School board aspiring to Choice District program for 2012

It’s an eat or be eaten world. This grim lesson has been years in the making for the Highland Park Board of Education as the schools budget has been continuously bitten apart, from escalating labor costs to drastic cuts in state education aid, with increasing nibbles for students attending charter schools.

With each year a gamble on both sides of the balance sheet, the Board of Education is looking now to be proactive: this time to take their own bite.

At a Board of Education meeting held on Monday, February 28, the Board announced its interest in becoming a Choice School.

As a Choice school, the Highland Park district would open itself up to a predetermined number of students in other districts wishing to take advantage of the educational system in this town. A Choice school often selects an educational emphasis such as technology, art, or world languages to distinguish itself.

 

For any out-of-district student choosing to attend, funding would be received from the state — called ‘school choice aid.' If more applications than spaces are received, a lottery is applied in selecting the students.

The New Jersey School Choice program began as a legislative initiative in January 2000, and after a five-year pilot program became permanent in June of 2010, again through the legislature.

According to the New Jersey Department of Education’s website, the program is designed to give families “flexibility in selecting a public school program that best meets the needs of individual students.”

An in-depth study of the pilot program, by Rutgers University's Institute on Education Law and Policy, found that the “Choice districts are almost unanimous in their support of the Program and their reports of its positive fiscal and educational impact.”

Specifically, it was the school choice aid dollars that offered the most positive impact: districts reported that the program revenue "has permitted them to hire additional staff, reduce class sizes and offer new programs, and avoid tax increases and program cuts that other districts have been forced to endure.”

The Rutgers study also cites increased flexibility and innovation of both programs and services at the Choice schools.

The Highland Park school board projects these same benefits in becoming a Choice school: "We are hopeful that becoming a Choice District will provide exciting opportunities for new curricular and extra-curricular opportunities and additional revenue for the district,” says the district's website.

With the vote affirmed to begin the necessary application process, schools superintendent Dr. Frances Wood is now seeking volunteers for a task force to help develop the theme of its Choice program. The task force will need to be limited in size; but the school board solicited community input by e-mails as well.

The task force will meet the evening of March 9th, in a location yet to be announced. An open hearing to discuss the task force proposal and to hear public comment will be held on March 21.

If you are interested in serving on the task force, please contact the Superintendent's office at 732-572-6990, ext. 2813. Suggestions or comments can also be submitted by email to board@hpschools.net.