Island Schools Link, Benefits Students, Districts Retain Autonomy in Decisions

Stone Harbor and Avalon share Seven Mile Island and have also been sharing a number of school-related functions and resources since School Year 2011 – 2012. Coupled with this shared services relationship is a sending/receiving arrangement whereby Stone Harbor Elementary School receives children from Avalon and its own borough for grades K-4 and Avalon reciprocates by receiving students from both boroughs at its school for grades 5-8.
“We are really proud that we’ve been able to make this arrangement work so that all benefit, especially the children,” said Linda Fiori, the schools’ business administrator. “It’s a continuous flow between the two elementary schools. Our two districts share teachers for gym, music, Spanish, creative arts, tech support, library, as well as administration; otherwise we don’t know if we could offer such an enriched curriculum for our students,” she continued.
Prior to their sending/receiving arrangement, Avalon and Stone Harbor students could have well found themselves in not just a class of a couple of students but most likely an entire grade of just a few children. The schools were restructured to improve not just the academic enhancement that could result from combined resources but also the socialization opportunities.
“It’s a better environment for the students, and works really well, we strive hard to be as equitable as possible, and also preserve each school’s traditions,” Fiori said.
For example, in Avalon, the children eat at the school cafeteria while in Stone Harbor students order lunch from a menu provided by a local restaurant with parents paying.
In Avalon, children are bussed, in Stone Harbor the tradition has been that they walk to school.
As for teachers, each district negotiates and maintains its own contracts. Each district sets its own overall budget based on that borough’s tax ratables and revenues collected.
Each also has its own school board comprised of parents and community representatives and residents so “the local culture is still there,” per Fiori. All teachers hired prior to 2010 were “held harmless” due to the boroughs’ new school arrangement and positions were maintained through retirements.
Each child’s tuition ranges from $15,000 – $20,000 depending on the enrollment of that school year. “Each district has the same objective, that is to make the schools the best learning environment we can for each student, the sending/saving relationship is not meant to be a money-making arrangement or even necessarily a money-saving system,” explained Fiori.
Based on data from the 2014 Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending prepared by the New Jersey Department of Education, Avalon district’s total per pupil spending of $43,774 was the highest of any regular school district in the state.
In 2010 when the idea of a sending/receiving solution to the boroughs’ enrollment was first broached members of the Avalon and Stone Harbor Home and School Associations attended numerous briefing sessions by school officials, asked probing questions and pledged their commitment to work together regarding consolidation issues.
A consulting company, Centennial Associates, was hired to look at options. Its report set out four alternatives: the first was to maintain the status quo, with each of the boroughs continuing separate operation of their respective districts; the second envisioned a consolidated school district scenario where students were housed in one or both of the buildings; the third proposal would have permitted each town to continue separate school districts and boards of education and would require reciprocal send/receive relationships to be set out; and fourth, a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade configuration.
Under the alternative plans set out by the consulting firm brought in to study the issue, a consolidated or merged school district would have saved the most money.
Creation of this regional school district between the two boroughs was financially and educationally the most sound of the plans, according to Centennial Associates, which presented its findings in a public meeting before the sending/receiving system started. But it was decided that a true merger of the district would conflict with the each borough’s desire to maintain its own autonomy and control the direction of the educational programs for the children in their respective communities.
Centennial found that the third option, essentially separate school districts, separate school facilities and establishing a send/receive relationship to accomplish kindergarten through eighth grade education while not as effective economically as a regional district would provide for continuation of separate boards of education and community and school independence.
“I fully agree that this recent send/receive arrangement has been of great benefit to our students and is testament to the great cooperation we get from the teachers, school officials and civic groups,” said Lynn Schwartz, president of the Avalon Board of Education.
Schwartz also provided historical context saying that in the early 1960s she attended kindergarten in Stone Harbor when Avalon sent students there, an arrangement which continued for Avalon kindergartners until the schools’ restructuring in 2011.
Severn Mile Island students in public school for ninth through twelfth grades attend Middle Township High School in Court House as part of a sending/receiving relationship with that school district.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.