Area Officials OK With Consolidation Study

Following the at Mendham High School on June 14, the mayors of the five towns–Washington Township, Chester Borough, Chester Township, Mendham Borough and Mendham Township–agreed to meet on June 30 to take the next step in the process of investigating various forms of consolidation between the municipalities' school districts.

Due to a scheduling conflict, Washington Township Mayor Ken Short was unable to attend, but the municipality was represented by Vice Mayor James Harmon.

The meeting lasted more than three hours, Harmon said, and saw many reasonable possibilities be presented by the towns' leaders. "I was very happy to be there," Harmon said. "It was great to see Washington Township taking part in this and trying to find the best educational value possible for the students."

That value was Harmon's priority at the meeting, he said. "The funding formula issue is secondary in my opinion. Let's see what we can do to provide the most value for all the districts first, then we can discuss how it's properly funded," Harmon said.

The group of officials came together to discuss different options and next steps, and before crafting a letter for the media, were informed by Mendham Township Mayor Frank Cioppettini that he did not want to participate in the agreed upon course of action.

The following is a press release from the other four officials:

We recognize the ongoing concern among some of our citizens regarding the cost and quality of the education in the West Morris Regional High School District (WMRHSD) as well as the structure of the entire school district, including our K-8 schools.  While this concern is not new, we feel it is imperative at this time to have all five towns of the WMRHSD  district come together and work towards assessing the facts which may be fueling the concerns and, if proven necessary, work toward a resolution.  While we had hoped our recent Mayors Summit would have resulted in a unanimous decision to work these issues together,  Mayor Cioppettini  has informed us that he does not wish to participate with us and our  agreed upon course of action at this time.

However, the remaining four mayors have agreed to work collectively and collaboratively until we find a suitable solution to the issues of funding, educational quality and value, and the best configuration of our schools to support the changing needs of our children and our families.

The Education Summit held on June 14, 2011 was the beginning of this effort.  At that meeting it was decided that the Superintendents of all schools in our district will work aggressively to find ways to share services, reduce expenses and optimize the talented team of individuals administering our schools.   We feel confident that our superintendents will work swiftly over the next few months to find and implement areas we can share services and do so beginning this next school year. We also feel it is important to partner with all of our local superintendents and school boards to utilize their expertise in helping us find a sustainable solution.

The Summit also resulted in an agreement to have all five Mayors of our district meet to discuss openly the concerns of some of our citizens.  We held our meeting on June 30th, and after much constructive discussion, we agreed that an independent study would be needed to determine the following:  The best configuration of our schools that optimizes the quality of education while leveraging the most equitable funding for our towns.  Our primary concern is the quality of education, and therefore this study will focus on ways to maintain the quality of education while identifying any associated costs or savings.  We will then share the results of the study with all of our towns and provide ample time for our citizens to fully understand the recommendations of this study and become fully informed on this very complex issue.  

First and foremost, we want to pursue the possibility of the funding of this study with state funds.  According to Jamie Button, (WMRHS School Board Member) an offer was made by state representatives to fund such a study.  Summit.  This clearly would take the pressure off our local budgets.  However we will be discussing other possible funding sources with our town councils to support this independent study should this commitment not materialize.  In the interim, we have committed to one another to continue the dialogue we started and enlist the support of our school administrators, independent experts and the public to find creative ways to assess the current state of education and facilitate continuous improvement.    We firmly believe that a district united for the purpose of serving our citizens, however that might be, is far better than a district divided.

Sincerely,

Vice-Mayor Jim Harmon, Washington Township             
Mayor William Cogger, Chester Township
Mayor Robert Davis, Chester Borough
Mayor Neil Henry, Mendham Borough

Mendham Township Mayor Fank Cioppettini could not immediately be reached for comment.