FRHSD board members each deserve an equal voice

When the Freehold Regional High School District was formed in the early 1950s the representation was decided upon with uneven population in the eight member towns. Nevertheless, it was decided that each town would have equal representation on the board.

However, because it was necessary to have an uneven number of members on the board, it was decided that Howell should have two. If they could have found another town to join, perhaps each town would have had one member. And over the following 45 years each representative to the board had an equal voice and vote on the board.

No one ever considered representation should be apportioned like the House of Representatives. The representation was senatorial and the board acted like a senatorial body, each member equal to each other, working for the good of the whole, just as the Senate of our state and our country are composed.

Having served on that board with some of the original founders, I know that the mission of the board was to have a good regional system. It seems that this is not the mission (of) some of the current representatives and their municipalities. Who would ever want to serve on a board when you have only a partial vote or voice?

When a member from Freehold Borough or Englishtown or Farmingdale speaks with an opinion, how do the other board members who have more than one vote consider what he or she says, with four-tenths consideration?

One could say that today is not 50 years ago and things are different. This is true. And if the member towns cannot allow its board to be represented equally by each and every member no matter what the population of the municipality, and if they want their own schools, perhaps it is time for the FRHSD member districts to consider withdrawal.

It is too bad that what has been a fine, fiscally sound, educationally grand school district that was conceived and formulated by people truly interested in an excellent high school education for students of the area should be destroyed by groups who have little understanding and no sense of purpose of the district.

Whoever makes the decision about representation on the regional board, whether it is US District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown or a judge of a higher court, I hope he or she has the wisdom to see the folly in partial representation for any Board of Education member and returns the representation of the members of the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education to its original status.

Carolyne Saltzbart

Colts Neck