Berkeley Twp Ponders Consolidation

In an effort to reduce costs, Berkeley Township, Ocean County has assigned a committee to investigate a "modified consolidation" between the local grade school district and the regional high school district.

The Berkeley district is made up of four schools, with a student population of about 2,000 in preschool through sixth-grade. Those students move on to the Central Regional School District, which also has about 2,000 students in seventh through 12th grades. Central Regional, based in the Bayville section of Berkeley, has students not only from the township, but also from Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park.

Under consideration is a customized version of consolidation where, for example, should a person with a particular job skill in the Berkeley schools retire, district administrators would determine whether there is someone in the Central Regional district with a similar position who could fulfill that job.

In my personal opinion, this consolidation of school districts in long overdue. There are over 500 school districts in New Jersey, in comparison, California has 1100 school districts, but has a population of 37 million compared to NJ's 9 million, not to mention the extreme differences in size.  Hopefully school district consolidation will be a growing trend within the state, especially considering the tightening of local, state and federal budgets.

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Karl Hess, Ocean County and Jersey Shore Real Estate