By Ron Leir
Observer Correspondent
EAST NEWARK –
Threats by East Newark to send its high school-age students to Kearny instead of Harrison have been swept aside now that the two warring school districts have made nice.
For “at least the next seven years,” the “sending-receiving relationship” between the two communities will continue – as it has for more than 100 years of co-existence – under a settlement reached between the East Newark and Harrison school districts.
“In addition, Harrison and East Newark voted to end all litigation regarding East Newark’s attempt to sever the decades old relationship,” it was announced in a joint press release issued last week.
“It’s a win-win for both districts,” said Harrison Board of Education President Maria Vila. “East Newark has been with us for over a century and the new agreement keeps us together for many years to come.”
Patrick Martin, superintendent/ principal of the East Newark Public School, which handles pre-k to grade 8, said the pact would ensure financial security for the district into the foreseeable future.
Both Martin and James Doran, director of personnel for the Harrison district, said they anticipated enhanced cooperation between Harrison and East Newark schools.
Doran also credited the Hudson County Executive Schools Superintendent’s office for helping mediate the districts’ differences.
Although a copy of the agreement was not readily available by press time, Martin and Doran, in separate interviews, confirmed these key elements of the deal:
* It sets the annual tuition fee for each of East Newark’s general education students in grades 9 to 12, beginning at $13,000 for this school year, and increasing at the rate of 2% for each of the next six school years.
* It caps tuition for each of the borough’s special education students at $6,000 a year.
* Harrison school district agrees to pick up the first $18,000 for annual shared transportation costs for special education students.
With the new tuition rate in place, Doran said, “I think we’re more in line with what East Newark is able to pay.”
Martin agreed that, “It all boils down to finances. We were having trouble paying [Harrison’s] tuition. But this agreement puts East Newark on the road to stability for seven years.”
With the two districts initially at loggerheads over the issue, Harrison Board of Education had anticipated receiving about $16,000 a year per child as the cost of educating East Newark students at Harrison High School but the East Newark school board was holding fast to paying only up to $13,000.
Those conflicting figures were reflected in each district’s 2015-2016 budget, “which couldn’t be approved by the Hudson County executive school superintendent in that form,” Martin said.
“And we were both facing a March 31 deadline for getting our budgets approved by the county superintendent,” Martin said, “so we were all under the gun.”
At the same time, a Morristown law firm retained by the East Newark district in December 2013 to prepare a feasibility study in defense of its proposal to end the longstanding sending-receiving relationship with Harrison had submitted its report to the state Department of Education in anticipation of a March hearing before a state administrative law judge.
About a year ago, the Kearny Board of Education voted to authorize accepting East Newark students at Kearny High School if the borough district was successful in getting the state’s okay to set up a new sending-receiving relationship with Kearny.
And last November, in a non-binding referendum, borough voters said they preferred sending their children to Kearny High instead of Harrison. School officials in Harrison went to court to block the vote but were unsuccessful.
Yet, despite the drama of everything happening in the public eye, at the same time, representatives of the East Newark and Harrison districts continued to talk behind the scenes and those discussions, with the aid of Acting County Executive Schools Superintendent Monica Tone, were credited by school officials as being key to solving the dilemma.
“Those talks were very productive,” Martin said, “and, in the end, the administration of Harrison schools was very understanding and levelheaded.”
On March 31, the East Newark Board of Education voted to approve the settlement.
Currently, Martin said, the borough has 110 students attending Harrison High so he anticipates a savings this year of about $300,000 in tuition, based on the $13,000-perstudent rate vs. the proposed $16,000 fee.
Now that this crisis is over, Martin said he’ll be looking to keep the lines of communication with Harrison open to explore a possible shared-service arrangement involving the mutual use of the East Newark’s two school buses and possibly getting the use of Harrison High’s gym and track for the borough school’s newly formed track team.
