Borough Defines Boundaries on Redistricting Study

The Chester Borough Council made its intentions clear at its Tuesday night meeting: it will only fund a school redistricting study with Chester Township, Washington Township and the Mendhams if the option of creating one district for all five municipalities is not included.

“We have $10,000 at stake here in terms of what we want to fund,” said Borough Mayor Robert L. Davis. “We’ll pull the plug on funding the study if (that option) is in it.”

The Borough will still go along with the study if other redistricting options are explored, such as the creation of a separate K-12 district for Washington Township and the Mendhams and Chesters apiece, the creation of a K-12 district for Washington Township, a K-8 district for Chester Borough and a regional high school district for the Chesters and Mendhams and a “hybrid” model featuring one superintendent for five different boards of education.

All redistricting options in the study would be weight against the efficiency of the current model, which features five separate K-8 districts and one regional high school district for the five municipalities.

The borough has also decided against funding the taping of redistricting meetings, which would have cost each of the five municipalities $750 apiece. In the end, the council decided that it was money that does not need to be spent.

“Other councils have said they don’t want to fund this,” Davis said. “I don’t know why Chester Borough would want to fund it, either.”