Educators look for solution Liberty thinking of leaving school district. Tuesday, July 11, 2006 • BY LYNN OLANOFF • The Express-Times Great Meadows Regional Board of Education has formed a committee to review Liberty Township Committee's dissolution efforts. The school board committee will review a feasibility study ordered by the Liberty committee that showed the township's school tax rate would decrease if it had its own school district. The committee agreed at its first meeting Thursday to study three options: ( Dissolution of the regional district into two separate districts. ( Reapportionment of school funding. ( Maintaining the status quo. Either dissolution or reapportionment would require both townships' approval in a referendum. Independence has more than twice the residents of Liberty 5,603 to 2,765, according to the 2000 Census. Dissolution also would require state approval. "We don't want dissolution -- that's the last thing we want -- but we have to try to understand where Liberty's coming from," committee and board member Helene Armstrong said. "We have to review the study, make sure the facts that come out of it are true." The panel consists of three school board members and two members each from the Liberty and Independence township committees. It will hold monthly meetings. Liberty Mayor John Inscho said he is grateful the school board has become involved in the issue. "It's not going to hurt (our efforts) at all, because it's shedding some more light on this subject," he said Monday. The Liberty-ordered feasibility study showed that in addition to the township's school tax rate decreasing with its own school district, it also would receive more state aid. Conversely, the study showed, school taxes would increase and state aid would decrease in Independence if the regional district were dissolved. Statistical Forecasting LLC of Morristown, N.J., conducted the study, which was released publicly in April. Independence officials oppose the district's dissolution. Mayor Bob Giordano said he values the school board's opinion, but the Independence Township committee also has started its own research. Committee members plan to meet with members of the Independence and Liberty school boards from 1994 -- when the district was regionalized -- to find out more about their reasons behind regionalizing. "Liberty keeps talking about the fact how it's an unfair formula, how they pay more than we do," Giordano said Monday. "There may be a renegotiating to the formula, but they'll be no renegotiating of the debt they'll owe to the school district if they pull out." Liberty's next step in its dissolution study is to have a certified school builder draw a schematic of how Liberty School would have to be expanded to accommodate another three grades. If Liberty were to withdraw from the district, it would need to create a K-8 school in the current K-5 Liberty School. Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com. © 2006 The Express-Times. Used with permission.