Plan To Eliminate Englewood Cliffs Schools Moves Forward

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ — The plan to eliminate nearly 300 school districts, including the Englewood Cliffs school district, continues to move forward now that Gov. Phil Murphy has jumped on the bandwagon.

Murphy gave $10 million to New Jersey communities this past week to help promote shared services and study school consolidation. Of that, the governor agreed to set aside $2 million specifically for K-12 regionalization and countywide school district pilots.

The money would back up an effort started by Senate President Steve Sweeney who has been pitching a 32-recommendation "Path to Progress" plan that he, 26 analysts and so-called experts helped draw up last year.

The plan includes merging school districts – nearly 300 of them – to help save the state money.

"The goal is to eliminate the administration, put a principal in the school, get rid of the school district, leave a principal, let the regional high school become a K-12 district," Sweeney said. "You go from 600 districts to 320."

The Englewood Cliffs school district enrolls students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. Students in ninth through 12th graders attend Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood as part of a send-receive relationship with the Englewood Public School District.

Recommendations included in the "Path to Progress" include:

• Merge all K-4, K-5, K-6, K-8, and K-9 school districts into K-12 regional districts to improve the quality of education and promote efficiency.
• Install high-occupancy toll lanes (or HOT lane) on I-80, I-295, I-287, among others.
• Permit the establishment of two countywide school district pilot programs.
• Explore the viability of transferring major assets such as the New Jersey Turnpike system to the state pension system to lower the unfunded liability and generate new revenue streams for the pension system.
• Create a Property Tax Assessment Study Commission to study the state's tax assessment practices and make recommendations for countywide or regional tax assessment to ensure consistency and efficiency.

To see the full list of schools that could be affected click here.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com