Youth
home troubles board member
Friday, October 15, 2004 • By LINDA LISANTI
• The Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- Paul Rummerfield worries that the
Phillipsburg School District is becoming a dumping ground
for children with behavioral problems.
The school board member says a constant influx of
disruptive students seems to be coming into the school
system from the Peter and Paul House run by the Diocese of
Metuchen's Catholic Charities and that is disturbing the
educational process for everyone else.
"It appears Phillipsburg is being dumped on,"
Rummerfield said. "At some point, we're going to have to
take a stand. That time has come."
Rummerfield's concerns arose at this week's school board
meeting when all the members but him approved the placement
of another student from the group home into a behavioral
disability program at Phillipsburg High School.
He said he knows the district is required by law to
educate these children but questioned whether Phillipsburg
is getting more than its share of the problem students.
The Peter and Paul 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.
Because the Peter and Paul House is in Phillipsburg,
state law mandates the district educate its residents, with
the students' home districts paying the tuition, said
Business Administrator Bill Poch.
Currently, five students from the group home are
enrolled, Poch said, though the facility can house 12.
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, he
explained.
Poch said about 60 percent of the group home students
are classified and need to be placed in special programs,
with the other 40 percent placed in the general
population.
Superintendent Gordon Pethick said that as is the case
with any group of students, certain ones will get into
trouble while others won't.
"It's a balance," Pethick said.
He said he has no data suggesting that students from the
group home are causing more trouble than those who don't
live there but did admit there have been instances where
problems have occurred.
The 15-year-old boy arrested Oct. 1 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.
Rummerfield said the Catholic Charities home has become
more like a "holding area" for the youths before they are
incarcerated.
He said the district needs to have a more open dialogue
with the group home about what it expects from incoming
students. He also requested district officials review the
agency's placement process.
Erica Bertoli, a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities,
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.
"For some children, this may mean keeping them in a
community where they have family," she said. "For others, it
may mean removing them from a community where they have too
many negative ties."
There is no one group facility that is home to children
with more severe behaviors than any of the other facilities,
Bertoli said.
She also stressed that any of the children who are
involved in an incident that affects the community are
discharged from the program.
"While each child has a right to treatment, that right
does not supercede the community's right to safety," Bertoli
said.
School board President Rod Pianelli said he has had
several discussions with Pethick about the Catholic
Charities group home.
His concerns are not specific to the type of student
that the group home is sending into the district, but that
it is sending any at all.
"Whether that student is an A student, an F student or
disruptive, it doesn't matter. Our duty is to educate all
children from all walks of life," he said. "But you're
bringing them into a school system that's already busting at
the seams."
George Chilmonik, head of the Phillipsburg Education
Association, said Phillipsburg has become the prime place in
New Jersey to send dysfunctional students because of the
outstanding services the district provides to special-needs
kids.
"The people in Phillipsburg are very charitable and will
always help out anyone down on their luck. No one here would
ever turn anyone away," Chilmonik said. "But when adults are
manipulating the system, then we need an
investigation."
Bertoli said Catholic Charities has always worked
closely with the Phillipsburg School District to respond to
any issues arising from its programs in the area. She said
the organization will continue to foster that positive
working relationship.
School board member Chafik Zarbatany said the group home
has certainly brought in some "bad apples," but he also
pointed out that it has helped many troubled youths to turn
their lives around.
"They moved into Phillipsburg and moved out better
people," Zarbatany said.
Reporter Linda Lisanti can be reached at 610-258-7171 or
by e-mail at llisanti@express-times.com.
© 2004 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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