Panel favors shared services over regionalization and asks Trenton for targeted mandate relief

Superintendents and Assemblyman Brian Bergen debated regionalization and shared services, with the practitioners urging practical, local collaboration rather than wholesale consolidation.

Kate Walsh described a regionalization study underway in her area, due in June, and warned that regional mergers can sometimes increase costs because communities would share existing debt and potentially add transportation costs. Frank Santo and other superintendents said many of the savings people expect from regionalization are actually achievable through targeted shared services — jointly hiring therapists, pooling special-class programs and splitting transportation where routes overlap.

Bergen said shared services are politically easier to advance and suggested a parallel legislative strategy: the state can remove or reform statutory and regulatory barriers that inflate costs. He urged superintendents to submit specific mandates they find costly; Bergen said the Office of Legislative Services can translate such a list into draft legislation quickly, though he acknowledged that securing legislative partners and votes remains the political challenge.

Panelists also criticized certain state rules they said raise construction and procurement costs (examples discussed included prevailing-wage rules and project-labor agreements, which one panelist said now apply at all project sizes) and urged legal fixes or administrative relief to reduce the cost of building and operating schools.

No formal action was taken in the recording; the panel closed with an agreement to continue the county superintendent meetings and to provide legislators with prioritized lists of mandates or rules that could be changed to lower costs.