Rockaways, Randolph snoop on illegal enrollees
BY LAURA BRUNO
DAILY RECORD
Private investigators are on the prowl, staking out bus stops and conducting home surveillance, for at least three Morris County public school districts cracking down on students illegally attending their schools.
School boards in Rockaway, Rockaway Township and Randolph recently hired professional help to expose out-of-district students illegally occupying seats that cost the public schools thousands of dollars.
Faced with space constraints and residents questioning hefty property tax bills, school officials said they owe it to taxpayers to get tough.
“We felt we needed all the weapons we can use,”said Arthur Travlos, Rockaway Township’s interim superintendent.
Since October, Rockaway Township’s investigator has ferreted out six illegal students — amounting to a $63,000 savings. The cost to educate a student in the district is $10,500.
“I totally support it,”said Donna Ricciardi, a Rockaway Township mother with two children attending the public schools. “We have such high taxes, and it’s not fair that we’re supporting students that belong in another district.”
Rumors have abounded for years, Ricciardi said, and she’s glad the K-8 district is taking strong action. It’s not fair to the students who do live in town, she said.
What if, during assemblies and special events, students singled out for participation weren’t township residents, she asked. The students who live in town might have been robbed of a good experience, Ricciardi said.
Rockaway Twp constraints
In addition to financial concerns, Rockaway Township also is struggling with space constraints.
The district could see an influx of 400 new students in the township with two new housing development approved for construction, Travlos said. Even without the new students, space in the district is cramped, he said.
“Our schools are overcrowded as is,” said Frank Giarratano, president of Rockaway Township’s school board. “We’ve been talking about how to handle the population and, if we’re going to the public for a referendum, we need to do everything possible first to ensure the children we have are our children.”
In late September, the township school board approved hiring Jeff Oster, a Mine Hill private investigator who employs four detectives. The board hired Oster’s firm on an hourly basis, not to exceed a total of $8,000. The district does not have the time, resources or expertise to do the job itself, officials said.
Back tuition
Within the past two months, the district received 30 leads. Of those, six students were identified by Oster’s firm as illegal. Two attended the middle school and four were in the elementary schools. Although the parents were offered the option of paying $10,500-a-year tuition to the district, all declined and removed their children, Travlos said.
Oster, a former Mine Hill police officer, said the families he busted knew they were wrong. Often, it’s a family that moved out of town, but didn’t relocate their children to the new school district. They use their old address and drop their children off at the bus stop. Or, children will live part of the week with relatives who live in town.
“They’re very upset, they cry and say they want to keep their child in the school system, but that’s not my call,”Oster said, describing the typical reaction when confronting a family.
Rockaway’s K-8 district also hired Oster last week at $35 an hour, since the borough has heard more complaints from residents, Superintendent Emil Suarez said.
In the past, Suarez has conducted his own investigations when suspicions arose. But with the number of tips increasing, he doesn’t have the time to camp out at people’s homes. Last year, he received a half-a-dozen tips. So far this year, he’s already gotten three.
Last year, Suarez discovered a family that enrolled with one child in his school and an older sibling in the Morris Hills Regional School District. The older sibling had special education needs and Morris Hills was paying the tuition for an out-of-district placement, he said.
Meanwhile, the family didn’t live in any of the towns that make up the regional district.
“It’s well worth it,” Suarez said. “If we spend $500 and we find out a student isn’t living in our district, in a way we’re saving taxpayers $9,000.”
In their zeal to find offenders, some New Jersey school districts have even offered rewards for tips that lead to successful cases, said Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. Districts have offered up to $500 for a good tip, Yaple said.
None of the three Morris districts are considering rewards, but they are open to the idea of recouping back tuition. Rockaway and Randolph administrators said they have not ruled out that possibility if a case comes to light. In Rockaway Township, Travlos said, depending on the situation, the district may request back tuition, but has not sought it from the six families recently discovered.
Former coach
Randolph has a history of seeking back tuition in cases of fraud. The district tightened its registration procedures in 1992 when football coach and athletic director John Bauer Jr. was found to be living in his Netcong home, not a Randolph apartment.
Initially, the board determined Bauer owed about $27,070 in back tuition for his two children attending the high school. After a legal battle, the board settled for $7,724. One year later, another high-profile case uncovered a Morris Plains family sending their son to Randolph High School for three years. That family eventually agreed to pay $16,500 in back tuition.
Within the past two years, the Randolph board began receiving numerous complaints about suspicious cases, said Christine Carey, Randolph’s current school board president. Residents were calling with tips and were persistent in following up to hear the outcome.
This summer, the board hired a retired Morris County police officer to conduct investigations for $60 an hour. So far, no one has been identified, but several cases are pending, officials said.
“I think this is the best way to go,” Carey said. “It’s not something we can ignore. People pay high property taxes and they want to be sure everyone is contributing.”
