Christie Signs Bill to Make Municipal Consolidation Easier in New Jersey
Written by press release
Thursday, 28 April 2011 11:37
TRENTON, NJ – In a sweeping step toward encouraging municipal consolidation in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie today signed legislation that makes it easier for towns to form consolidation commissions with neighboring towns.
The bill (S2465/A3587) permits the combination of voter petitions and applications by elected governing bodies to create Municipal Consolidation Study Commissions. By allowing the applications to be “mixed and matched,” it is easier for grassroots organizations to sidestep politics and create the study commissions, the first mandated step toward municipal consolidation.
The law, which supports citizens and local governments working together to build stronger local governments across the state, goes into effect today, said Gina Genovese, executive director of Courage to Connect New Jersey, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that is leading the charge in New Jersey for municipal consolidation.
“We are thrilled that the Governor recognizes the importance of allowing the people – not only politicians – decide the future of their communities,” Genovese said. “By signing this law, the Governor is making it easier for grassroots organizations to get organized and create municipal consolidation committees to study if consolidation is right for them.”
The bill was prompted from an attempt last year launch a municipal consolidation commission for Cherry Hill and Merchantville. The Cherry Hill Council supported the measure, the Merchantville Council did not. But a grassroots group in Merchantville gained the appropriate number of petition signatures to form a commission, as dictated by a 2007 law.
The state Department of Community Affairs ruled that towns could not “mix and match,” meaning the Merchantville Council needed to approve the measure. The new law makes it possible for community groups to move ahead with these study commissions without the approval of local governing bodies.
93 comments:
On to the next step!
Have no doubt there will be other obstacles along the way.
Persevere, persevere, persevere.
Here is the spin from the Courier Post on the governor's signing of the law change:
Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation Wednesday that will ease municipal consolidation, opening the door for further study of a Cherry Hill-Merchantville merger.
The law allows the towns to seek state approval to begin the merger process through voter petition; an application by the local governing body; or a combination of the two, its sponsors said.
The previous law required each municipality to use the same method when seeking approval to form a Consolidation Study Commission.
Reaction from Merchantville and Cherry Hill leaders about the bill -- and the continued possibility of a merger -- was mixed Wednesday.
"The governor has signed into law a provision that puts these kinds of decisions back into the hands of the people," Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt said.
"This was a reasonable and rational change to a law that was inflexible and in certain circumstances did not follow the will of the people."
Said township spokesman Dan Keashen: "We're all in (for a possible merger.) The mayor is ready to go and has said he is more than willing to study the issue and move forward with a productive group.
"If they (Merchantville) want to come and talk, we're ready."
"My feeling is, basically, that the general public elects the officials," said Merchantville Mayor Frank North. "And those officials should be the ones to make such decisions.
"For a handful of residents to bypass the governing body is wrong."
North said he had no preference as to whether the merger study is conducted or not.
"You can't have a group trying to do a study without knowing all of the ramifications of working with the government of another town," he said.
"If we can get a good, educated study of how the (two) governing bodies work, what the debts will be, the costs for public safety and service, as well as the negatives and the benefits to each town, then they (the residents) vote.
"If they vote to merge, so be it. If they vote not to, so be it."
One of the residents "bypassing the governing body" North spoke of is Bob Stocker, a member of the Merchantville citizens' group that originally proposed the merger study.
Stocker admitted Wednesday the process in Merchantville has been contentious.
"Since council rescinded our resolution, we have asked them for recommendations for new committee members," he said. "We've asked Mayor North to recommend people.
"Now we believe we have a slate of committee members that reaches a compromise for all. We're going to resubmit our application (for the study to be done) shortly, and we hope council will support us."
Assembly Democrats Pamela Lampitt, Louis D. Greenwald, Connie Wagner and Valerie Vainieri Huttle drafted the new law in direct response to the state Department of Community Affairs' invalidation of a consolidation study proposal.
DCA ruled the two towns submitted a hybrid application.
"I believe there are too many roadblocks in place for consolidation," Lampitt said last month after the Assembly passed the measure.
"It's unfortunate that we had to legislate common sense like this," Lampitt said Wednesday.
"But at least this law will make mergers and efforts to control property taxes easier."
Reach Joe Cooney at (856) 317-7830 or jcooney@camden.gannett.com
And we are busy working on it once again, putting paperwork in order, preparing to go to DCA again with the law on our side this time.
Congratulations on accomplishing the bill now officially being signed into law by Christie. With the support of the concerned Merchantville citizens behind you, we are ready to persevere and stand behind you. Let's go forward with the application to DCA and get the Study started!
It's definitely better having independents head this up. The mayor should have recused himself from the start.
The Anonymouse is talking to himself again. I wonder what his wife says about it.
It used to be that we recognized the mentally infirm by the way they talked to themselves in the street. But today it's hard to determine who is talking on a cell phone and who is crazy, if not both.
When I was a kid my parents took us in my daddy's new powder-blue Packard Clipper to visit their friends in rural Maine. The folks were a "back to nature" set who had built their house out of river stone and year-round tended to their cows and crops. They bragged about the solemnity and the several feet of snow they shoveled each winter.
One of us asked who plowed the very long, winding road we traveled and the friend answered,
each of us is responsible for plowing the road down to our neighbors.
Today it struck me as I was making my way down the unmowed bike path here in town that maybe we should adopt the same policy for the cutting of our public grass just as we shovel our borough walks in front of our houses. I wouldn't mind that.
Back to Nature is on to something, in order to keep Merchantville separate residents will need to volunteer more and more to keep up services. I'm okay with this too. I will happily mow 1/4 acre of town property every other week, but how do we make sure that everyone does their part? Maybe someone could organize a this?
Euclid, the better way is to put that whole problem on the list of why it is a good idea to vote for the golden opportunity of a merger with Cherry Hill.
Euclid: but how do we make sure that everyone does their part?
With the acumen of an accountant, Cruiser chooses to move costs to ledgers unseen rather than to eliminate them. He'd shine in government, in big government.
Personally, I prefer to see small, attractive markers --distance markers, perhaps, for children to run between and such-- that read the names of volunteers and volunteering groups who agree to groom a section of our public greens exactly like the signs you see on some highways, picnic areas and public parks.
A year or two ago Monica explained how Valley Forge had walks bordered by fields of native grasses allowed to grow to maturity. Remember, the rotary mower which popularized closely-manicured lawns was introduced three-quarters of a century after Merchantville was founded. With a smile one might call that former time our "hay day".
The "Moderns" of Merchantville don't see any beauty in less is better. They are happiest with more ... more concrete, more buildings, more ratables, more traffic, more bike paths, more cut grass.
When full to the ears with the cost, they trump with "consolidation" to pay for it all.
Sorry we can't volunteer to mow extra grass. We are too busy paying taxes for police, school, government that we can't afford. Consolidation will save taxes, then maybe we can actually enjoy where we live more instead of how we are going to keep up with out-of-control costs. Refuse to take time away from my family for your back to nature living. Ridiculous.
Their is nothing rediculous about Back to Nature's suggestion. Merchantville is a special borough with a strong sense of place, if we all need to pitch in to keep it going, why not? Every household could be responsible for one small task at a minimum. This is genius.
"can't volunteer to mow extra grass. We are too busy paying taxes"
There is always a solution. Those who volunteer to mow grass get a property tax reduction. Those who don't, pay the difference.
Everybody would be happy ... those who work it off and those who prefer paying more to keep their free time.
Remember differential calculus? -- test the hypothesis by taking it to zero and to infinity.
Suppose everyone (infinity) chose to mow extra grass. The Boro would not have the expenditure and so could reduce the taxes.
Suppose no one (zero) chose to mow Boro's grass. Everyone has his time for other busy things and all accept the higher taxes.
As Cruiser would say, it is a win win.
Come on it is really reaching and unrealistic for a property tax reduction. Really reaching! Government does not pay private citizens for services. What the hell planet do you live on? Please get real and give up this unrealistic notion. Such a waste of time.
Nothing unrealistic here. If everyone pitched in and did their part we could save our town from being absorbed. Why not come up with a list of jobs and then organize volunteers?
I hear that cruiser is looking for ways to prove Merchantville's local elected officials were instrumental in getting Bin Laden.
Come on! Not going to save this town with volunteers. You are totally unrealistic.
You assume we want to save it. I for one would love to become part of Cherry Hill before we are pushed into Pennsauken by the state.
I love Merchantville but it cannot sustain itself, plain and simple.
Wow, can't wait for consolidation to occur so I don't have to pay high property taxes anymore, what will I do with all that extra money? Come on people get real, there will be no significant savings, it's all about the High School. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors.
Euclid - explain how your volunteer groupies will improve the high school experience of Merchantville children to the level they would have at a Cherry Hill high school.
No way will the school change for the better if the idiot voters keeps re-electing the incumbent school board members.
Know what the definition of stupid is? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
There are not enough people even stepping up to run for the school board to make any significant changes. That speaks volumes and it is a shame. There are just not enough resources in our town to sustain anything anymore. Not even a handful of people to change the school. Nada, nothing. And the same thing goes for the government of this Borough. Real change will come through a merger, plain and simple. Out with the old, in with the new.
I'm sorry, I must have missed your name on the ballot.
What were the results of the recent school board election?
Didn't care to have my name on the ballot. No thank you! Rather put the effort into the merger.
You don't know, cruiser? So much for you being an informed person. The way you come across, one would think you knew before the election.
Why not go to the Camden County website and look it up? That way you'll know you have "pure" information.
If everyone pitched in and did their part we could save...
It would be a barter system of sorts. I would think there are residents who qualify for every job and service that the Borough performs or contracts out. Why not ask for qualified volunteers to do what is needed in exchange for property tax reductions? The same officials who handle existing contracts and services could readily assign and oversee jobs to approved residents.
Characters like Michelle McKinney would not be able to embezzle our tax revenue so easily if much of it were bartered.
Bartering was a couple of centuries ago. You're a little late - just a little.
Anon 5/4 8:25 PM - you are correct. I did know the results before the election. I will venture that lots of others did too. No surprises there.
I am sure this post will be deleted but as an FYI we are mobilizing in cherry hill. We do not want this merger.
That's what you said last year...
Yeah, and he also said there was a petition going through C.H. like wild fire. 1,600 signers or was it 16,000, I forget his number.
The thing is, we got his number. Sounds like Nero.
I say, let it burn!
The Cherry Hill poser resident is back with the bs again. Oh yeah, you were the same person who posted about the demonstrations and to watch the news and crap like that. You are such a joker and everyone is on to you. You're not as funny as you are an annoying joker at that.
Back in the '70s a group of Philadelphia residents living near the Schuylkill River got together and cleared a vacant lot of all its accumulated trash, vehicle hulks and such. They hauled in top soil, crreated small plots and planted flowers, herbs and vegetables. They got the city to buy the land and provide water and later fences and such. They organized a garden club and by the turn of this century, with grants and gifts and city contributions and by aligning themselves with neighboring organizations such as the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, the Schuylkill River Community Garden Club has a beautiful garden and is well respected. Today's waiting list includes folks who signed up in 2009.
At the Merchantville Borough Hall tomorrow at 10 AM the West Maple Ave Initiative Task Force will meet to discuss ways to improve the West End. At the meeting a proposal will be introduced to knock down the mostly-vacant corner buildings at Maple and Route 130 to create a community garden.
QUESTION: Would you be interested in having a 10-foot by 10-foot garden plot for five or six years? At no cost but for symbolic dues to the Club and a few "work days" each season for keeping the whole of the garden well maintained?
I'm curious about whether the people around here have or could develop an interest in such an endeavor. My guess is that 35 people or so would be needed to make a go of it.
I believe that portion of Maple Avenue is in Camden.
that portion of Maple Avenue is in Camden.
RIGHT. This is a tri-municipality group all working together to improve the West Maple Ave area.
Folks should be very happy that all the towns are cooperating. No improvements could happen otherwise.
However, from the response on this blog, one might conclude that you don't give a hoot.
There are usually only about three people on this blog - Marvin G., who posts by all sorts of names, Mike M., who posts as several people and anonymous on occasion, and Joan B., who posts acerbic attacks against anyone not supporting her husband and the current puppet mayor, also under anonymous.
only about three people on this blog
Wrong again, Anon! There is you unless you consider yourself a NOBODY ... and we won't argue with you on that. And There is Gail, a very good contributor. Alice is great although she only appears on occasions like a new moon in June. Don't forget Quads, our athelete and also there was our gun toter. And very important were the host of consolidationists who have been very persuasive in moving me towards their position -- which brings me to the school and the school folks whom I'm about to lay into.
I'll let Gail start. She's more evenhanded.
Oh, let me defend Joan even though I have a tick and a twitch from a word or two of "ascerbics". Passion is a good thing overall and especially in defense of an extraordinary family.
Cruiser posts only as cruiser.
Cruiser only posts as cruiser as does KTBW. What does "Joan B" post as? And how do you know it's her? I've always thought their were 15 or so people on this forum.
Whatever. I'm neither of the three and in my opinion Mike M., Marvin G., and Joan B. have contributed alot to this town.
I'm really happy to see that the petition group will oversee the study and that they appointed none of their fellow petitioners on their committee. Well done!
they appointed none of their fellow petitioners
Whoa, where does this information come from? And who are the appointees? Could you inform us? Some of us don't "do" Facebook or Twitter ... until the issue of hosts using personal information for future financial gain is resolved or regulated.
Cruiser only posts as cruiser as does KTBW.
Let me correct the record. First, if our anonymous friend wrote KTBW meaning k.t.b.f.w., let me point out that a couple of years ago Cruiser named me "known to be frequently wrong" and he might feel KTBW is a version too watered down.
Secondly, I (k.t.b.f.w.) comment under scads of titles mostly because I get bored with a name but also because I believe the message is more significant than who writes it. And then there are the moments when I take a position different from my own for the purpose of pulling out others' discussion.
So there are fifteen contributors just in a name ... sort of like what Anonymous does.
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name...." (Romeo and Juliet, Act II)
KTBFW:
My information comes from a neighbor that knows one of that group well. Their committee is made up of long time residents. I knew most of the names. A couple of them are against a merger. I'm not sure if this was intentional or a mistake on their part.
Interesting artidle in today's Inky about the massage parlor to open in the center of Haddonfield next week.
Anonymous: Their committee [committee to study a merger]is made up of long time residents. I knew most of the names.
Unlike the mergers' unpublished study committee, the Merchantville School Board is expected to announce at its regular May 24 meeting that Mr. Swanson will retire as Chief School Administrator prior to the start of the coming school year.
I do not know what ramification, if any, the change in leadership of the Merchantville school will have on the merger group's goals. What I do know is that the administrative change presents an opportunity for the Board to select a new leader who can introduce significant improvements to the instructional program and make recommendations on high school services.
Over the past five years the Board has not been successful in introducing meaningful changes in the school program.
Last year at this time the school board created a committee of board members, faculty and citizens to generate ways for "Reinventing Merchantville School". Board member Bohn opened the committee with these words, "I'm writing about the committee that the Merchantville Board of Education is forming to look at how education is being delivered at the school, and if there are ways that we can deliver "more" education using our current resources." The door was open for changes.
Over last summer and fall the committee generated 27 "improvement" ideas condensed into 8 categories, with subcommittee study to proceed in three areas -- until all communication from the Board was stopped.
Then last week Board member Bohn disbanded the committee, stating that since Merchantville had been designated as a State "school choice" school that could take outside children on a tuition basis, that revenue source "... would significantly exceed any additional moneys we could receive from other funding sources...." The door closed.
Maybe a new school administrator can make meaningful changes.
I really don't see what the school choice thing has to do with the committee.
Think of it as a segue, Cruiser.
The posed question: Would improving our school program to match Cherry Hill's change the goals of the merger proponents?
However, I think "Reinventing The School" is more focused on whether a new school administrator can make the meaningful changes our school board has not been able to generate.
No, changingour administrator does not change the mind of merger proponents. While I am all for improving our K-8 school, as long as the relationship with Pennsakuen High School remains, the community will look for a merger with Cherry Hill. period.
As a parent with two young children in Merchantville School, the fact that the chief school administrator is retiring makes me more anxious than hopeful. What now if all of these long-standing experienced teachers who have worked with him for so many years decide to cash in on their retirement as well? They may not care to work with a new administrator and move on. They are the primary reason I want my kids in that school. Makes me want the merger even MORE!!!
Don't be anxious, V.C.Mom. First, the NJ School Boards Association has been invited to guide the selection of a new school administrator. NJSBA will recommend --if they do not run the project themselves-- that faculty be involved in the applicant screening task as well as board members and volunteer citizens.
Secondly, those who know know that the school program can benefit from fresh thinking and dynamic leadership.
Thirdly, if the Board picks wisely then the new administrator will have the experience and savvy to work well with the faculty, encouraging the excellent to stay and helping the tired to move out of the system.
There is no direction but up ... and your two will enjoy the experience.
Quit worrying.
Sorry k.t.b.f.w. but your comments give me no comfort. I will continue to monitor the situation with the thought that a merger will be better. I'm sorry but I don't want my tax dollars going to combined classes or the scrambling to keep the school afloat. I'd rather go to a well-established district like Cherry Hill or Haddon Heights if the merger doesn't happen. But I hope it does!
VC mom...don't worry. Swanson did very little for the school. His lack of enthusiasm for the students was obvious at every event I attended. After he/they forced out Mr. Ransom, the school continued to decline. There are probably quite a few teachers who should be encouraged to retire and take their higher salaries and tired attitudes with them. This is an excellent opportunity to hire someone with some motivation to turn things around.
I'm well aware of the decline after Mr. Ransom was let go as I had children in the school at that time too. I don't blame the decline of the school on Swanson. It's just the reality of the situation that we are facing with the economic climate and what we have in office in Trenton. We will never get the money we need. Especially now with the State Supreme Court ruling on the Abbotts and needy district. And our town does not have the money. New teachers can be apathetic as well and we will not hire the best with small salaries to offer. My concerns remain strong and well-founded. Our children's education are too important for "don't worry". Again, I'd rather go to another district.
We will never get the money we need.
If those things happen as you say, VC Mom, we'll not need as much money as now. New teachers --apathetic ones can be gotten rid of-- cost less and work more. The rule of thumb for the best teaching performance is having five years of experience. If we set our salaries according to performance we would need only half a dozen salary steps.
Let me give you an idea of what money does not achieve (and that's a play on words as well).
The average per pupil cost of the State is about $13,000. Mt Holly spends $18,000 with its elementary schools rated by Great Schools at 3 and 4, even lower than Merchantville's 5.
Great Schools is not a valid rating system to measure a school's worth. Anyone with an e-mail account can go on and boost or lower a school's rating. It is easy to obtain multiple e-mail accounts and vote multiple times.
Merchantville may be better than Mt. Holly. Or it may not. Great Schools is not the source to cite.
Agreed, Great Schools is a stupid resource to rely on. And k.t.b.f.w. money is necessary to run a school and no, the door is closed to get more. I have worked in education as a teacher in a New Jersey classroom and painfully realize that more does not mean more but you need basics and we are SO lacking, don't need your comparison, thank you very much. Look at what happened with the last State Supreme Court ruling this week, if you have ANY idea what I'm referring to but I'm guessing not. Your five year thing you are talking about does not apply to our situation anyway. We need to move to another district, cut our losses. Stop living in nostalgia, it's changing and changing fast. Control our future and our childrens'. Get the damn study and move for a merger or consilidation. Stop defending old time nonsense.
All those that want to go to another school district should move to another school district. Don't rely on a merger. Cherry hill will not accept merchantville without a vigorous fight. If you want a new school do something...put up the sign and move.
You have to give you house away to get someone to buy it because the taxes are so high and the schools performance is so low.
Just so I am understanding this correctly. Cherry hill is supposed to accept these students from the "low performing school"? Really?
Just so I am understanding this correctly. There is actually a Cherry Hill resident who posts on the Merchantville Blog just about every day?
Also do you really think Merchantville would have a so called low performing school, if most of the more educated families didn't move out by the time their kids get out of fourth grade??Many also stay- but this flight destroys our test scores. The school does the best it can with what they've got. I believe that the Cherry Hill government sees this big picture.
Merchantville Mom: "The school does the best it can with what they've got."
Aah, tell me what what has been done in the last five years to improve basic skills of students. And tell me how much improvement there has been.
I don't see our school doing "the best it can...."
We can not move. Come on, look at the market. Cherry Hill can absorb our students and the study will more likely than not prove that fact. People will not have a problem voting for the merger once they see advantages in black and white. As they say, money talks and bs walks. Haddon Heights is willing to look at our students as well. The fact that our population is so small is what makes our underperforming students more visible as opposed to other districts that have numbers. You are just blowing it way out of proportion because you do not want a merger. Stop putting down our kids and get a life!
@Not the Best:
Of course their is always room for improvement, but you can't make filet mignon out of flank steak! The sad truth is that many of our brightest families move out before their kids reach fifth grade in order to avoid what they perceive to be an underperforming high school. This is primarily what hurts our test scores.
Merch Mom:"...many of our brightest families move out before their kids reach fifth grade "
Complaints of school personnel run contrary to what you suggest, Merch Mom. They say that transience in and out of the school is among the lower-skilled, disadvantaged students. The claim is that students enrolled in Merchantville all their years from K to 8 perform better on basic skills tests.
My argument with the school is three fold. First, the numbers of students with marginal proficiency in basic skills is greater than the numbers of transients so there must be a weakness in basic-skills instruction overall. Secondly, low-performing students who leave the system help wash the slate clean for next year's testing but the failure numbers remain continuously high over the years so personnel are not addressing the needs of incoming students. And thirdly, if the school personnel were to reshape the entire instructional program, making basic skills the top priority, the school could bring all our children up to high levels of proficiency IN ALL AREAS of learning. Student proficient in basic skills learn everything else faster and more comprehensively.
I am dismayed that the school administrator did not attend the reinventing-school committee discussions last year and the Board this spring dropped all the school improvement ideas that could not generate money.
No, the school is not the best it can be, Merch Mom. Yes, "flank steak" can be prepared so well that no one would notice it hadn't been cut from the soft, non-muscular section of the cow.
@ Not the Best:
You make some excellent points about the school. You're obviously very familiar with the situation. One note to consider though.. I wasn't addressing transience and the children who stay in Merch for the entire K-8 come from the solid working class families that are the backbone of this community. Of course they score well. I'm talking about a group that doesn't show up in the numbers because they leave routinely. For the most part upper middle class, highly educated families leave this town before their kids reach middle school age. If we had a better highschool, I believe they would stay and we would attract more of that group.
What would our test scores look like then?
Merchantville Mom,
It sounds like you are talking about making a statistical change to our scores, rather than improvement to the program. In your scenario, wouldn't it be that more kids who would score high no matter what the school does take the tests and it looks like our school is more successful?
But wouldn't we have the same kids who failed before still failing? Would our program be improved along with the scores?
Of course, that may be the case in the "upper middle class" towns anyway.
You're entirely correct Alice. Our students aren't "underperforming" because of the school. The underperforming students come from underperforming families. If our town were aligned with a better high school, we'd get a different population within a short time.
Merch Mom: "The underperforming students come from underperforming families."
Your assertion appears to be true. According to the State's "District Factor Grouping" data Merchantville is a relatively poor town with residents not educated to the statewide average level. Merchantville's DFG-D/E is 45 percentile.
Accepting your point, one must conclude that our school makes no difference. Feed in disadvantaged students, disadvantaged come out; feed in advantaged, advantaged come out.
However, adding advantaged students is not a practical solution. Improving the school is.
One of the models that the school-improvement committee examined was The Philadelphia School. The committee looked at its mixed classes but the school operated a number of other programs including peer learning, mentoring and child guidance. Its student population is three quarters from financially-advantaged families and one quarter from disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods (on scholarships). ALL of the students graduating from The Philadelphia School have been well educated and, as a result, they get well-placed in model high schools of their choice.
With excellent leadership, Merchantville School could become a true "school of choice" even with its existing population, existing budget, and a poor receiving high school. The task at hand is to find an excellent leader.
However, adding advantaged students is not a practical solution. Improving the school is.
Even if it were practicable (which is what I take you to mean) to bring in upper middle class-highly educated families (umc-he), there is no guarantee they would send their children to the local school. Most of the students at the private Moorestown Friends School live in Moorestown and Moorestown has a very good public school system.
Alice: "...no guarantee they [umc-he] would send their children to the local school."
The points that Merch Mom and Alice make remind me of an interview of the governor of Singapore that Charlie Rose aired a few weeks ago.
The Chinese governor took over after the 99-year lease by Great Britain ended. He said that Singapore was densely populated by a large number of diverse ethnicities each in its own ghetto with no outside contact. Some ghettos were prosperous and others impoverished.
The new governing council introduced quotas district-wide to eliminate the ghettos and end the segregation. The governor said it worked. Today every neighborhood is diversely populated and all commerce is integrated. The poverty and social discontent are gone. Commerce thrives.
The experiment of Singapore could be modeled in the Merchantville School. Mixed classes is an integration of ages and instructional levels. Peer learning and mentoring across age levels are too. Worked together they create a rich learning environment that benefits the advantaged students as well as the disadvantaged, the high performers and the poor performers alike.
Currently Merchantville School uses the model of the former British in Singapore -- small classes with even smaller groups and numerous pull outs for special skills. It is the special education model that failed in the Twentieth Century and was overly expensive.
We have an opportunity to change that with a new school leader.
living in cherry hill sitting on the sideline laughing
Living in Cherry Hill and checking the Merchantville blog every day. I am such a loser. Why do I even get out of bed in the morning?
Don't know, why do you? Just remember, he who gets the last laugh, laughs best, loser.
The Cherry Hill elementary students nearest Pennsauken do not perform any better than Merhcantville's children.
Anonymous, you enjoy remarking, one, that C.H. needs five years to make improvements. You must remember, two, that the C.H. Board decided last winter to throw five million dollars into its superintendent's student improvement project.
Well, three, you better get out of bed and over to the C.H. Board meetings to suggest they might best try out some of those student learning ideas that you are scoffing about.
Four, wait 'til you see your school tax bill next year. You'll be up before dawn rallying C.H. folks to vote for Merchantville's school tax dollars.
I've been living in Merchantville and denagrating my town and children pretending to be a Cherry Hill resident every other day. I'm sorry for being such a jerk and a loser. Please accept my apology. I hope that I can stop this compulsion, but I can't promise. Please forgive me. I have a problem and need help.
Anon: " I have a problem and need help."
Clever! A clever way to attack an individual by pretending to be he (or she).
I don't know what the blogmaster will do about the attack, but I say from a military perspective that if you can't see the enemy, set up a field of fire from rock A to rock Z and shoot everything in between. Everyone wearing that "Anonymous" cloak gets dead.
Now if you will, let me give you the educator's perspective on ideas. The rule of thumb on "idea" personnel -- head teachers, curriculum coordinators, instructional leaders-- is that all the ideas he/she came with have been shared in six years. Let them go and bring in new people with new ideas.
The same might be said for blogs. Ours seems to have run its course. We need new people or a new forum ... or both.
Merger with Cherry Hill gains favor from Merchantville council
11:33 AM, Jun. 15, 2011 | Written by
JOE COONEY Filed Under
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South Jersey News
MERCHANTVILLE — Borough council has voted to endorse an application by a Merchantville grass-roots group to form a merger study with Cherry Hill.
The move Monday follows Gov. Chris Christie's April signing of a law allowing the towns to seek state approval to begin the merger process.
Reaction from Merchantville and Cherry Hill leaders about the bill signing -- and the continued possibility of a merger -- was mixed.
It remained so Tuesday.
Merchantville Mayor Frank North said he voiced his concerns to council Monday.
"I told them I believe we should have the study, but with a commission chosen by council and not a group of citizens. I don't know that all the answers are going to be brought to life."
In April, North said, "For a handful of residents to bypass the governing body is wrong."
According to Bob Stocker, a member of the grass-roots group that calls itself Merchantville Connecting for the Future, Cherry Hill council had already approved the consolidation study.
"And this Merchantville vote, to me, is more gratifying than having the state Legislature pass the law earlier this year," Stocker said.
"The council had originally been adversarial. To now have this vote shows we are all working together."
"The township is looking forward to having a productive dialogue with the Merchantville commission," Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt said Tuesday in a written statement.
"This process will be driven by both commissions investigating and analyzing what I believe to be significant savings for taxpayers by eliminating redundancies in government services for our two towns."
Platt said after Christie signed the bill that it was "a provision that puts these kinds of decisions back into the hands of the people."
Stocker said his group is working through the consolidation process with "Courage to Connect New Jersey," a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that helps residents examine ways to run efficient municipal governments.
"Mayor Platt has been consistent from the beginning that there needed to be productive and objective committees in both towns to properly vet this issue, and that the Merchantville petitioners (for the consolidation) should be represented in some way during the process," Platt's spokesman, Dan Keashen, said Tuesday.
"These two measures were not met prior by Mayor North and now they have been."
The state is expected to approve the application next month so three public hearings can be held this summer.
one to four:
1. your numbers are wrong. compare the schools. cherry hill outperforms merchantville by 15 points minimum in every school.
2. The "Superintendents project" is the Blueprint for Success and impacts all students.
3. I am at every school board meeting and i am sure you have never attended one.
4. my children's education is important. I do not mind paying additional taxes if it means Merchantville is not part of the equation.
5. Go to pennsauken for all your education needs. That is where you belong. You already have one foot in the door.
There I go again. It's a compulsion. I have a problem and I'm so sorry. I'm wrong deliberaly on each point and apologize. I don't attend every meeting and their minutes are available online, so I'm pretty easy to discredit. The Cherry Hill school board is actually supportive of the study. I'm thinking of seeking help.
Also I don't live in Cherry Hill. I used to live in Merchantville but moved. My husband works for Merchantville.
The "Cherry Hill" poster is right in the fact that we DO belong in Pennsauken. Our government officials have taxed all the desirable families right out of town leaving us a "Diverse" population that is closer to Camden and Pennsauken in makeup than Cherry Hill. My place is up for sale and then I am gone too. Last one to leave please take the "Welcome to Merchantville" sign down as you drive out of town.
guys, how can you say the cherry hill board is in favor of the study? have you asked them? have they voted? i have asked a couple of them personally. i know a few of them.
this is a great effort on the part of merchantville. i would try the same thing. but if you want to be part of cherry hill you need to move to cherry hill.
After the merger takes place, this will still be Merchantville. All that changes is that we'll share municipal government and services. Most people will hardly notice.
@Anon 5:22
Don't be such a snob. Pennsauken is a nice town and what's wrong with diversity? Many of the "diverse" newcomers are better educated than the families who have lived here for 100 years. I met a nice Pakistani young man who lives in an appartment on my side of town. He studies engineering in a graduate school and works nights. Wouldn't we all want someone like him to aspire to home ownership in Merchantville when he starts a family. Maybe buy a big house on Walnut. That's the American dream.
And what year is this? Some of my best neighbors are black. Haven't you noticed that there are lots of great minority families and lots of trashy white ones? Vice versa is true as well. Their was a time when we thought "there goes the neighborhood", but we were simply ignorant. You are stuck in the past. This should be a town that tries to attract great families regardless of their background.
Euclid: a nice Pakistani...studies engineering in a graduate school and works nights.
Euclid's first comment on June 17 says it all ... and it is a sad commentary, indeed.
He says that "diverse" newcomers are better educated than the families who have lived here for years. And he salutes the newcomers for educating themselves.
Take a look at the leading universities in America. Today their greatest student populations are foreigners. That is not because our government gives financial incentives to schools for enrolling noncitizens --although it does. It is because the foreigners score better than we do on admission criteria.
Now legally the foreign students have visas which require them to leave our country when they graduate but fewer and fewer do leave.
Euclid welcomes this change to our community. Frankly, I think it a bit scary that our rooted citizens would neglect their education to the detriment of themselves.
Two hundred years ago seems an eternity to individuals but it is a short span to a culture. That recently there were "Pennsaukens" living around these parts --most resettled to 3,000 acres named Brotherhood (Indian Mills)-- who did not educate themselves to the changing society. King Ockanickon died in Burlington saying to his nephew, Iakursoe, "This day I deliver my heart to your bosom. I would have you love what is good and keep good company. Be plain and fair with all, Indians and Christians." ['The Quakers in the American Colonies' By Rufus M. Jones].
Unsuccessful and unhappy, the tribe moved in 1802 to New York and then on to Wisconsin where they disappeared as a "nation".
Why aren't you doing something about the slide in education of rooted Merchantvillans, Euclid? Do you want "us" to disappear?
Ok, so here's commentary from a former-Cherry-Hill-resident-turned-Merchantville-resident-now-Cherry-Hill-resident. I attended K-12 in Cherry Hill and was very happy with my education. I felt that it was a major factor in my college/grad school success and factored into career/family success. When my wife and I got married and moved to Merchantville six years ago, we met a bunch of residents that reminded me of our neighbors and friends from Cherry Hill. Both towns have diverse populations, folks who are passionate about local and state politics from both sides of the aisle, and many well educated and intelligent people - as well as many uneducated and stupid people. We attended school board and council meetings to find out why Merchantville had not been able to transition out of the PHS s/r agreement and consistently urged the town politicians to pursue a merger, for school purposes, at least.
Then, our daughter was born and we decided that we weren't going to wait until she was about to start school to see whether her education was going to take the MVL/PHS route or the MVL/ route and so we moved to Cherry Hill (earlier this year). However, we still own our home in Merchantville and it is tenant occupied, currently. If our tenants were to leave, our house would be more marketable for either sale or rent if it was within the Cherry Hill school system and especially if the town was merged entirely with Cherry Hill. And I am saying this as a Cherry Hill resident who is not "afraid" of an infiltration of Merchantville students to our middle and high schools. Do I stand to benefit from the merge financially? You betcha. Do all of you stand to benefit financially? You betcha. In a faltering housing market where only the most desirable towns maintain their values, do you really want to be on the Pennsauken side and not the Cherry Hill side?
Former MVL: "our house would be more marketable...if it was within C.H."
Merchantville does not have the nickname "Poor Man's Haddonfield" just by chance. Relatively low housing prices have attracted families to Merchantville for many, many years.
One would trust that each family had weighed the advantages and disadvantages of buying in Merchantville before making the investment. The educational system is a primary factor to many.
If you, Former MVL, purchased here before evaluating the school system, despite that being your priority, then you might have made a hasty decision. And possibly your new thinking--that MVL should merge with CH to increase real estate values-- will not help you sell better.
Let me make a couple of suggestions. First, it is not easy to just buy one's way through life. It is expensive and results are not always so good. Secondly, no matter where you go, you have to work hard to make situations come out favorably.
I know a well-educated couple who bought a beautiful home in a very rundown section of Philadelphia. To raise their family well, they took a path opposite yours.
They talked their friends into buying neighboring homes; they formed a town watch to patrol the streets; they worked with a group to open a private school; they rehabbed an abandoned lot into a garden and convinced the City to pay all the expenses. Thirty years later they enjoy their home and neighborhood and public garden, all now worth millions, and they have two delightful children who learned well in the private school, afterwards attending magnet high schools and the best universities, and now are in the glory of professional careers.
You could do that in Merchantville much more easily than they did in a big city. But it takes commitment and hard work.
Instead of getting everyone in town agitated for a merge with Cherry Hill, this petition group should have been working to create a private school or moving. This entire thing is amazing to me. Last year it seemed like 50% of my neighbors were against this thing or at least dubious. Now everyone favors it. I smell a rat.
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