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New Jersey Suburbs of Philadelphia Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County, Salem County in South Jersey
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Old 02-02-2011, 07:21 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by soug View Post
Eh I honestly feel like it is just that Maryland/NoVa still think they're in the South. Last year we had 10 days off (including 2 weekends) down here because they ran out of funds allocated for snow removal. So I would say in this case the service they provide isn't inferior because of lower taxes but because they just aren't used to and prepared for this type of weather (yet).

On the other hand, a county-wide school district means, obviously, that any decision affects the whole county. One of my friends down here is from western Howard County and said back in high school he got off school once in a while because it snowed in Columbia in eastern HoCo, even though it didn't even snow where he lived.
Yup, county-wide districts can create that problem. Early in January, we got 6 inches topped with close to 2 inches of ice & subfreezing temps for 5 days. In 3 days, my town could have sent the kids back to school. Took 2 more days to get the much more rural western part of the county cleared. Any more weather problems & kids will be going to school on Saturdays to preserve their spring break.
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Old 02-03-2011, 01:29 AM
 
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I just sometimes regret that Camden County includes its namesake.
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Old 02-03-2011, 09:33 AM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by soug View Post
I just sometimes regret that Camden County includes its namesake.
It's a problem.

As I've said before, there was talk of busing in the '60s & early '70s. My parents generation were vocal against it & showed their displeasure in the voting booths. As I've also said, this was not racial. Black families who could move out of Camden, to the suburbs, did so & there was no white flight.

Any of that generation who are still alive & most baby boomers will vote out politicians who try to ram through a consolidation of services because it will be seen as a step towards regionalizing the schools.
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Old 02-03-2011, 10:21 AM
 
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Originally Posted by southbound_295 View Post
Any of that generation who are still alive & most baby boomers will vote out politicians who try to ram through a consolidation of services because it will be seen as a step towards regionalizing the schools.
The irony is that the schools really could use some regionalization and it would go a long way to helping with the property taxes (outside of overturning Abbott, just about the only thing). No one wants to see Camden bus all of their students to the suburbs, but there are already enough people there in terms of population that it wouldn't be necessary.

Where regionalization would really help are the town like Collingswood, Audubon, Haddon Twp., Haddon Heights, etc. Towns whose average senior class is 150 kids or less. Towns that already have sending/receiving agreements in some cases, but have never fully merged the districts (think Oaklyn/Collingswood/Woodlynne or Haddon Heights/Barrington/Lawnside or Magnolia/Somerdale/Stratford/HiNella/Laurel Springs).

There is a lot of opportunity out there just at the level of the already existing agreements to provide for more efficiencies, not to mention the overall combining that could happen with a regional high school supplanting a few of the smaller ones. Like getting rid of Haddon Twp./Audubon/Collingswood high schools and merging them into a single regional high school.
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Old 02-03-2011, 10:59 AM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by NJGOAT View Post
The irony is that the schools really could use some regionalization and it would go a long way to helping with the property taxes (outside of overturning Abbott, just about the only thing). No one wants to see Camden bus all of their students to the suburbs, but there are already enough people there in terms of population that it wouldn't be necessary.

Where regionalization would really help are the town like Collingswood, Audubon, Haddon Twp., Haddon Heights, etc. Towns whose average senior class is 150 kids or less. Towns that already have sending/receiving agreements in some cases, but have never fully merged the districts (think Oaklyn/Collingswood/Woodlynne or Haddon Heights/Barrington/Lawnside or Magnolia/Somerdale/Stratford/HiNella/Laurel Springs).

There is a lot of opportunity out there just at the level of the already existing agreements to provide for more efficiencies, not to mention the overall combining that could happen with a regional high school supplanting a few of the smaller ones. Like getting rid of Haddon Twp./Audubon/Collingswood high schools and merging them into a single regional high school.
Here's the deal, back then, the feds wanted to bus Camden kids to the suburbs & suburban kids to Camden. People who are old enough to have had that hanging over their heads have long memories.

Again, I reiterate, although the feds were attempting to do something racial, the reaction in the suburbs was not racial. People in Lawnside didn't want it. People in Magnolia (which at that time was majority black) did not want it.
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Old 02-03-2011, 12:28 PM
 
Location: South Jersey
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They do bussing in Philly and it completely ruined the Phila public school system..
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Old 02-03-2011, 02:02 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by frankgn87 View Post
They do bussing in Philly and it completely ruined the Phila public school system..
Frank, the last I heard they were bussing for magnate schools in Philly. The residents fought plain ordinary bussing for decades.

The feds found out that they could not legally order bussing in Camden County because it was all different districts. They did not have the authority to order inter-district bussing. That's why I'm saying that the majority of the baby boomers, & any of their parents who are still alive, will fight regionalization.
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Old 02-03-2011, 03:53 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJGOAT View Post
The irony is that the schools really could use some regionalization and it would go a long way to helping with the property taxes (outside of overturning Abbott, just about the only thing). No one wants to see Camden bus all of their students to the suburbs, but there are already enough people there in terms of population that it wouldn't be necessary.

Where regionalization would really help are the town like Collingswood, Audubon, Haddon Twp., Haddon Heights, etc. Towns whose average senior class is 150 kids or less. Towns that already have sending/receiving agreements in some cases, but have never fully merged the districts (think Oaklyn/Collingswood/Woodlynne or Haddon Heights/Barrington/Lawnside or Magnolia/Somerdale/Stratford/HiNella/Laurel Springs).

There is a lot of opportunity out there just at the level of the already existing agreements to provide for more efficiencies, not to mention the overall combining that could happen with a regional high school supplanting a few of the smaller ones. Like getting rid of Haddon Twp./Audubon/Collingswood high schools and merging them into a single regional high school.
When I think of regionalized school districts, I think of reducing administration, not the number of schools. While I really liked how large and diverse Eastern's student body was, a lot of people from the smaller schools would fight nail and tooth against having their schools combined into a larger one. So I am more interested in reducing excessive administration than I am in decreasing the number of schools itself.
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Old 02-03-2011, 04:21 PM
 
14,780 posts, read 43,489,122 times
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Originally Posted by soug View Post
When I think of regionalized school districts, I think of reducing administration, not the number of schools. While I really liked how large and diverse Eastern's student body was, a lot of people from the smaller schools would fight nail and tooth against having their schools combined into a larger one. So I am more interested in reducing excessive administration than I am in decreasing the number of schools itself.
I can certainly agree with that and there are some real easy places to start. Just look at the districts with sending/receiving agreements and start consolidating there.

Collingswood/Oaklyn/Woodlynne all share the same high school (Collingswood), but all three have their own complete districts for PK-8.

Haddon Heights/Barrington/Lawnside all go to Haddon Heights High School, but again, all three have their own complete districts for PK-8.

Somerdale/Magnolia/HiNella/Stratford/Laurel Springs all go to Sterling High School, but again they all have their own complete PK-8 districts.

Right there you have 11 superintendents, that could be cut down to 3 (one for each district), so that would cut 8 superintendents at let's say an average of $120k a piece, we just almost saved a million bucks a year in salary.
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Old 02-05-2011, 03:33 PM
 
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Busing students is a separate and distinct issue, along the lines of affirmative action.

From a strict efficiency standpoint, it makes sense to merge all these little school districts. Busing is a racial issue, and doesn't change the fact that it's ridiculous to maintain dozens of little school districts within a single county.

And Fairfax County does at least as good a job as Camden County areas do in clearing snow. The roads are salted more frequently too. Here they barely use any salt, and the roads are hazardous deathtraps. It's just that in Fairfax County they are far more likely to cancel school if there's any chance of icy or snowy conditions - they don't take risks.
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