Liberty
weighs notion of schools' independence
Wednesday, April 12, 2006 • BY
MIKE FRASSINELLI • Star-Ledger
Staff
With town names like Liberty and
Independence, one would expect nonconformists and
free-thinkers who shuffle to their own beat.
And the 13-year-old marriage between
those two Warren County townships that produced the Great
Meadows Regional School District has not always been
harmonious.
Liberty residents and officials for years
have complained that they have to pay a proportionally
greater share of the load, based on a formula at the time
the regional district was formed. Liberty has half the
residents of Independence, population 5,796.
The results of those complaints are
frequently seen at the ballot box, as Liberty residents vote
down their school budgets at the same time that Independence
voters approve theirs.
It is with that uneasy peace that
residents and government and school officials from the two
townships plan to meet at 7 tonight in the Liberty
Elementary School gym to listen to the results of a report
that would spell out the impact of dissolving the regional
school district.
Independence Mayor Robert Giordano still
doesn't know the report's contents.
"I've called twice already to find out
what this report is about," he said yesterday. "They said
they didn't really receive anything, and that I would learn
about it when I get there (tonight). I don't know what it's
about. We called up there, and they faxed us nothing, they
told us nothing."
Giordano said Liberty previously had a
study done on the feasibility of starting its own middle
school.
"I guess this is their second time at
bat," he said.
Ray Bolzan, a sod-and-produce farmer who
is deputy mayor of Liberty, said Liberty has seen only a
rough draft of the report by Statistical Forecasting LLC and
that more details will be made available tonight. The study
was sponsored by Liberty Mayor John E. Inscho and the
Liberty Township Committee.
"This is what triggered this study: The
residents of Liberty always end up paying more than the
residents of Independence," Bolzan said. " ... What this is,
is a report card on the school district and how it has been
doing in the last 13 years.
"We pay more for less," Bolzan added.
"The way it's set up, I don't think we're getting a fair
shake. We're always getting taxed higher. We're paying the
brunt of it."
He said the state was pushing for
regionalization at the time the neighboring townships
decided to join forces.
To break up the marriage, which includes
two elementary schools and a middle school, approval would
be needed by the state and the two townships.
That's unlikely in
Independence.
"We're not going to do that," Giordano
said. "If they do something about redesigning who pays what,
that means we're on the losing end of it, and we would have
to pay more in tax dollars."
Mike Frassinelli covers Warren County. He may be reached
at mfrassinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
|