4 Mayors Endorse Challenger for Regional School Board Seat

Dear Editor:

We write to endorse Rob Strobel as the Mendham Township representative on the West Morris Regional High School Board of Education. Collectively, we have 61 years of service on municipal and educational governing bodies. In our experience, Mr. Strobel’s ability to build consensus on an important issue is truly remarkable.

He recognized three years ago, before he even became an elected official, that the process for making a change to the unfavorable high school district funding formula required all 4 communities to work together. Once on the Mendham Township Committee, he attended many meetings on the topic, each time listening carefully to the particular needs of each of our towns. Perservering in the face of significant political pressure for Mendham Township to go it alone, he developed, and led Mendham Township to, a consensus approach that addressed the concerns of each of our towns.

As a result of Mr. Strobel’s efforts, all four of our towns are, for the first time in our memories, working together on a critical project: a feasibility study to determine the appropriateness of reconfiguring the high school district in order to address the unfavorable funding formula. That is the first step in a long process. We do not know how that process will end, but we do know that Mr. Strobel’s consensus-building work was critical to getting it started.

Mr. Strobel’s success led Vito Gagliardi, one of the leading legal authorities on changing funding formulas, to state at a recent meeting that he had been coming to the Mendhams and the Chesters for 14 years to discuss funding formula issues and this is the most optimistic he had ever been because all four towns are working together.

Mr. Strobel’s fact-based, consensus-building approach is just what is required to take the school from state-wide to national prominence. We urge you to vote for an ever-better Mendham High. Vote for Rob Strobel for High School Board on November 4.

Sincerely,
Bill Cogger, Mayor, Chester Township
Bob Davis, Mayor, Chester Borough
Neil Henry, Mayor, Mendham Borough
Maribeth Thomas, Mayor, Mendham Township

Editor’s Note: Strobel, currently a Mendham Township committeeman, is challenging two-term representative to the board James Button in the November General Election. The winner will represent Mendham Township on the West Morris Regional Board of Education for three years.