Millstone pullout
not feasible
Taxes would skyrocket and classes would be cut
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

The tax burden on surrounding towns would be enormous if Millstone were to pull out of the Upper Freehold Regional school district, according to a recent study.

"I hope I never have to see this, especially with all the work we’ve done," said Allentown High School Principal Christopher Nagy. "It certainly is an eye-opener."

School taxes would rise 85 percent in Allentown and 78 percent in Upper Freehold if Millstone left the district, Superintendent Robert Connelly said at the Jan. 21 board meeting.

But Connelly stressed that the pullout would not be legal, since state law forbids either party from ending a send/receive relationship where either one would be hurt financially or educationally.

Connelly presented the study during an overview of the proposed building referendum, which he would like to see materialize in September.

The referendum is needed to bring classrooms online for the 2006-07 school year, he said.

Millstone students currently make up 55 percent of the population at Allentown High School.

If Millstone withdrew, 28 out of 69 staffers would lose their jobs, including teachers, a vice principal, guidance counselors, coaches and advisers, Nagy said.

One-quarter of all classes would be dropped, including most AP (advanced placement), language and higher-level math and science courses. There would be no football or tennis teams, and girls soccer and field hockey would be varsity-level only, he said.

A Millstone pullout would be devastating, Connelly said.

"The question has been, If Millstone weren’t here, would we have to build?" Connelly said. "To alter the relationship would be so detrimental, the state Department of Education would not allow this to happen, due to the negative educational effect and the tax increase."

The bonding for a new elementary school would not even begin to approach the negative effect from Millstone leaving, said Connelly.

Allentown Councilwoman Margaret Armenante suggested a written agreement between Millstone and the Upper Freehold Regional School District (UFRSD).

"It doesn’t have to be a hard-and-fast agreement that locks them in," she said. "We need something in writing."

Allentown Councilman Michael Schumacher called the study a "doomsday scenario," as it assumed that Millstone students would leave all at once, rather than gradually.

A regionalization study done in May 2002 found that the current sending/receiving arrangement would have the lowest tax impact on Upper Freehold and Allentown.

A K-12 regional school system would have a significant tax impact, but a Millstone pullout would have an even greater tax impact.

In Sept. 2002, the regional school board passed a unanimous resolution to maintain the current send/receive relationship with Millstone.