At heart of Boonton Township-Mountain Lakes impasse: $1.9 million tuition shortfall
MOUNTAIN LAKES — A $1.9 million tuition shortfall accumulated over the past nine years is at the center of an impasse between neighboring towns as the borough school district renegotiates an agreement for Boonton Township students to attend Mountain Lakes High School.
About 40 Boonton Township residents turned out for the first 2024 meeting of the Mountain Lakes Board of Education on Thursday after receiving a letter from the township district claiming that Mountain Lakes was seeking a 7.25% tuition increase.
The letter also alleged Mountain Lakes initiated "litigation" against the Boonton Township board on Nov. 28.
"I'm just trying to figure out what's going on," said Chris LeDonne, who has a daughter in the eighth grade at Rockaway Valley School, the only school in Boonton Township's K-8 District. She is on track to attend Mountain Lakes High School next year.
"We're trying to understand what they are litigating against, what the alternatives are, what do they intend to do if it doesn't work out," said LeDonne, pointing to a copy of the letter.
Boonton Township letter pans 'unsustainable' increase
The letter released to the township community in December warned, "Mountain Lakes BOE’s proposed tuition increases are unsustainable for the 2023-2024 school year and every year thereafter as they all exceed the statutory annual 2% property tax restriction."
It went on to add: "In a word, Boonton Twp. BOE and its taxpayers will never be able to afford these proposed tuition increases and have no statutory mechanism to do so."
Mountain Lakes school board members declined to comment on the Boonton Township letter or the accuracy of its contents on Thursday. But residents who attended the meeting did get some answers regarding negotiation activities to date from the "Laker" point of view.
The two communities have shared a high school for more than three decades. Boonton Township currently sends 192 students to Mountain Lakes High, about a third of the school's total enrollment of 565.
A $1.9 million shortfall
Erinn Tucker, a member of the board's negotiations committee, showed a PowerPoint presentation that outlined the previous 10-year send-receive contract between the districts that called for a flat 2% annual increase and ended with the 2022-23 school year.
More: Mountain Lakes, Boonton Township in battle over high school tuition hike
The outcome, she said, was that because costs increased by more than 2% annually, total payments from Boonton Township over the first nine years of that contract were $1.9 million lower than the actual cost to educate Boonton Township students, based on state-certified tuition rates.
"As an example, over the last three years of recent data, spending per pupil increased at an average of 4.2%," Tucker explained.
The $1.9 million shortfall, she said, could increase when the costs for the last year of the contract are made available later this year.
What the two sides offered
According to Tucker's presentation, Boonton Township proposed a new 10-year contract in November 2022, calling for the same terms. Mountain Lakes countered with a proposal in March of 2023, based on the "most recent state-certified rate" of 2.5%, with an added provision that if costs are later calculated to exceed that rate, Boonton Township would pay the difference.
Similarly, the Mountain Lakes proposal offers to reimburse Boonton Township if costs fall below the state-certified rate.
Tucker said the Mountain Lakes district offered to meet to discuss the proposal in April 2023, but the Boonton Township district "was not interested in meeting with the MLBOE."
"BTBOE wanted attorneys to handle the terms of the agreement," the presentation read.
The Boonton Township district did not return a call seeking comment on its letter, which was posted on the district website.
Mountain Lakes 'did not commence litigation'
But according to that letter, Mountain Lakes rejected a counter-proposal to increase the 2023-2024 tuition by 3%, to $18,521 per student. That would have raised annual payments to the district from Boonton Township by almost $103,000, to a total of nearly $3.6 million.
"Boonton Township did not propose a 3% increase," Tucker's presentation stated. "[Mountain Lakes] did not commence litigation."
After Boonton Township withheld a tuition payment in September, Mountain Lakes engaged the Morris County Department of Education Superintendent to mediate negotiations, according to Tucker's presentation.
A first meeting took place on Dec. 1, during which both sides expressed an interest in a long-term contract, the presentation said. Another meeting is scheduled for Jan. 11.
"We are committed to continuing this process in a fair, transparent and respectful manner" and "work to a fair and balanced conclusion," said Mountain Lakes Board President Joanne Calabria Barkauskas.
Shared schools
Send-receive agreements are common among the 39 municipalities in Morris County. Lincoln Park students, for example, attend Boonton High School, while Harding students attend Madison High School. Mine Hill students go to Dover High School and all grades from Victory Gardens attend Dover schools.
Other towns have combined regional K-12 or regional high school districts, including Morris Hills (Denville, Wharton and the Rockaways), Hanover Park (Hanover, East Hanover and Florham Park), West Morris (Mendhams and Chesters, Washington) and the School District of the Chathams.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Mountain Lakes-Boonton Township impasse centers on $1.9M shortfall
