Districts Debate Cuts to Magnet School Tuition Payments

In what may be an indication of how area school districts deal with ongoing budget shortfalls, Springfield has become the first municipality in Union County to decline to pay tuition for the students it sends to the County's regional vocational-technical school.

Citing the district's loss of all state aid earlier this year, Springfield's Board of Education has told the Union County Vocational-Technical School it does not believe it is obligated to pay the tuition of the Springfield students attending the school. Westfield Board of Education members briefly discussed the issue last week and decided to continue to monitor the decision.

Springfield parents have questioned the Board's legal right to stop payments and criticized the district for not notifying them of their intentions. State law mandates tuition payments by school districts, and Springfield parents have questioned the legality of withholding payments. Springfield school officials argue that the absence of state aid alleviates the township's responsibility to pay the tuition.

In a June 22 letter, Springfield schools administrator Matthew Clarke said the legislation requiring municipalities to pay vo-tech students' tuition was part of the Quality Education Act of 1990. State aid to school districts was mentioned in the act as a method of payment for students at vo-tech schools. With that funding gone, Clarke argues, the mandate to pay the tuition is null and void.

"After the Governor cut the aid in our district to zero, it caused a serious contraction in available funds," Springfield Board of Education President Irwin Sablosky said.

Thomas Bistocchi, the Superintendent of the county vo-tech school system, told Springfield school officials that the 55 Springfield children attending the school would be admitted when school opens. Springfield will continue to pay for transportation costs.

"The good news is that the Superintendent made it clear immediately to the parents that the kids would be attending VTS regardless of what Springfield does," Springfield resident and parent of a child at the Vo-tech system Shalom Stone told Patch.

Bistocchi did not respond to requests for comment.

Municipalities sending students to schools in the Vo-Tech system are responsible for $6,000 in annual tuition per student. State resources and county taxes also fund the school system. Noting that state aid to the magnet school was not cut, Springfield Board president Irwin Sablosky believes the county can find other ways to pay for the school without the $330,000 Springfield pays in tuition (including transportation, he said the school pays about $500,000 a year to send students to the school system).

In conversation with Patch, Sablosky questioned whether Springfield needs a relationship with the magnet schools at all.

"The magnet system was originally built to help underperforming schools and students," Sablosky said. "As the years went on, it took on a life of its own. It went on to include not only schools that are underperforming, but all schools."

The five schools in the system, which are all in Scotch Plains, include the Union County Academy for Performing Arts and the Union County Magnet School for Science, Mathematics and Technology, require students to apply for the school. Students at many of the schools graduate with professional certifications. 

Sablosky said that Dayton High School had adequate resources to educate all students, including the students who are attracted to the specialized and advanced programming offered by the Vo-Tech schools. 

"I believe in choice," Sablosky said. "But should the taxpayer foot the bill for your child's specialized education? I don't think so."

Springfield is required by state mandate to pay the tuition. Sablosky said the district is prepared to make their case both with the state legislature— Springfield BOE members and representatives of school districts from neighboring towns met with State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), a member of the education committee, about magnet school funding on Aug. 11—and, if necessary, in court.

"From a legal standpoint, it's an uphill climb," Sablosky said. "But that does not mean that you give up."

Neighboring districts seem willing to join – or at least consider joining –Springfield in that climb. Hayes and Whitehouse, Scotch Plains-Fanwood's superintendent and Board of Education president, said they received a letter from Springfield about the tuition payments this summer. Since then, Hayes and Whitehouse said, they have "had discussions" regarding Scotch Plains-Fanwood's payment of vo-tech tuition.

"We spend in the district over $200,000 for students who go to non-public schools," Whitehouse said. "When you're talking that kind of money and shrinking state aid...districts must prudently discuss these things." 

Whitehouse and Hayes said that the Board of Education will take-up vo-tech tuition and whether to follow the path set by Springfield at future board meetings. They declined, however, to set a timetable for those discussions.

Westfield Board of Education member Ginny Leiz briefed her colleagues of the Aug. 11 meeting during Tuesday evening's BOE meeting. Leiz touched on the general thoughts of the group in terms of magnet school tuition and said she would continue to follow the matter, including the concept of "bright flight" out of local school districts towards magnet schools.

Leiz recommended that the Westfield BOE explore the possibility of joining a lawsuit with Springfield regarding tuition funding if such a suit develops. The issue is likely to be on a future Westfield BOE agenda.

Springfield parents of vo-tech school students are not likely to back such a move, however. A large number of them attended the Aug. 17 meeting of the Springfield School board to strongly criticize the board's actions. Chief among complaints was the way they found out about the decision; the school board did not tell parents they were declining to pay the tuition. Instead, they sent a letter to the County school system. The parents found out when the vo-tech system's Superintendent Thomas J. Bistocchi shared the letter with them. 

Several parents criticized the board for not contacting them directly. 

"The parents that it theoretically affects, they felt, didn't need to know," Shalom Stone, a Springfield resident and parent of a child at the Vo-tech system told Patch.

At the school board meeting, Sablosky said the board believed that they didn't need to notify the parents.

"Under no circumstances did this issue need to come out to the parents for concern about their children," Sablosky said at the meeting. "Our action was about a financial dispute between this district and the county."

Stone also pressed the board on the wording of the letter. A portion of the letter, Stone and other parents felt, indicated that Springfield's board would stop bussing children to the magnet school.

"Some of the parents thought that when you said you're not sending them, that it meant you were not sending them," Stone said during the meeting.

Board member Scott Silverstein responded that the board didn't need to tell parents about tuition payments because children would continue to go to school.

"In our view, there was never a question of whether the students be attending. It was a question of how the school would be funded," Silverstein said at the meeting.

Other parents questioned notifying the decision to notify the school they were withholding tuition before pursuing legislative recourse.

"If you're trying to change the legislation and the way it gets funded, that's one thing," Jacqueline Wasserman said at the meeting. "But you don't go outside the law and not pay tuition on students that you must pay according to the law."

Westfield Patch editor John Celock and Scotch Plains-Fanwood Patch editor Alan Neuhauser contributed reporting.