Englewood Cliffs may reopen an old battle

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS - The school board is developing an aggressive challenge to the state's decision to eliminate school-choice aid from the district, which is likely to include another look at the elementary school district's sending agreement with Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School.

"The board is also being proactive," school board President Frank Patti Jr. told parents at a back-to-school night late last month. "The issue of our sending relationship has not been examined in almost 20 years, since the creation of the Academies@Englewood and in part because our choice-aid designation did not cost our district tuition."

Patti's remarks, a recording of which was obtained by The Record, come at a time when school officials have been marshaling resources to mount a challenge to the state and possibly to the agreement with Englewood. The state's Interdistrict Public School Choice Program allows approved schools to receive state aid for out-of-district students rather than charge them or their home districts tuition.

Two key moves were made this summer.

The Leonia school board agreed to participate in a study with Englewood Cliffs to examine sending the borough's secondary students to Leonia High School.

Joanne Megargee, the superintendent of Leonia's schools, agreed in an email to supply Englewood Cliffs with any documents it needed to complete the study. Megargee's emails to Englewood Cliffs Superintendent Jennifer Brower were acquired by The Record through a state Open Public Records Act request.

And the borough's school board appointed Vito Gagliardi as special counsel. Gagliardi is experienced in handling send-receive relationships, like the agreement the borough has with Englewood.

Most notably, Gagliardi successfully helped Merchantville in South Jersey sever its send-receive agreement with Pennsauken in 2014.

Both Patti and Gagliardi were careful to say that ending the sending relationship with Englewood was not their main goal.

"I am helping the board assess its options," Gagliardi said. "And maintaining its relationship with Englewood is one of those options."

Forty-three borough students attend high school in Englewood at a cost of about $18,288 per student. That puts an additional $786,000 burden on the borough school budget this year. Most of the students attend Dwight Morrow High School's magnet program, the Academies@Englewood. The state's choice aid had covered tuitions for Englewood students in that magnet program, which draws students to the Englewood high school campus from points across North Jersey.

In 2014, the state Department of Education decided the borough's Academies@Englewood students do not qualify for choice aid. State education officials said Englewood Cliffs students should be treated as "resident students" whose tuition would be paid by the school district. Both Englewood and Englewood Cliffs appealed.

In October, Englewood was informed that the Education Department would repay the district approximately $1.2 million in back aid for these students. The state, however, also disputed the position that Englewood Cliffs' students are eligible for choice aid, and said no more money would be provided for them after July 1.

The borough school district planned to appeal, but Englewood backed out of the case. Hearings in the borough's case were expected to begin in April, but they were canceled due to a long discovery process, state officials said.

"Currently our only option is to challenge the State, which we are actively doing," Patti said in an email Friday. "The board is being proactive in the event that we are not as successful as we were in having the State pay the back tuition of approximately 1.2 million dollars."

Englewood Cliffs tried to pull out of the agreement with Englewood in 1985, seeking instead to send its students to Tenafly High School, which was predominantly white and Asian. Englewood, whose student population was and is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic, called the request racially motivated and asked the courts to merge the three districts.

Tenafly and Englewood Cliffs resisted, claiming the issue was one of educational quality, not race.

The court battle went on for more than a decade. State officials did not want to merge the districts, but Englewood Cliffs students were required to continue attending Dwight Morrow High School.

The Academies@Englewood, created in 2002, were a product of that legal fight and were intended to help diversify the district.

Gagliardi's success in Merchantville has parallels with the Englewood Cliffs situation. Merchantville first attempted to sever its agreement with Pennsauken in the 1980s and lost.

A swift resolution to the Englewood Cliffs situation shouldn't be expected. Gagliardi worked on behalf of Merchantville for seven years before he was successful in court.

Carly Romalino of the Courier-Post contributed to this article. Email: mcgrath@northjersey.com