BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : DECEMBER 11, 2000 ISSUE
INTERNATIONAL -- LETTER FROM NEW JERSEY Sometimes It Takes More Than a Village (int'l edition) It's a challenging legacy: ''the Brainy Borough.'' For the past century, Metuchen, N.J., has lived with the title its forebears claimed in a 1915 newspaper competition. Even if we know the moral right to such an epithet passed on long ago--say, when Albert Einstein moved to Princeton, down the road--the town still sports the nation's only post office designated as ''Brainy Boro Station.'' An express stop on the main rail line between New York and Princeton, our 300-year-old community is a leafy oasis in an industrial region saturated with major pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and financial-service companies. And many of its scholars and professionals, as well as working-class residents, are intensely dedicated to its schools. The breakneck pace of the New Economy, however, appears to be taking a quiet toll on some of the 12,900 residents tucked into this 2.7-square-mile town. In first-grade classrooms, in the elementary school library, and at meetings of Parent Teacher Organization leaders, a crucial force in the education of our children--school volunteers--is being stretched thin. ''INDIAN SUMMER.'' Fewer of us parents now give regularly of our time, and some days it feels impossible to balance the demands of 24-7 worklives with our kids' needs. But if we don't step up to help, how can we expect today's volunteers to keep going--or our children to chip in when their turn comes? ''People are being much more selective about what they volunteer for,'' says Maryann England, president of the PT Council, an umbrella organization of the borough's three PTOs. ''And as they get more selective, no one's willing to be the lead dog.'' This will come as no surprise to readers of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, published earlier this year by Harvard University Professor Robert D. Putnam. In his exhaustive study, Putnam shows how Americans' civil and social ties have dramatically declined in the past 25 years. While volunteering is in fact on the rise when measured across the nation, Putnam attributes the increase to retirees. ''At century's end,'' he writes, ''we are enjoying not a springtime of volunteerism, but an Indian summer.'' And while more Americans volunteered in 1998--for an average 3.5 hours per week--they were giving an hour less of their time each week than in 1987. Also, more volunteers are giving time sporadically, rather than on a regular basis, according to a nationwide survey of volunteerism by the Gallup Organization and the Independent Sector, a coalition of corporations and nonprofit groups. LIGHTNING ROD. Metuchen, however, is hardly one of Putnam's disconnected communities. A New York journalist described the town in 1915 as ''the most organized community in America.'' Like many small towns, it relies solely on volunteers to run half a dozen municipal bodies, such as the Shade Tree Commission, a power even in the early 1900s when the town's tree-lined streets and Italianate homes lured from New York some of the literary crowd who earned it the ''brainy borough'' epithet. Metuchen uses fewer professional administrators than average among New Jersey towns, says Mayor Edmund J. O'Brien. And that, he adds, ''flies in the face of Putnam's book. We couldn't operate without our volunteers.'' Metuchen especially seems to go the extra mile when it comes to volunteer support for its schools and their 1,857 students. The town's active parents ''give us good value for the buck,'' says John Roberts, a school board member. Neither sybaritic nor poor--its median family income in 1989 was $61,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, compared with a statewide median of $47,600--Metuchen struggles to maintain high-quality schools on a budget constrained by a small industrial and commercial tax base, state-mandated caps on tax increases, and limited state aid. While such behemoths as Ford, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Prudential Insurance have operations just a few miles outside town limits, Metuchen enjoys no fiscal sugar-daddies. Nearly 81% of its tax base is residential, and its citizens are keenly aware that schools in New Jersey are largely funded via property taxes. School budgets, passed or vetoed by voters each year, are always a potential lightning rod for controversy in town. In fact, school financing is one of the key issues volunteers have mobilized over in the past. Three years ago, 500 of them worked phone banks and knocked on doors in support of a $22.3-million referendum to expand and modernize the town's four schools. It passed--by just 122 votes. ''Other districts don't believe we passed a referendum on the first try,'' says Board of Education President Terry Kohl, ''and that we had a core of 500 working on it.'' But that was then. Now, some leaders of that campaign complain that their constituencies have shrunk to a faithful, but overworked, few. England, for example, is in her fifth year as president of the PT Council because no one else will take the job. PTO membership has remained steady, she says, ''but I'm seeing parents who would rather give money than donate time.'' England, who works part-time, says: ''Unfortunately, volunteerism has become a job. And it's very hard to work two jobs.'' Consider the effort that went into Metuchen's Centennial Read Around on Oct. 11. The evening of storytelling featured more than 20 of the town's leaders reading their favorite childhood tales to young students. My husband, Paul Nadler, and I helped out, as we do at several events a year. With the two of us together working three nights a week, we're rarely able to attend meetings, so we work on selected events and crank out the PTO newsletter for our seven-year-old daughter's school. I try to help out in Elizabeth's classroom every other week, but it's tough with a toddler at home. Even weeks before the storytelling, the pace of work was intense. I would go online at 1 a.m., after returning from my night shift, and find seven or so e-mails from Read Around organizers Jacalyn Schwartz, Deb Teall, and Amy Opitz, all members of Citizens for Quality Education, a grassroots group. By early October, the three were spending 15 to 20 hours a week nailing down final details. But we didn't plan on competition from two other events: a Presidential debate and a Yankees playoff game. Only half the registered kids showed up, and we had to cancel some readers. Still, Police Sergeant William McDuffie, a school board member who read that night, joined others in calling for an encore next year. But the organizers were exhausted. ''We're finding it hard to pass the baton,'' said Schwartz. The volunteer drain is also showing in first- and second-grade classrooms, where parent volunteers help early readers. A few years ago, first-grade teacher Lynn Rickard had more parents than she could use on a weekly basis. This year, only two stepped up to the plate. Is extra help necessary? ''No,'' says Rickard, ''but is it nice? Yes.'' Likewise, school librarian Eleanor Massey has seen a crew of nearly 25 volunteer workers five years ago shrink to just a handful this year. NEW BLOOD. There are signs, however, that Metuchen may be replenishing its volunteer pool--and helping to ensure that the activities our kids enjoy will continue. At Campbell Elementary School, where volunteers have raised more than $30,000 in the past few years, Principal Robert Gugliara sees a growing number of parents, from stock-market whizzes to mechanics, offer their expertise. Campbell PTO President Jan Grayzel says new members are relieving old officers. Her husband, Ron, one of nine board members, spearheaded a volunteer task force on drugs, alcohol, and violence that brought in nearly 25 volunteers. It also secured an $800,000 state grant for a three-year after-school program for middle-school kids. And on Oct. 26, more than 200 Metuchenites turned out to kick off Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth, a nationwide program initiated by the Minneapolis-based Search Institute. Organized by the local YMCA, it is aimed at getting teenagers involved in their communities. And those burned-out veterans? Consider CQE President Opitz who, as liaison between the school board and PTOs, has not missed a weekly board meeting since 1994. Opitz, now in her third year as president because she can't find a replacement, is optimistic: A middle school committee--volunteer, of course--has recommended orienting students toward community service as one of the school's top goals. ''We got into this discussion about the volunteer pool going down,'' Opitz recalls, and ''we thought the idea was phenomenal--showing students how to take the focus off themselves and put it on others.'' It may not ease the workload in elementary school this year, but it just might ensure our grandchildren have no shortage of volunteer help. BY ANNE NEWMAN EDITED BY PATRICK SMITH _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Sometimes It Takes More Than a Village (int'l edition) MAP: New Jersey INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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