Cape May Point School District Won’t Be Dissolved, Says Commissioner

CAPE MAY POINT — State Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy and Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew (D-1st) assured a standing-room-only crowd Thursday that the borough’s school district would not be dissolved resulting in much higher taxes for residents.
Cape May Point is one of 23 school districts in the state called “non-operating,” meaning the district has students but no school building and sends children to an outside district.
The state legislature, as part of comprehensive property tax reform, passed bills changing the role of the county school superintendent. It created a new position called executive county superintendent enhancing the role and responsibilities of the position, said Davy.
The executive county superintendent will look at the fiscal side of school districts and review all non-operating districts to make a determination if that district should be consolidated into another district.
Davy acknowledged residents were concerned the borough’s school district would be ordered to join with another district impacting taxes. The audience replied “yes” and “right on.”
She said new state the legislation requires a county executive superintendent to look at a non-operating district’s finances and provide to her office a plan to how the district could be consolidated with another district. Davy stressed the bill only called for a plan to be submitted to her to examine.
The goal is to make sure children are getting a top quality education and it is being done efficiently and effectively, she said.
“If the plan that comes to us for your district does not accomplish those two goals, it will not be plan that we will move forward,” said Davy. “That is as plan and simple as I can put it.”
“I am not going to approve a plan that says that you all have to pay six times more than you are paying now,” she continued. “That would not be efficient.”
Davy said while she had the authority to consolidate the district, but does not require her to carry it out.
“I’m not going to do it because the whole purpose of the law is to reduce taxes by more efficient delivery of these services,” she said.
“I want you to know that you have the commitment of Assemblyman Albano and myself that absolutely whatever it takes, we are not going to hurt this small community that is so well run,” Van Drew told the crowd.
“In no way are we going to allow anything that is going to increase the tax rate or cause any problem in this little town,” he continued.
Davy said the executive county superintendent will make sure spending is appropriate, that districts are efficiently providing transportation service, purchasing and compensation of administrators at the highest level of school districts.
The state has 615 school districts.
“We actually have some operating districts that have less than 100 students,” said Davy.
She noted such districts have a school building, a superintendent, a principal and other administrative positions.
“To spread services over 65 or 70 children in one school building is not nearly as efficient as being able to spread all those services among a group of 300 of 400 students,” said Davy.
Legislation asks for an examination of small school districts such as those that are not one district covering kindergarten through twelfth grade. Lower Township has two school districts, K-sixth grade and the regional school district covering seventh through twelfth grade.
She a K-12 school district provides a “seamless system.”
“There has been a long mythology in the state that school district’s without any schools are inefficient and big money wasters for the districts and the citizens they are alleged to be serving,” said Mayor Malcolm Fraser.
He said former Governor Jim McGreevy fell for that mythology in 2003. Fraser said he confronted McGreevy at an event telling the governor if he looked into the matter, he would find that districts without a school were the most efficient school districts in the state.
Fraser said McGreevy examined the matter and did not proceed with shutting down such districts. He said the Point’s school district had no building to maintain and only the salary of an administrator.
Fraser said Van Drew and Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-1st) brought Davy to the meeting to “dispel our fears and provide the positive ramifications of this new state legislation.
Davy said proposed state legislation that would have created one school district for the entire county did not pass.