Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 24, December 18, 2024
(a) The executive county superintendent, in
consultation with the advisory committee, shall study the consolidation of
school districts' administrative services, to the extent practical. In
particular, the executive county superintendent shall focus on identifying
opportunities for consolidation of administrative services in the following
types of school districts:
1. Any school
district with enrollment of 1,000 students or less;
2. Any school district with five or fewer
school buildings;
3. Two or more
contiguous local school districts of the same county with a combined enrollment
of 2,500 students or less;
4.
School districts that receive non-resident pupils pursuant to a formal
sending-receiving relationship and their sending school districts with a
combined enrollment of 5,000 students or less;
5. Limited-purpose regional school districts
and their member school districts with a combined enrollment of 5,000 students
or less; and
6. Any school district
with an administrative cost per pupil in excess of 125 percent of the county
median administrative cost per pupil.
(b) The study shall include consideration of
the following models:
1. Shared leadership
models where one or more school districts share the services and cost of one or
more administrators pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:17-24.1 et seq.
2. Consortiums such as ESCs, CSSSDs, jointure
commissions, jointure agreements, and audio/visual aid commissions;
3. Cooperative bidding or joint purchasing
models;
4. Shared purchased
services models for services, such as accounting, graphic arts and printing,
child study team services, transportation, food services, employee recruitment
and screening services, and substitute calling services;
5. Shared systems models such as computer
networks, financial and human resource management software systems, electronic
records storage, and information management systems;
6. Other consolidated administrative services
and non-instructional services arrangements, including, but not limited to,
regional school districts or county offices of education pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:7-12; or
7. The study may also consider the
feasibility of "alternative approaches" for the sharing or consolidating
administrative or management services between school districts. If an
alternative approach that is not currently authorized by statute is proposed,
the alternative approach shall not be implemented unless and until statutory
authorization for the alternative approach is duly enacted.
(c) The executive county superintendent shall
also study ways to promote cooperative purchasing of textbooks and other
instructional materials with the expectation that school districts, ESCs,
CSSSDs, and jointure commissions shall be the primary entities for procuring
such materials for the operation of school districts.
(d) As part of the study, the executive
county superintendent may conduct a survey of all school districts in the
county, CVSDs, CSSSDs, ESCs, and other county- or regional-based entities to
determine the scope of administrative services currently available within or
outside the county and the capacity of administrative service providers to
provide said services.
(e) As part
of the study, the executive county superintendent may solicit proposals, as
necessary, from school districts, ESCs, CVSDs, CSSSDs, or other county entities
to expand the scope of available administrative services and/or provider
capacity to provide said services.
(f) Based on the study conducted pursuant to
(a) through (e) above, the executive county superintendent shall make to the
Commissioner one or more of the following recommendations:
1. Where a cost/benefit analysis demonstrates
the consolidation of one or more administrative services is economically
advantageous and the consolidation of said service(s) will have no negative
impact on a school district's educational program, the executive county
superintendent shall recommend the school districts be required to enter into
arrangements to consolidate administrative services.
2. Where it is determined that designation of
one or more lead administrative service providers for one or more specific
available administrative services are most effective and efficient and are in
the best interest(s) of the county's school districts, the executive county
superintendent shall recommend such designation(s).
3. Where the establishment of a new
administrative service provider(s) or shared service administrative
arrangement(s) or expansion of administrative services delivered by a current
provider within the county is in the best interests of the county's school
districts, the executive county superintendent shall recommend the
establishment or expansion of provider(s) for administrative services such as:
i. An ESC, pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:6-52;
ii. A county department of child study to
coordinate special education services and basic child study team services on a
countywide basis, pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:46-3 and, when applicable,
N.J.S.A. 18A:7-12;
iii. A CSSSD, pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:46-29;
iv. A school board insurance group, pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 18A:18B-3 et
seq.;
v. A joint purchasing
arrangement, pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-11 et seq.;
vi. A joint transportation arrangement,
pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:39-11 et seq.; and/or
vii. A county educational audiovisual aids
center for media and library services, pursuant to
N.J.S.A. 18A:51-1 et
seq.
(g) The
topic of consolidated administrative services shall be an item on the agendas
of the executive county superintendents and county school business officials
for their respective countywide roundtable meetings at least once each quarter.
Presentations may include school district success stories, service provider
availability and capacity, and new or additional administrative service needs
or suggestions to improve existing shared administrative services.
