.
At the end of the study, the team will make recommendations for enhancements to the educational programs and potential cost savings through the expansion of shared services in specific areas to full pre-K through high school regionalization.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: nj-schools-watchung-hills-regional
