Top spots to be shared in schools?

By Neil Schulman
The West Long Branch, Oceanport, Monmouth Beach and Shore Regional High School districts are considering sharing some school administrative offices, including superintendents, administrators, and special services.

Shore Regional and West Long Branch both have interim superintendents and are examining if sharing one would be a good deal for the taxpayers, and if it makes logistical sense.

However, not all districts want to share all of the services, and some residents are worried that changes there could affect the character of their classrooms.
While they are considering sharing these positions, the districts do no plan to merge.
An independent consultant has been hired to analyze the situation and suggest what is needed.
Shore Regional and West Long Branch both had superintendents retire recently, and have not replaced them, appointing interim ones while they look for a new one. One district has an interim business administrator too.
Hiring one official to oversee both districts might save both schools a considerable salary. According to the state, the average salary for superintendents in schools with under 1,000 students was $152,000 in 2010.
The two districts held a meeting on Jan. 17, along with representatives from Oceanport and Monmouth Beach, to discuss the situation.
Oceanport Board of Education President Kelly McGowan outlined what has taken place so far at the Jan. 19 Oceanport Board meeting.
At that meeting, Superintendent Andrew Orefice said that four districts have been working together for years on sharing services, since former governor Jon Corzine discussed the possibility of regionalizing all small schools in the state. The boroughs all send elementary school children to Shore Regional, and they wanted to keep that continuity. By starting talks, Oceanport could “pick our own dance partner, so to speak” rather than risk being assigned to regionalize with a different district, Orefice said..
The schools are no longer looking at regionalizing. However, they’ve already participated in numerous shared services.
They have pooled resources to purchase sound systems, choose a cafeteria provider, and use common shared service bussing. Each board has a committee dedicated to exploring the possibilities.
“Prior to 2011-2012, we shared a lot of the low to middle hanging fruit,” McGowan said. “On Oct. 5 of this (school) year, shared services met to discuss the high hanging fruit.”
While West Long Branch and Shore need a new superintendent, Oceanport wanted to be kept in the loop as well. Monmouth Beach also indicated it is interested in sharing business administrators, but not superintendents, since they just hired a new one.
This is not a simple process, McGowan said, because none of the four districts have quite the same structure.
“Everyone has a different makeup in the district. No one wants to lose their identity.”
There are also questions of which district would pay what part of the salaries. Even the logistics of getting multiple boards of education together to discuss these matters is unusual.
“It’s uncharted waters.”
Still, this isn’t the first time districts in New Jersey have shared these positions, and the local boards want to take advantage of previous experiences.
The schools are hiring a professional consulting company to perform an unbiased study, and see what configurations make sense. McGowan said Oceanport’s share of the study would be about $3,300, about half of what it was originally anticipated to be.
“They’re going to tell us if it’s feasible, financially and … infrastructurally,” she said.
The study is expected to take less than 90 days.
McGowan said representatives from the company hired were not available at the meeting to answer questions.She said she had heard many possibilities of what might happen, but much of it is unconfirmed.
“Every time we all get together, all kinds of things come up. I don’t want to spread rumors.”
One of the purposes of hiring an outside group is to get unbiased opinions.
Still, several people in Oceanport said that they wanted the company to interview people in the community, or at least a few interested parents or groups, to make sure the consultants understood the needs and desires of the borough.
Before McGowan made her presentation on Jan. 19, Oceanport resident Nicole Goldsmith urged caution, saying that a decision to consolidate could “directly impact” the classrooms, and praising the current Oceanport administration.
“”What makes Oceanport so unique is the strong community,” she said.

Originally published Jan. 26, 2012