Schoolhouse Strategies forms in support of New Jersey school districts

TRENTON, N.J., Jan. 12, 2017 -- Schoolhouse Strategies (SHS) announced its formation as a strategic partner for New Jersey school districts seeking guidance in the face of myriad challenges including school funding, forecasting and stakeholder engagement. Part of the Princeton Public Affairs Group and its circle of companies including Princeton Strategic Communications and WSW - Winning Strategies Washington, the SHS team combines nearly a century of experience in New Jersey education policy and administration. The SHS leadership  team is comprised of Lynne Strickland, David Hespe, and John White. SHS services include the review, analysis, and recommendations for local school district strategic budget plans, charter school applications, superintendent searches, community messaging and engagement, and curriculum and education product marketing.

“Clients benefit from a current knowledge base, qualified counsel, an extensive local, state and national network, together with customized support based on local needs,” says SHS partner Lynne Strickland. “We apply a thorough understanding of policy, law, best practices and operational needs to provide evidence based support to our clients. In short, SHS is uniquely able to translate Trenton and provide workable solutions at the local level.”  

Ms. Strickland served as Executive Director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools (GSCS). She is recognized for bringing a minimum of 40% state funding in school construction to hundreds of districts that received little or no debt service prior to the passage of the $2.9B school construction legislation. Strickland also was a leader in seeing that schools receive a new school funding line for ‘extraordinary aid for special education students’ with high cost needs. Strickland has served on several gubernatorial task forces including those related to education mandate relief and special education funding.

Mr. Hespe began his education career in 1989 with the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services and then joined the administration of Governor Christie Whitman as her Assistant Counsel for Education and Higher Education. Hespe has been appointed twice as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education from 1999-2001 and again from 2014 to 2016.  He also served the Department of Education as Assistant Commissioner and as Chief of Staff. Hespe has served as a school administrator as well as a college president, and he’s a practicing attorney who served as First Assistant Attorney General for the State of New Jersey.

Mr. White is a twenty-five-year veteran of School Finance and Budget Analyst at the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. He was tapped by New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education as an Abbott School District Budget Manager in 1999. In addition to preparing school funding, tax impact, special education, and school spending reports for GSCS, his consultancy work included several projects for the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) Division of Research, as well as budget analysis for a local NJEA affiliate. In 2011-12, he served as the Commissioner of Education’s budget consultant for the Paterson State School Superintendent where his budget recommendations included shining a light on an impending deficit in Patterson.

Contact: Norris Clark, (609) 425-1325, [email protected]