Montville Schools May Spend $600K for 'Unnecessary' State Mandates

The state has issued unfunded mandates “requiring a greatly expanded teacher evaluation program, Common Core curriculum development, PARCC assessment technology, and HIB law mandates” and the Montville School District is going to be “spending upwards of $600,000 on these mandates with more to be spent annually,” according to the district.

One of the items on the agenda for the Montville School Board’s Monday meeting is a request to the state for full compensation of unfunded mandates. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m.

“Based on the history of the high state test scores of our school district, these new mandates are unnecessary for our district to provide a thorough and efficient educational system, a fact which makes these unfunded mandates particularly onerous to our district.”

In this agenda item, the board is asking New Jersey Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf to reimburse the district for these new mandates and fully fund them in the future. The board is also requesting legislative delegation to introduce legislation requiring the State to fully fund these mandates and request from them a response to this resolution.

“We ask the New Jersey Governor, State Senate President, and Assembly Speaker to take steps to fund these mandates fully.

If passed, the board secretary will send letters to the State Commissioner of Education, State Senator, Governor, State Senate President and Assembly Speaker making this request.