Talk On Breaking Up School District Tues. Night
Committee will review next steps proposed by attorney Vito Gagliardi Jr.
Photos
Tuesday night, members of the Mendham Township community will look closely at how the West Morris Regional High School District could be split up—a move some promote as a way to save local residents tax money.
A discussion with the Mendham Township committee will explore the options laid out by legal expert Vito Gagliardi Jr. in a public forum held Jan. 12. The township retained Gagliardi Jr. in response to concerns from residents that the township pays a disproportionate percentage of regional district costs.
The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Mendham Township Municipal Building.
"[Gagliardi] is an expert in the field," said Mayor Sam Tolley. "[He] provided a baseline of information."
That baseline was laid out over the course of an hour, followed by the Morristown attorney taking questions from the crowd for approximately 90 minutes.
On the table for discussion was dissolving the grades 9 to 12 regional district, which serves Mendham and Chester students at West Morris Mendham High School and Washington Township students at West Morris Central High School, among other options. Advocates of the idea say a realignment could save local taxpayers money, or at least tax local residents more fairly.
"I think it was well-received," said Charlene Arrington, chair of the civic group Citizens for Better Schools, which has a stated mission of promoting efficiency in school operations and fair funding. "We now have an understanding of the statutory requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to separate the districts."
Citizens for Better Schools has been at the center of the deregionalization debate from the start, but Arrington—who has written a Mendham-Chester Patch blog post on the deregionalization debate—doesn't view the group as a revolutionary movement.
"We started off as just a handful of like-minded people who wanted to stop the fiscal inequity we saw in the school district," she said. "As we approached the governing body, we came in contact with more people and expanded exponentially."
Arrington said Citizens for Better Schools could be open to options besides deregionalization—such as altering the formula for taxing communities in the West Morris Regional district. But that would take considerable community support—a referendum would have to be approved by the majority of the voters in each community.
"We now know the next step in the process," said Arrington, who described the presentation as more of a how-to and not a sales pitch from Gagliardi Jr., who was not there to advocate one position over the other. "I think he may have mentioned his opinion on the subject once."
The next step in the process could involve a feasibility study, but all options will be examined by the mayor and the council, Tolley said.
In This article
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Mendham High School
65 E Main St, Mendham, NJ -
Porzio, Bromberg, and Newman
100 Southgate Pky, Morristown, NJ -
Mendham Township Municipal Building
2 W Main St, Mendham, NJ
Sarah Diczok-Vajtay
10:20 am on Tuesday, January 24, 2012
How about some factual information backed up by reliable data regarding the contribution of each municipality and the distribution to the high schools? What evidence is there of inequity?
Louis C. Hochman
10:48 am on Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Absolutely. We'll be following this issue for some time, but a real, clear breakdown would probably be a big help for our readers. Expect it soon in stories on Mendham-Chester.Patch.com as well as LongValley.Patch.com.
Sarah Diczok-Vajtay
6:47 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thank you!
cv
2:13 pm on Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Is this all because Mendham wants to stand alone?
Claire
7:14 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
A 500K house in Wt pays $2600 in regional school tax,
a 500K house in Mendham twp pays $2375
a 500K house in chester pays $1800
the disparity lies in that there are many more 1.5 milion and 5.5 miliion houses in Mendham than WT, so they pay much more in total. Basically, CBS is saying its ok that their weathly residents pay higher taxes for their benefit.
Carolyn Hanington
3:59 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The last time the Patch printed the breakdown, around budget season last year, this is what they had...Chester Boro - pays .35%/$100 assessed value. The average home in the boro is $463,594; Chester Twsp - pays .52%/$100 and the avg home is $671,769. Mendham Boro pays .47%/$100 value with avg home at $705,500 and Mendham Twsp -.48%/$100 and the avg home is $914,184. Wash Twsp pays .53% (the highest actual % but our avg house is low) avg house value $436,787.
I have heard that there is a state contribution to the budget due mostly to the inclusion of WT in the regional group. I would love to know if that is true and what that amount is, and if there is a split...do we still get that offset? I think if there is a number than it needs to be made public for the residents of the other sending towns to realize that they could lose a subsidy they enjoy b/c of us.
It is made to sound like we are the leeches here, but with a town the size of the other 4 put together and a per hundred dollar of valuation contribution that is higher than the other groups, and maybe additonal state funding because of us...I fail to see us as being "subsidized" by the Mendham homeowners. Obviously they disagree.
Claire
6:02 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Average house? you should compare the same size house, a town may have many more huge houses ... . just look at the GSMS house for sale or the Morris co tax website,. As in any town, depending on your home value you may pay more or less taxes than your town-neighbors, such is the case in CBS Mendham/chester.tax question . If you buy a house worth 3 million, then you should expect to pay taxes accordingly. Do you pay the same taxes as your friends in town? I doubt it. It depends on your house size and value. If the folks in Mendham don't like it. maybe they should look for a house in WT. But WT does pay more per dollar than the Mendhan and chester to offset differences. Also, most of State Aide goes to WT. Based on last year, the Gov gave $0 to Mendham
Sarah Diczok-Vajtay
6:56 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
And, in addition to the $$ perspective, there is an educational component to consider. It is very valuable to have an all high school district - all the employees are focused solely on high school age students. In K-12 districts, the lion's share of training, attention & decisions go to the K-6 level. Furthermore, the high schools share resources and enjoy a stronger bargaining position with vendors while paired together. I imagine the K-8 districts in all the townships that make up the WMRHSD are K-8 experts as the WMRHSD personnel are 9 - 12 education experts. Is it a good idea to turn over our high schools to districts which have been solely focused on elementary education?
Domino
7:56 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
So I guess this is about rich people who want a tax break. What else is new...
Russ Crespolini
9:27 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I have to say, as a newcomer to the issue (Jason, our Long Valley Editor has filled me in and I've read quite a bit) I have to say I'm not sure I totally understand the purpose of the split. Is the belief really that the quality of the education at Mendham is being hampered by the funding? I'm not sure. I also don't know if everyone realizes how involved this process is. It seems like it is going to take so long and be so hard to push through. A lot of very passionate, intelligent people are on opposite sides of this issue. It isn't an easy one to solve. But I learn so much from you guys. Lets keep the conversation going.