NewJerseyNewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Education initiatives and not school funding issues were the topic Wednesday when the state education commissioner appeared before the Senate Budget and Appropriations.

A day after a legal dispute over how the Corzine administration is funding public schools was an issue before the state Supreme Court, it was barely mentioned as Commissioner Lucille E. Davy focused on the initiatives and changes her department is attempting to make in cooperation with school districts.

Davy spoke of shared services efforts, local budget cutting actions, student learning plans and support for principals.

"If talk or legislation alone could address this problem, it would have been fixed a long time ago," she said. "But education reform does not work like that. Improving choices for our kids is something that has to happen on a district-by-district, school-by-school, principal-by-principal, teacher-by-teacher, student-by-student basis. It doesn't happen by magic; it's not going to happen overnight; and it doesn't happen unless (the) DOE takes the lead in working with districts toward success.''

Davy then walked the legislators through a number of initiatives her department is attempting to bring to fruition with the cooperation of local school officials.

She said River Edge, River Dell and Oradell are considering creating a kindergarten to 12th grade school district, Riverdale and Delanco are examining the possibility of combining their schools, and South Hunterdon Regional High School, Lambertville, Stockton and West Amwell are considering creating a single district. She said Netcong and Stanhope now share a superintendent as do Mine Hill and Wharton. She added, that Northern Highlands and Ho-Ho-Kus now share a business administrator, saving $158,000 annually. She said Franklin and Hamburg plan to share a business administrator beginning in September.

Davy said seven small districts in Cumberland County are sharing child study personnel and almost every district in Salem Count is taking part in cooperative purchasing. A handful of Middlesex County districts, including South Plainfield, Dunellen and Middlesex Borough, have a joint school bus sharing program that saved $167,000.

With the state's 31 poorest school districts no longer receiving special state aid, Davy said Newark, Trenton, Paterson and Camden have changed the way they do their budgets and have saved money. She said Camden saved $7 million by improving management practices, including $350,000 by combining public, parochial and charter school bus routes.She said Newark cut $900,000 in consulting fees and is reassigning 50 educators who worked outside the classroom to hard-to-fill classroom vacancies. She said Trenton is reconfiguring elementary grades and transferring staff to schools where teachers are needed.

Davy said one of the most important new projects is the creation of "personalized learning plans'' through which high school and middle school students will work with educators to set their education goals based on personal, academic and career interests. She said the two-year program involves sixth- and ninth-graders in 20 districts, including Mount Olive, Westville and North Hunterdon/Voorhees Regional High Schools.

"Personalized learning plans help students visualize the possibilities and focus on their goals,'' Davy said. "They have been shown to increase student attendance and motivation and engage their families in the educational experience in a productive and proactive manner.''

Davy said her department has launched a "Turn Around Leadership Network'' to work with principals in struggling schools or new principals to help them do their jobs better. She said more than 300 principals in 170 districts, including Newark, Jersey City East Brunswick, Lawrence, Sayreville, Passaic, Sussex-Wantage, West Milford, West New York, and Alexandria, have taken part.

The Corzine administration is providing school districts with $10.3 billion in state aid and the federal government is providing $1 billion for the 2009-10 fiscal year, but overall, aid is down by $94 million from 2008-09. The aid includes $621 million for pre-school program, a $77.3 million increase. School construction aid is up $92.5 million to $755.1 million. Overall, 171 districts will receive an increase in aid.