The unification of our school districts to effect cost savings and standardized curriculum

As Tax payers, parents, grandparents and caregivers of children in the school systems of Blairstown, Frelinghuysen, Hardwick and Knowlton which comprises the sending district for North Warren Regional Middle and High School have signed this petition in an effort to have our voices heard regarding the specific problems listed in this document.

1. Cost of duplicate services: just to have a Superintendent and Business Administrator in each school not counting benefits, it is costing the surrounding communities $991,985.00 per year. This is just two positions not to mention their support staff's in each school, child study teams which may be shared by more than one school, lack of buying clout with vendors such as IT providers, office supply companies, or something as mundane as copier leasing companies.

2. Having a unified decision making process when it comes to all school matters. All of the elementary schools should be working in similar ways to prepare our children for the increased demand of middle school and high school. This may save the Middle School teachers some time and effort in getting all of the students on the same page trying to combine all the different teaching methods and curriculums they have come from.

3. School closings and parental notifications. As it stands now there have been days where the high school closes but not all of the elementary schools during inclement weather or if they all close households are getting the notification twice which is a waste of time and money.

As a community we are sure if this is looked into there would be even more duplicate services found, which would result in more of a cost savings. As a community we never want to see someone displaced from their jobs but the salary’s that they are drawing are coming directly from the pockets of all the residents and business owners of the respective towns, which we would gladly pay if it were going directly to the education of our children and in our opinion not being wasted on duplicate administrative costs. We respectfully submit this petition and demand that some action be taken to rectify this problem by utilizing and independent team to study the cost and procedure to one board of education which represents all Towns concerned.