CORRECTION: Lower Cape May Regional School District is 7-12, not K-12 as stated below.
COURT HOUSE – On Aug. 9, the New Jersey Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup released its report Path to Progress. A part of that report dealt with recommendations for school system regionalization, proposing that school districts across the state be regionalized through the merger of school systems into K-12 regional districts.
In Cape May County that would involve 10 school districts that currently do not have high schools as part of the district. State data for 2017 showed enrollment in these districts ranged from the smallest, Avalon at 75 students, to the largest, Upper Township with 2,075.
In total, the 10 districts accounted for 5,380 students with 2017 budgets totaling $123 million.
Four municipal school districts have K-12 programs and are not part of that list.
The school districts as they are currently constituted are all involved in various forms of agreements that share resources and provide for sending and receiving arrangements with other districts.
Which Districts?
There are 19 school districts in Cape May County.
Three districts, Sea Isle City, Cape May Point and West Wildwood are not operational. They have school boards but no schools. By arrangement, they send their students elsewhere in the county.
Two of the 19 districts are county districts. These are Cape May County Special Services and the county Technical School. Those schools would presumably not be impacted by the recommendations.
Four of the operational municipal districts have K-12 programs.
These are Middle Township, Lower Cape May Regional, Ocean City and Wildwood. At present, school districts across the county funnel students to one of the four high schools in those K-12 programs.
The other 10 districts are the ones most impacted by the proposed mergers in the Workgroup report. They are operational districts but are not part of a regional system with K-12 programs.
These include Avalon, Cape May, Dennis Township, Lower Township, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Upper Township, West Cape May, Wildwood Crest and Woodbine.
Why Merge?
The report is calling for administrative merging which it claims would allow a greater share of state funding to go to instruction rather than support services including general administration.
“While New Jersey ranks fourth in the nation in school spending per pupil, only 59.3 percent of that gets spent on instruction,” the report states.
The Workgroup explicitly cited countywide school districts in Maryland and also examined options in which school districts would maintain a level of autonomy while sharing administrative and support services.
The report argues that reform would “reduce the administrative costs of public education without negatively impacting services.” It also calls reform “critical to controlling the growth of property taxes.”
The Workgroup was organized by Senate President Steve Sweeney which means it potentially has the backing of a powerful individual in state government.
For decades reports from various committees and commissions have urged the state to move on consolidation of school districts. The argument has been that such moves would reduce expense, make collective bargaining easier, simplify transportation networks, and allow schools to offer a more comprehensive curriculum.
Strong resistance has greeted all earlier attempts to force consolidation.
A 1969 report produced significant controversy.
New studies in 1980 and 1991 both urged reform to no result. The saga continued across administrations of both Republicans and Democrats.
How this latest push for regionalization will play out is unclear.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
