P'burg
wants others to share duty for youth home
students
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 • By
LINDA LISANTI • The
Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- School officials are once
again questioning the district's obligation to the Catholic
Charities group home.
Seven months after one school board
member compared the home to "a holding area" for youths
before they're incarcerated, the board Monday authorized its
attorney to research the district's legal responsibility to
educate the children.
Since the school year began in September,
the board has approved about 20 student placements from the
Peter and Paul House run by the Diocese of Metuchen's
Catholic Charities, according to Business Administrator Bill
Poch.
The house on Sayre Avenue in Phillipsburg
is one of three group homes that Catholic Charities runs.
The others are in Perth Amboy in Middlesex County and
Liberty Corner in Somerset County.
The homes offer the youths individual,
group and family counseling, as well as a behavior
modification program, according to the Catholic Charities
Web site.
Most of the residents are middle and high
school students who have been placed there by a state
agency, usually the Division of Youth and Family Services,
Poch said.
Because the group home is in
Phillipsburg, he has said state law mandates the district
educate its residents, with the students' home districts
paying the tuition.
But lately, some school board members
have been voting against the placements. On Monday, the
placement of a group home student from Monmouth County
passed 6-5.
School board President Rod Pianelli said
Phillipsburg's school system is already beyond capacity,
while other school districts have empty
classrooms.
"The issue is how many more can we accept
that could be going to other places," he said.
School board member Paul Rummerfield, who
frequently votes against the placements, said he hopes the
students' admittance will be defeated so that other agencies
will take notice.
Rummerfield said he's in favor of giving
all students a chance, but wonders "at one point do we stop
being the doormat?"
Some of the district's biggest problems
have stemmed from group home residents, he said.
The 15-year-old boy arrested last year
for making bomb threats to the high school was a resident of
the group home, according to sources close to the school
district.
Also, in March 2000, one group home
resident assaulted another with a brick as they made their
way to Phillipsburg High School one morning. The victim was
in a coma for four weeks, authorities said.
Superintendent Gordon Pethick said
Phillipsburg does seem to be getting all of the students. He
questioned whether a fairer distribution is in
order.
Erica Bertoli, a spokeswoman for Catholic
Charities, has said placement is determined through an
interview and assessment process that takes into account a
variety of factors, including which placement will be most
successful for a child. There is no one facility that is
home to children with more severe behaviors than any of the
other facilities, she said.
On Tuesday, Bertoli issued a statement
that said "the 15 youths from Catholic Charities who attend
the mainstream public schools in Phillipsburg are there to
improve their quality of life."
The agency has always worked closely with
the school system, she said, and will continue to do
so.
Reporter Linda Lisanti can be reached at 610-258-7171 or
by e-mail at llisanti@express-times.com.
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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