>Noah K. Murray/The Star-Ledger
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler speaks at annual Charter School Association conference. Glen Ridge officials will consider converting schools into charter or private schools.
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/diminishing_state_aid_prompts.html
GLEN RIDGE — Faced with burdensome mandates and diminishing returns from Trenton, one of the state’s top public school districts is considering a path that could make it the first to effectively secede from New Jersey’s public education system.
The Glen Ridge school board will enter largely uncharted waters when it gathers at a retreat this month to discuss converting some or all of the four schools in the 1,932-student district to charter or private schools.
In a community where the average property tax bill tops $16,000, the idea of becoming a breakaway district emerged as word spread that Glen Ridge’s already small portion of state aid would vanish and that New Jersey might embrace a new cap limit to tax increases in order to encourage school districts to merge.
Parents in Glen Ridge already aggressively raise money for everything from bleachers and classroom smart boards to paving and roof repairs. Meanwhile, per-pupil spending in Glen Ridge is below the statewide average.
“There’s got to be a better way,” said Kathy Weissenberger, who co-chairs the district’s Alternative Funding Committee. “Everyone kind of says they don’t go to public school, they go to a private Glen Ridge school. … That’s the way it feels.”
New Jersey will allow a public school to become a charter school if 51 percent of the teaching staff and parents sign a petition for it, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. That has never happened.
“There have been no conversions to date,” said Beth Auerswald, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.
Glen Ridge perennially ranks as one of New Jersey’s best school districts. Its high school students average a hearty 1748 on the SAT (out of 2400), and nearly half the seniors are in advanced-placement classes.
The idea of becoming a breakaway district first surfaced in March, at a tense forum in which parents learned of Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed cuts in state aid, which would reduce Glen Ridge’s state school funding to zero.
“The strings are still there, but there’s no money,” said John M. Mucciolo, the district’s school superintendent.
By adopting a charter, Glen Ridge would have increased autonomy, but whether enough to make a real financial impact is open to question.
In theory, at least, the district would be spared from such mandates as QSAC, or Quality through a Single Accountability Continuum. “The people hours, the money it costs us,” Mucciolo said of the monitoring of schools’ progress. “Why does it have to be every three years? Why not every seven years? … Many times, the money we spend complying with state mandates is diverted from students.”
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https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/diminishing_state_aid_prompts.html
