Schools, town take first steps on shared services BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer MANALAPAN - Recognizing that in the end it is taxpayers who pay both tax bills, school district and municipal officials met last week in order to effect a proposal of shared services that aim to lessen the stress on taxpayers. Ryan Green, the vice president of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education, speaking on behalf of the board, said he met with several Manalapan officials on July 12 to develop areas in which the school district and the municipality can share services. According to Green, the meeting resulted in some great proposals and he expects there will be more to come. He said the people at the meeting reached an agreement to have the township and the school district provide each other with in-house services at no cost. In addition to Green, the participants included school district Business Administrator Joseph Passiment, Mayor Andrew Lucas, Deputy Mayor Michelle Roth, Township Administrator Tara Lovrich and Alan Spector, the acting director of the Department of Public Works. Green told the News Transcript, "The township has systems in place, we have systems in place and if we could share services we can save money on both sides." He said it was agreed that Manalapan will assist the school district with snow and ice removal, as well as grounds maintenance at its buildings. In return, the school district, which has an in-house payroll department, will prepare the municipal payroll. By doing so, the township will no longer have to pay an outside firm to handle that task. In addition, the school district has licensed plumbing, heating and air conditioning technicians and other ongoing maintenance professionals on staff whose services will be made available to the township. According to Green, the school district will also provide the township with the use of school facilities when available, and the use of school buses for summer recreation and other agreed upon municipal activities. The school board will offer technical assistance for municipal computers and allow the school district's bus wash facility to be used to wash township-owned vehicles. Green said the participants at the meeting agreed to crunch the numbers on the initial proposal and also to work to come up with other areas in which they could continue to reciprocate services in lieu of payment.