The Montagues and High Points

By Nathan Mayberg
MONTAGUE — It isn't quite Shakespeare and there isn't a Juliet, but a seesawing court battle between High Point Regional High School and the Montague school district has stuck students in the middle of a confusing fight over where they will go to school.

Like many stories, money is involved. In this case, an estimated $10 million could stand to be lost by High Point over where Montague students attend school.

The fracas has led to multiple lawsuits over whether students from Montague can attend Port Jervis schools as they have for decades, or if students from ninth grade through 12th grade should instead go to High Point, as per a 2013 agreement between the schools.

Attorney Daniel Perez, special counsel to Montague, says the 2013 agreement between Montague and High Point was drawn up by an attorney with a conflict of interest at both schools and broke a previous agreement from 2000 which required five years notice to Port Jervis to end that agreement.

Cherie Adams, of the Newark law firm Adams, Gutierrez & Lattiboudere LLC, was working for both Montague and High Point school districts when the agreements were drawn up, Perez alleged.

Adams wrote a letter in 2013 to the state education commissioner, requesting that Montague be let out of its contract with Port Jervis and instead be allowed to contract with High Point to send its ninth through 12th grade students there.

The commissioner, Christopher Cerf, agreed in December 2013.

On Tuesday, Adams denied that her firm had a conflict. She and her firm only worked on the contract and sent the letter on Montague's behalf, Adams said. No work on the contract was done by her firm for High Point's side, she said.

She said her firm was one of several law firms representing High Point Regional High School at the time. Her firm continues to work for High Point, but not Montague.

"I had nothing to do with the contract in High Point's standpoint," Adams said.

Perez estimates that the 10-year contract with High Point is worth at least $10 million, while diverting funds from Port Jervis and adding approximately $15,000 busing expenses for Montague.

Families of students who want to keep sending their students to Port Jervis, would have to pay approximately $12,000 in tuition for their children to keep going there, Perez said. The parents of 13 ninth- and 10th-graders from Montague still attending Port Jervis have signed waivers agreeing to pay tuition if it's ruled that Montague can no longer pay for them, Perez said.

The tuition at Port Jervis is about $2,000 less than what Montague will have to pay High Point, Perez said.

According to the order from Administrative Law Judge Evelyn Marose, the tuition for High Point is $14,796 per student.

High Point Superintendent Dr. Scott Ripley declined to address specifics of the matter, saying "those issues will be addressed" by the district's attorneys.

"We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Montague children and community while providing them with a world-class educational experience," Ripley said.

Family and traditionPerez wrote that the case is about "family bonds, the best interests of teenage children, a nearly century-long educational partnership, and basic notions of fair play and substantial justice. He also wrote in the lawsuit that it's also about "unsavory legal maneuvers, shady backroom deals, the heavy hand of education bureaucrats operating from a distance and a process corrupted by a desire to boost the flagging enrollment numbers of a regional high school regardless of the human or economic cost to a small, rural township."

Montague Board of Education President Tacia Johnson said the board wants the students to have a choice.

She said it's "pretty significant that there are 13 students who families have signed waivers" agreeing to pay tuition so they can still go to Port Jervis.

Perez said Adams also failed to mention to Cerf in her letter that High Point would receive a "financial windfall" by receiving Montague students.

Perez attacked the process.
"There was no notice. There was no hearing. There was no evidence. There was no process, save for a handful of private phone calls, two informal letters which were not shared publicly, and an invitation-only meeting in Trenton of which only a privileged few were notified," Perez wrote in the Sept. 4 suit.

In her 2013 letter to the commissioner, Adams wrote that the Montague Board of Education had concerns about sending students to an out of state district where there were different assessments and standards. Students who go to Port Jervis couldn't get a New Jersey diploma, Adams wrote.

Adams wrote that road conditions between the two districts have since been improved, though Perez questioned that. He noted there were no specifics mentioned about such improvements.

Perez also objected to a lack of notification to Port Jervis regarding the request.

Meanwhile, counsel for Port Jervis has sent a letter to the Montague school board about its intent to seek collection on damages for the violation of the existing contract.

The suit he filed claims that the 2013 letter sent by Adams to Cerf omitted information about how the roads between Montague and High Point have blind spots and have been the scene of a high number of accidents. Some bus routes would be 90 minutes long, he wrote.

Bus drivers would have to travel over the highest mountain in New Jersey and ascend the steepest grade in New Jersey in order to transport students to High Point, Perez wrote.

Perez argues that the actions taken by Adams are illegal since they prevent students who were seventh- and eighth-graders at Port Jervis in 2013, a chance to complete their education at Port Jervis.

"The impact on Montague's families has been devastating," Perez wrote. "Some families have one or more children in Port Jervis High School and one or more children in High Point High School, or will have such an arrangement next year. High Point and Port Jervis's calendars are out of alignment, which will have a profoundly detrimental impact on families with children in each district."

For example, the districts have different dates for their spring break holidays.

In his Sept. 2, decision overturning Marose's order, State Education Commissioner David Hespe stated that "irreparable injury will result if Montague is permitted to enter into send/receive relationship with Port Jervis for those students who would otherwise be required to go to High Point."

Reporter Nathan Mayberg can be reached at comm.reporter@strausnews.com or by calling 845-469-9000 ext. 359