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Sunday, October 08, 2006 • BY JOHN WIHBEY • Star-Ledger Staff

With the consolidation of school districts being weighed in Trenton as part of property tax reform efforts, some educators are ducking for cover while others are inviting changes by legislators.

Stockton school chief Suzanne Ivans, who oversees just 49 students, told a panel of experts and administrators convened at Monroe Township High School yesterday that she knows her tiny district would likely be a prime target for consolidation.

But the district receives just $15,000 in state aid and has among the lowest per-pupil costs in Hunterdon County, and it would only cost local taxpayers more if it were consolidated with area schools, she argued.

"My plea is that they look at it on a case-by-case basis, that they not make sweeping reform," Ivans said.

But Florham Park School Board President John MacFarlane told the panel he merely wants to have input in the state process. "We all know that changes will be made," he said. "We know it. We accept it."

The state Senate's Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation, which will take up the schools issue Oct. 18, is already considering merging municipalities through a military base-style closing commission. The committee and three other special panels looking at ways to trim what are the nation's highest average property taxes will report Nov. 15 to legislative leaders and the governor.

The seriousness of talk about major consolidations was evident at yesterday's forum, which was sponsored by the New Jersey School Boards Association.

"Even to be talking about this is progress in New Jersey," said Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective and a panelist at the event. Shure noted afterward that many audience members mentioned wanting more state aid for districts.

The state pays 38 percent of local districts' budgets on average, lagging behind the national average of 50 percent, according to the School Boards Association.

Ernest Reock, professor emeritus at Rutgers University's Center for Government Services, said $365 million -- out of a total of $16 billion spent annually on education -- could be saved if existing K-6 and K-8 districts were merged with local high school districts. He emphasized, though, that the savings are only "speculative."

State Senator Robert Smith (D-Middlesex), co-chairman of the government consolidation committee, has proposed dissolving the state's more than 600 school districts and creating 21 county districts, a move he estimates could save $1.6 billion. His chief of staff, Christine Mosier, said at the forum that resisting reform would not solve the issue of high property taxes.

"This committee is looking for solutions," she said. Mosier acknowledged that proposals being considered in Trenton will "raise the hair on peoples' necks" and said Smith would like to see a referendum on district consolidations.

Angelo Vilardi, superintendent for Morris County's Educational Services Commission, called Smith's proposal for 21 county districts "absurd" and said the state needs to focus instead on creating financial incentives for districts to share services.

Audience members and panelists raised the issue of reforming strict rules for the state's Health Benefits Program, the state's largest insurer for public schools, to make possible employee contributions and varying levels of coverage. Participants also discussed the problem of achieving tax equity among towns of varying degrees of wealth that want to consolidate.

The issue of increasing school racial diversity through consolidations -- which Gov. Jon C. Corzine mentioned Thursday in a television interview -- was broached again as panelists noted that the state's districts remain highly segregated.

David Hespe, a former state education commissioner and now a Rowan University professor, said that "by combining attendance zones, you can do something about diversity."

On school district consolidation, some more serious talk at forum

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