To the Editor:

While the Board of Education finally started a serious discussion about the Cranbury send-receive agreement at the April 24 board meeting, the argument for extending this relationship remains weak at best. 

The Board estimated that terminating the Cranbury agreement will result in a net revenue loss of $2.8 million and claimed that such amount would be difficult to manage due to the two percent cap on annual budget increase imposed by the state. It is important to highlight that once the Cranbury agreement is terminated, the district will continue to receive revenue from Cranbury students who are already enrolled in the high school. That means the net revenue loss won’t reach $2.8 million until Year 4. Even if we ignore the fact that school district budget has routinely exceeded the two percent cap in the past, a two percent annual increase would put the district budget more than 8 percent or $7.4 million higher in Year 4. In fact, using the district’s enrollment projection and excluding Cranbury students, the district will have fewer students than it has now and an operating budget that is at least 10 percent higher by 2023.

The legal path to terminate the Cranbury send-receive relationship is straightforward and the associated legal costs are more than reasonable considering the huge investment bill the school district is asking the town resident to foot. A genuine effort is need to explore this option.

If that effort proves unsuccessful and the Cranbury send-receive agreement is here to stay permanently, then Cranbury effectively has a partial ownership in our high school facilities and needs to pay its fair share of all capital investments, starting with the $62 million high school renovation. At an average 15 percent of high school enrollment, Cranbury’s share amounts to $9.3 million upfront or $20 million over a 30-year period. We need our school board to negotiate a fair deal for our town.

Jian Chen

Ettl Farm