Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 7:49 pm
By LEE PROCIDA Staff Writer pressofAtlanticCity.com
The Washington Township Committee has asked the state to close its school district's only school, while the Mullica Township School District is developing plans to teach the small Burlington County community's children.
The state Department of Education received a letter Wednesday from the committee asking Acting Comissioner Christopher Cerf to close the Green Bank Elementary School and send its students to neighboring Mullica.
Due to state tenure laws, if the municipal Board of Education were to do that on its own authority, Mullica also would have to......Continue Reading
take all Green Bank's teachers - something that Mullica likely could not afford. Brenda Harring-Marro, the superintendent for both districts, said taking teachers from Washington Township would likely require laying off Mullica teachers with less seniorioty because the district cannot afford to emply all of them.
Washington Mayor Dudley Lewis said he understands the difficult situation created by the tenure law, but his school cannot provide an adequate education because it has two few students - 43 kindergarten through fifth grade students this year, after the 23 sixth- through eighth-graders from the district were sent to Mullica Township Middle School through a shared services agreement.
State statute allows the comissioner to "take any affirmative action necessary" to make sure a school district is effectively and efficiently spending its money, including closing a school and sending the students elsewhere. That would circumvent the state's tenure law, Lewis and Harring-Marro said, since that statute only refers to a board of education closing the school district.
DOE spokeswoman Allison Kobus said the office has received the township's letter, but has not had time to examine it.
The other issue that may force the move for Washington Township students is funding the district.
In the past, the municipal government has funded school system operations using a budget surplus created by more than a $1 million the township received in state aid. But after that money was cut last year, and with more cuts expected in future, that funding is no longer available.
"Our students could enjoy the total school experience with a secondary benefit of a reduced tax burden for both communities," Lewis wrote in the township's letter to Cerf.
Gov. Chris Christie has proposed deleting the clause in the state's tenure laws that requires tenured teachers from closed schools also be taken by the schools those students are sent to.
But that proposal is controversial and in the very early stages of approval. Harring-Marro said that right now she can only plan based on today's rules and system.
Both the Washington and Mullica boards of education are examining a resolution to formalize a sending-receiving agreement that would permanently send all Washington 6-8 grade students to Mullica schools along with two teachers, beginning next school year.
The superintendent said she has sought input from the Sea Isle School District, which faced a similar dilemma in recent years.
The city also has a tiny school, and its board, faced with the current state tenure law, chose to send half its fifth- through eighth-graders to Ocean City a few years ago. It has since sent its fourth grade students as well. Harring-Marro said her districts could pursue a similar course, phasing students into the Mullica school system by grade, rather than sending students and teachers en masse.
However, she said all those plans would require board approval and the situation in Washington Township has the community torn.
"It's very divided right now," she said, between those who want to keep kids in the school, and those who want to close it.
Contact Lee Procida: 609-457-8707 LProcida@pressofac.com
