District
officials hit tuition proposal
Plan called deceitful. Legal
action urged.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005 • By SARAH CASSI •
The Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG | School officials
unanimously approved a resolution Monday urging the Warren
County Technical School Board to drop its motion to assess
tuition to local school districts.
"I think the (board's) actions were
deceitful and one of the lowest things I've seen in a while
from a school board," said Phillipsburg board member Paul
Rummerfield. "It was a tuition passed without any debate we
had no inkling of this until we read it in the
paper."
The Warren Tech school board voted Oct.
19 to start charging local districts for each student they
send to the school, saying they were forced to do so by
state lawmakers who have not increased their funding for
years. The Warren County freeholders in March voted to
increase county funding for the school by 3.5 percent, to
$3.8 million.
The board plans to charge sending
districts an annual tuition of $2,175 for regular education
students and $3,250 for special education students,
beginning in the 2006-07 school year.
Phillipsburg currently has 74 students at
the school, which would equal over $160,000 in
tuition.
If state funding remains flat, those
tuitions could rise to $2,425 for regular education students
and $3,781 for special education students in the 2010-11
school year.
Superintendent Gordon Pethick said a
meeting of county supervisors resulted in a two-prong
approach to the established tuition; individual school
boards passing resolutions against the tuition, and letters
from those boards to the Warren Tech school
board.
"We will be following through with both
of those," Pethick said. "We're seeing an outcry from around
the county."
School board member Chafik Zarbatany Jr.
said the resolution was too mild.
"I'm really upset with what they're
doing," Zarbatany said, adding the Phillipsburg School Board
should consider legal action. "This is really a back door
entry, a stab in the back."
School board President Rod Pianelli said
he didn't know what legal action Phillipsburg could
take.
"The idea of tuition is something that is
unsettling at this point," Pianelli said. "It's definitely
going to affect us."
Reporter Sarah Cassi can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by
e-mail at scassi@express-times.com.
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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