Merchantville school officials have long been dissatisfied with Pennsauken High, saying it hasn't been meeting the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) academic goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind act.
"Haddon Heights meets AYP," said Merchantville School Board President Ed Bohn. "But Pennsauken could make a case to fight" the move.
Efforts by Merchantville in 1992 to send its high school students to Haddonfield were rejected by the state education commissioner.
Pennsauken school officials did not return phone calls Friday and have not publicly commented on the borough's plan.
"Ideally," Bohn said, the Haddon Heights proposal "will go through speedily. Our lawyers tell us that it might take until the fall of 2014 or 2015."
A feasibility study commissioned by the Merchantville School District indicated that plans to send about 55 borough students to Haddon Heights would have a minimal financial impact on the affected communities.
"It's a long road," Bohn said, "but I'm hoping it will happen."
The borough's lawyer will file a petition with the state proposing the move, said Timothy Bell, Merchantville's interim chief school administrator. The plan, which Haddon Heights' school board also approved this week, will be taken up by the state's education commissioner and administrative law judge.
Haddon Heights High School, which is about seven miles from Merchantville, already receives students from Lawnside and Barrington. But it could be bypassed in favor of a Cherry Hill high school if Merchantville merges with the township, borough officials said.
The effort to bring the two municipalities together began in earnest in 2010 with hundreds of Merchantville residents signing petitions asking for a study and with both municipalities passing resolutions calling for an exploration of the pros and cons.
