Testimony for Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services

[Dollar$ and Sense]

Good evening. My name is Sheila Brogan. I am a member of the Ridgewood Board of Education and I am in my eleventh year of service to the Board. I am also a member of Dollar$ and Sense.

Ridgewood is the largest school district in Bergen County with an enrollment of 5,613 students K through 12. We are a J district and one of New Jersey’s “lighthouse districts”. Our students consistently score well on the SATs (1168 combined math and English scores in 2005) and outscore most of the I and J districts on the state standardized tests for 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 11th grades. Our district is considered a wealthy district, but some, many of whom are long time residents of our community, are finding the property tax burdensome.

There are serious problems with the way our public schools are funded in New Jersey. The over reliance on the property tax, five years of flat state aid , under funding of special education costs, unfunded mandates, and S1701, all present challenges to school district budgets and have contributed to increased property taxes.

Tonight you have asked for us to comment on the work of your committee. I will focus on your proposal to establish county school districts and urge that you foster shared service agreements.

Politicizing school governance is but one of many concerns with proposed legislation to consolidate school districts into county districts and change the current governance system from an elected Board of Education and a hired certificated superintendent to an appointed Board and a Chief Administrator. As I have listened to the committee hearings it strikes me that you might not realize the scope of work our administrators do. Our superintendent is the instructional leader for the district. He is a problem solver and a mediator when conflicts arise. He oversees the daily management of the district, no easy task with our community’s high expectations for student success. We have one Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment and another who is our Business Administrator. Each of these administrators play an important role in making the Ridgewood Public Schools an efficient and effective school district focused on student achievement.

Our cost per child is $10,946. We understand the importance of working closely with other districts and our municipality. It would be a long list of shared services and collaborations if I were to name all that our administrators have done to control budget growth. Some include our cooperative bidding for energy costs with the New Jersey School Board ACES program, our agreement with Region 1 in Northwest Bergen County to provide special education transportation, our collaboration with Paramus to provide an in-district autistic program for our elementary students and a high school program for students with Asperger Syndrome. We share the cost of one full time electrician with our municipally and a contract with our Village to maintain our grounds and athletic fields. We have privatized our transportation, food service, and custodial and maintenance services, all of which have saved money for our property taxpayers. Many of the school districts I am familiar with are currently engaged in shared services. To encourage more sharing I would urge you to establish incentive grants to promote collaboration. Often times, plans to collaborate are stalled because there is no funding for the start up costs associated with new programs and partnerships.

Of bigger concern with the proposed county school district idea would be the loss of local control and accountability that is inherent in smaller school districts, particularly the high performing districts. In our schools the instructional program is differentiated to meet the individual learning needs of students. Parents have access to our school and district administrators to address concerns in a timely manner. In a county system this individualized approach would be lost and the quality of our schools would be diminished.

Another concern would be the lack of study and analysis of the costs associated with establishing a county bureaucracy particularly in Bergen County with its 74 school districts. How many administrators would be needed to oversee the schools in Bergen County and to provide the necessary leadership to insure high quality instructional programs designed to meet the needs of each and every student? The savings discussed at your committee meeting would be considerably less once the county offices were established. It would be important to know all of the costs associated with a county bureaucracy and exactly what savings would be realized on the property tax.

In New Jersey consolidation is made harder by the laws that require the biggest district in a consolidation to dictate the rate of pay for staff and require districts to assume each others debt. An analysis of why school districts have not consolidated or regionalized would point to the fact that the disincentives to join together are considerable as evidenced by the lack of districts merging throughout the state. If incentives were part of the equation, districts might merge voluntarily as long as taxpayers and students benefited from such a merger.

I would urge that you establish a grant program to provide the necessary research money, so that feasibility studies can be undertaken to determine whether or not regionalization and consolidation would provide a more cost effective and high quality education. Some studies may indicate that regionalization would be advantageous and districts could voluntarily decide what would make the most sense for their districts and more importantly for their students.

I would urge you to learn from those districts throughout New Jersey that are operating efficiently and effectively and there are many to study. I would suggest that you look at the different district factor groups and identify efficient and effective districts in each group and allow for a sharing of best practices. Ridgewood is currently involved in a Benchmarking Consortium with other highly effective and efficient districts and we are sharing best practices and ideas. Ridgewood isn’t alone; other school districts are involved in collaborations. There are many districts doing outstanding work, your study of these districts would inform the work of your committee.