The Details of the Regionalization

Author: Kerri A. Wright

Created in 2014, the South Hunterdon Regional School District is New Jersey’s newest regional school district. Prior to its creation, the communities of Lambertville, West Amwell, and Stockton were educationally served by three K-6 elementary school districts and a limited-purpose regional district serving students in grades 7-12 — four school districts overseeing the education of roughly 1,000 students in grades K-12.

South Hunterdon is one of a handful of regional school districts that has been created since 1993, when the Legislature last made substantive changes to the regionalization statutes to attempt to encourage the creation of regional school districts in New Jersey. But since 1993 only one regional district has been created. Why haven’t more districts regionalized in the last quarter century?