One small step for board

Freehold Regional High School District administrators breathed a sigh of relief last week when U.S. District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown lifted a temporary restraining order that had prevented the Board of Education from voting on most issues relating to the operation of the district.

Brown put the temporary restraining order in place on Nov. 18 as he considered an action filed by the township of Marlboro against the school district. Marl-boro is challenging the board’s voting system, claiming that the results of the 2000 census warrant a change in the voting points allotted to each of the board’s eight constituent sending communities.

Brown’s Dec. 31 decision to lift the restraining order shows an understanding that a school board should not be prevented from conducting business while an issue is being litigated.

With 10,500 students in six schools, it would have been completely unfair to the entire population for the board to remain hamstrung.

Hearings on the voting apportionment will resume this month.

The decision represented a victory for the board, which may now move forward with implementing a student assignment plan that is scheduled to take effect in September.

Marlboro, as a township, has objected to the involuntary assignment of township residents to Colts Neck High School.

Manalapan officials had objected to the involuntary assignment of Manalapan residents to Freehold Township High School, but have not filed legal action to stop it.

FRHSD administrators have said overcrowding at Marlboro and Manalapan high schools is the reason why some incoming students from those towns will be assigned to attend a high school in a different community.

Although it looks as if the student assignment plan is moving forward, it is certain that Marlboro will continue to press its legal fight, as is its right to do. One might ask what the ultimate cost of that fight will be to the district and its constituents.