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BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
Pascack Valley area, New Jersey—In a new development stemming from a school funding dispute, Woodcliff Lake said it is applying to the state Department of Education to defer the Oct. 2 referendum on the borough’s withdrawal from the Pascack Valley Regional High School District.
A delay is necessary, officials said, because Montvale is set to authorize the funding of a new feasibility study that will consider the impact to the borough if it and Woodcliff Lake were to jointly withdraw from the district—and partner on K-12 in Montvale.
In the balance is the award-winning Pascack Valley Regional High School District, which serves Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Montvale, and River Vale, whose voters expect to head to the polls for a special election on whether Woodcliff Lake should be allowed to withdraw.
Woodcliff Lake resolved July 16 to try for the delay—and trumpeted a renewed partnership with Montvale in seeking “a just and appropriate” tax levy for the education of its high school students.
The governing body agreed unanimously to authorize special counsel to work jointly with Montvale to achieve that goal.
That said, State Department of Education spokesman Michael Yaple told Pascack Press on July 19 that the department has not received a request to do anything.
“Be aware that the district is not required to ‘apply’ to defer the referendum. The department would typically receive notification, but I’m told that the department does not need to approve a delay of a referendum date,” Yaple said.
The vote is set to be run by the school district under direction of the Executive County Superintendent of Schools in consultation with the district member towns.
For withdrawal to pass, it must be approved by a majority of voters in Woodcliff Lake, plus a majority of voters in all four towns combined.
The ballot’s phrasing has yet to be set, so it’s too soon to say if a yes vote would mean withdrawing or remaining in the district.
Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo told Pascack Press in June that he expects voters overall to reject withdrawal, as they did by a wide margin in a related referendum in 2010.
“Of course they’re [the other towns] going to vote against it. Their taxes will go up,” Rendo said.
He added at the time that if the vote fails, Woodcliff Lake will be free to pursue its aims through the courts.
Hillsdale Mayor John Ruocco and River Vale Mayor Glen Jasionowski, who tried to block the referendum in court, have vowed to campaign against it.
The state Department of Education’s Board of Review granted Woodcliff Lake’s petition to pursue this referendum in March 2014. Hillsdale and River Vale filed an appeal, which the New Jersey Supreme Court on Dec. 5, 2017 declined to take up.
Rendo described the court’s move at the time and again June 20 as “a win-win” for his residents.
If the bid to withdraw succeeds, Woodcliff Lake would have a year to come up with an agreement on where its students would be taught.
The district’s Hillsdale and River Vale families are served by Pascack Valley High School. Montvale and Woodcliff Lake families are served by Pascack Hills High School.
Rendo has said his residents want to take advantage of a relatively recent state option to change their school funding formula from one based on equalized property values to one based on the number of students registered, called send and receive.
In the 2012–2013 school year, Woodcliff Lake property taxpayers paid nearly double per student than did Hillsdale property taxpayers, according to a January 2013 feasibility study Woodcliff Lake commissioned.
That study showed the district’s average cost per student that year was $21,100. The cost to communities varied: Hillsdale, $15,750; Montvale, $25,600; River Vale, $18,050; Woodcliff Lake, $30,250. Regional school funding is determined by a formula, created by the state legislature, based on equalized property values.
Rendo said his town’s legal counsel concluded that switching to a per-pupil cost would save his taxpayers $3 million to $6 million annually.
“It’s simple equity. We’ve been subsidizing the other towns since the law changed. We just want a simple send and receive relationship. We have the least amount of homes, and the least amount of students being sent to the school district, yet we’re paying for the other municipalities to send their kids to the school system,” he said.
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Montvale looks to July 31 for funding on study
Montvale Mayor Michael Ghassali, who offered a terse “no comment” when asked about Hillsdale and River Vale opposing Woodcliff Lake’s referendum, now says he is exploring withdrawal as well, seeking a renewed analysis “in light of the continuing tax burdens visited upon the citizens of Montvale.”
Ghassali said he expects passage of a resolution set for July 31 to approve a $33,000 study of the financial, educational and demographic impacts of such a scenario.
He said previous studies no longer apply, adding that—in the wake of its recent affordable housing settlement with Fair Share Housing Center—a school planning committee had been formed to set infrastructure needs and preserve “the high level standards our schools are known for.”
“By performing this study, we will be able to provide our residents and elected officials with critically important information that will help ensure that our children receive the best educational opportunities available,” Ghassali said.
He added, “As we proceed forward, be assured that no changes to the regional high school district can or will take place without Montvale voters having a full opportunity to be heard,” he added.
On July 18, Ghassali told Pascack Press the study would last two or three months and then he would present its findings.
He said he would just as soon see the Pascack Valley Regional High School District remain intact. He neither confirmed nor denied that Montvale is floating its own district as a delaying or negotiating tactic.
Montvale reportedly would have to spend years, as Woodcliff Lake did, to end up with a referendum to withdraw from the current school district.
“The top line is we want to maintain the standards. We don’t want to change the standards. There will be the same teachers, same books, same salaries, same systems; nothing will change,” he said.
That’s if the funding formula changes in Montvale’s favor.
“We’ll look at the numbers and then decide. That’s where we are,” he said.
He said that refers to “a split from the regional school system so we would own the school and then Woodcliff Lake would be [with us in] a send-receive relationship.”
Asked July 18 whether there could be other partners in such a district, Ghassali said “We didn’t think that far yet.”
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Woodcliff Lake says it’s subsidizing others’ students
Woodcliff Lake, in its resolution seeking a referendum delay, said that the governing body has for decades been concerned about the costs to its its citizens to support the district, saying taxpayers in Woodcliff Lake and Montvale have been “subsidizing” high school students from Hillsdale and River Vale “to the tune of millions of dollars every year.”
It further noted the 2013 feasibility study recommended that Woodcliff Lake and Montvale withdraw from the district “because a new educational structure that continued to have the same children educated in the same classrooms by the same teachers but without the subsidy was a beneficial option that should be placed before the voters pursuant to law.”
Further, it noted that “While the savings to Woodcliff Lake and Montvale were approximately $3.8 million per year, the projected annual tax increase to the average assessed home was only $357 in Hillsdale and $380 in River Vale.”
Woodcliff Lake was determined to pursue its withdrawal, although Montvale declined at the time, and Hillsdale and River Vale spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in expert and legal fees fighting Woodcliff Lake’s efforts.
Woodcliff Lake noted in its resolution that “Hillsdale and River Vale’s efforts before the administrative agency and the appellate courts failed at every level, including the Supreme Court of New Jersey.”
In a letter to residents June 19, Ruocco predicted that if Woodcliff Lake succeeds on Oct. 2, “the district will need to implement substantial changes at both of its high schools that will detrimentally impact programming and staffing.”
He added, “There is no benefit for the students, the taxpayers or our towns by permitting this to happen.”
Jasionowski told Pascack Press on June 20 that Woodcliff Lake’s effort is “misguided” and driven by “greed and a lack of concern for the best interests of our school children.”
He added its adoption “is not even in the interests of the students and parents of Woodcliff Lake, who will run the risk of wreaking significant damage on what has been a high performing school district that has mutually benefited our students and our communities.”
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