Mayors of the three boroughs and the Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education president met this week at the invitation of Highlands Mayor Carolyn Broullon and agreed to work in collaboration in finding the best solution to move forward with the regionalization question of Sea Bright coming into the Henry Hudson Regional School district.
Despite regionalization being a topic of discussion, litigation and elections in Highlands and Sea Bright for more than three years, this is the first time the Mayors of the towns involved, Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and Sea Bright, and the president of the Board of Education, Richard Colangelo, have met to discuss it jointly.
“I felt it was important to get the Mayors and board President as the four elected persons who serve our communities together,” Broullon said when asked why she called the informal meeting.
The meeting was held at the Highlands Borough Hall in an effort to move forward with what the boroughs and school districts have been struggling with for years.
Present for the informal meeting with Broullon were Sea Bright Mayor Brian Kelly, Atlantic Highlands Mayor Lori Hohenleitner and Board President Richard Colangelo.
“We agreed to work in collaboration to find the best solution to move forward,” Mayor Broullon said after the meeting “We also discussed the path of how to proceed once the NJ Supreme Court makes a decision, as that can trigger many things depending on what they decide.”
The mayor was referring to the Appellate Court decisions that ruled Sea Bright does have the right to leave Shore Regional and Oceanport districts and join neighboring Henry Hudson, decisions which have since been appealed by Shore Regional to the NJ Supreme Court.
The questions concerning financing education should Sea Bright become part of the district were not discussed, the mayor said, noting that that phase of discussion “will happen at a future meeting, once the financial experts update the real estate evaluations of all towns as well as student enrollments at the three schools in the district.”
What was discussed, the mayor said, were ways in which the boroughs and school board “can break through some of the pitfalls we encountered two years ago. Educating the public on both the history of the process and on the numbers is also important,” she said.
Although no date has been set for a second meeting, Broullon said all agreed to meet again to continue discussion and she is hopeful of an April date, though one has not yet been set.
In response to why she called the meeting and how effective could a meeting of the mayors and board representatives be, Broullon pointed out that “a face-to-face meeting is just the first step.
Everyone was engaged and positive. “Sometimes,” she said, “just getting together in one room make a huge difference in terms of a smoother process. This was certainly a worthwhile meeting, and I look forward to more progress and more information for the public as we move forward.”