Wallkill Valley High superintendent challenges Sussex Tech tuition
Hamburg — In the past three years, Wallkill Valley Regional High School was charged $698,655 to send high school students to the Sussex County Technical School.
Wallkill Valley High School interim Superintendent Robert Walker wants to end the system of schools paying tution fees and revert back to the old system of the county sharing the costs.
Walker has been meeting with towns, schools and Sussex County officials recently in an effort to gain support for that effort. He has received votes of support from boards in Andover and Hamburg.
While the county still contributes to the cost of the technical school, a portion of that expense has shifted to the school districts that send students there. Tuition fees, begun three years ago at $1,900 per student, have risen to $2,300 per student. That expense is charged to the school district sending the students.
High Point School Regional High School has paid $738,729 over the past three years and the Vernon School District has been charged $608,064, according to statistics provided by Walker, In total, school districts around the county have been charged approximately $3.9 million over the past three years in tuition fees.
That's money that is "going out of our classrooms," Walker said. He said the district has not been able to make hires it would have otherwise. Specifically, Walker said the district could use those funds to hire special education teachers and paraprofessionals to help the neediest students.
Walker says county taxpayers should evenly split the costs for the technical school, which offers regular education classes as well as programs for aspiring mechanics, engineers, culinary arts, cosmotology, the building trades, public safety, graphic design and other professions.
Sussex County Administrator John Eskilson said the new system is more fair by charging the schools who use the technical school instead of larger schools that don't use it as much.
"Tuition shifts more of the cost to the users of the facility," Eskilson said. He said that Walker's plans represent no taxpayer savings since Walker wants to use the money to hire more staff.
Eskilson said 19 of 21 technical schools in the state charge districts tuition fees, and some charge much higher fees, as much as $10,000 or more, he said.
Walker isn't moved by such declarations.
"They don't charge a user fee for the library or the jail," he said. "They say other counties do it. Well, people jump off bridges. It doesn't mean we have to do it. We're a small county."
The decision to change to the tuition-based system was set by the Sussex County Technical School Board of Estimate, which includes county freeholders Phillip Crabb, George Graham and Richard Vohden. None could be reached for comment.
Sussex County Technical School Superintendent Gus Modla didn't return a message seeking comment.
"Just go back to what you did for 40 years," Walker said.
— To reach reporter Nathan Mayberg, contact comm.reporter@strausnews.com or call 845-469-9000 extension 359.