Special services moving to free space

WHITE TWP. | Facing a $36,000 shortfall in its budget, the Warren County Special Services School District is headed to free office space behind the county's health department in Mansfield Township.

Warren County Freeholders signed off Wednesday on relocating the district's administrative offices to a two-story, 1,250-square-foot vacant building.

The district administration has worked out of the Warren County Technical School and provides services to about 60 special needs students in classrooms around the county.

The need for free space follows Warren Tech's decision to charge the special services district $46,000 in tuition for students in the coming school year. The school district had budgeted for only $10,000.

Moving to the new headquarters eliminates the cost of paying an additional $25,000 annual lease to the technical school. The only expenses will be utility costs and the wiring needed to get the space running, special services district Superintendent Regina Swierc said.

No timetable has been set to move district offices, Swierc said. The district's lease at the technical school runs until the end of next school year.

"This is a good resolution for everybody. We're all in this together," Swierc said. "We're like a chameleon. We adapt to the environment. We don't really shy away from new ventures, new locations."

The relocation plan allows Warren Tech to reclaim that office space for its new child development program, which begins in September with 14 freshman students.

Freeholder Director John DiMaio, who cast the lone dissenting vote against the relocation proposal, said that section of the technical school was built with the special services district in mind.

Charging rent to special services seems inappropriate, because the county is supporting both school districts, DiMaio said.

"We're paying for the rent for the building we're paying the mortgage on," DiMaio said.

Robert Glowacky, chief school administrator at the technical school, said the rent paid by special services has helped fund maintenance services and utility expenses covered by the technical school's budget.

"They are part of the school," Glowacky said. "They are part of the infrastructure."

While the technical school has seen increased enrollment, the numbers within the special services district have dropped in recent years.

The district included about 130 students seven years ago, but flat funding from the state has led many school districts to develop their own in-house programs, Swierc said. Special services, however, has seen an increase in its contracted work for school districts, such as speech therapists, she said.

"We're going to them, instead of them coming to us," Swierc said. "They're doing it in a cheaper way."