Two separate bodies, one community.

The part most people do not know

Township government and the Board of Education are separate. They have separate budgets, separate elected bodies and separate legal responsibilities. The Council does not set the school budget, hire teachers or decide curriculum, and any candidate who implies otherwise is either confused or hoping you are.

That separation is deliberate and worth defending. It is also why the relationship between the two needs tending, because plenty of what affects our students sits in neither column cleanly.

Where they overlap

Public safety around school buildings. Getting children to and from school. Roads, sidewalks and crossings. Recreation fields and community facilities that both the district and the Township use. Shared services that save both budgets money.

Every one of those needs the two bodies to be talking to each other before a problem arrives rather than after.

If you have ever wondered which body to take a problem to, there is a plain-English guide to that here: who actually decides what in Robbinsville.

What this has actually looked like

This spring, with the support of Mayor Mike Todd and Council President Deborah Blakely, I joined our Police Department, Township Engineering, the former Superintendent and the Board of Education to review hazardous walking routes near our schools. That is the kind of thing the separation of powers makes awkward and that somebody has to do anyway.

Since then the Township has added new crosswalks and crossing guards at:

• Gordon Road at West Manor Way
• Combs Road at Hutchinson Road
• Patriot Drive at West Manor Way
• Annie & Reagan Lane at Tindall Road

A new sidewalk along Hutchinson Road, between Cubberly Meadows and Walden Circle, is under way and expected to be finished before the start of the next school year. I will keep working with the Mayor, Council, Township staff, the School District and residents to identify and plan further improvements over the next several years, so that more of this town is walkable.

Subscription and courtesy busing

Decisions about subscription and courtesy busing belong to the School District and the Board of Education, not to Council. That is worth saying plainly, because it would be easy to claim credit here that is not mine to claim.

What Council can do is carry the problem across. We have been in direct communication with the School District on behalf of families who missed the subscription-busing registration deadline, and the interim Superintendent agreed to let those families opt in. I will keep working with the District on courtesy busing more broadly, and keep bringing forward the transportation needs of families across our community.

My role

I serve as one of the governing body’s representatives to the Robbinsville School District. In practice that means being in the room, carrying questions in both directions, and making sure neither body is surprised by something the other already knew.

It is not a glamorous assignment and it does not generate announcements. It is the kind of work that shows up as problems that never happened.

Working together

None of this happens without a Township government, a School District and residents willing to speak up, all pulling in the same direction. I am grateful to be part of it, and there is more work ahead.