JACKSON – A new face will be present at the next Jackson Board of Education meeting. Dr. Alfred Savio will be serving as the school district’s state monitor, a position ordered by the New Jersey Department of Education last year.
According to a contract established on April 14 with the township school district that is required to pay his salary, Savio will replace previous State Monitor Carole Knopp-Morris.
Last year, the township Board of Education voted down a property tax increase of 9.9% but Morris overruled their decision to reject the proposed budget. That spending plan included the sale of the Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School as a means to balance the budget.
Morris had previously stated during a Board of Education meeting that the Jackson School District “doesn’t have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem” which BOE members and administrators say was created by the state’s inequitable distribution of school aid. Nonetheless, Morris overrode the board’s votes and approved that property tax increase.
“The state caused the problem with its funding formula, and now the state has stepped in and overrode the elected officials who refused to initiate a property tax increase on Jackson residents, and to close a school,” 12th District Assemblyman Alex Sauickie said at the time.
New Monitor To Be Paid More
Savio, who resides in Northfield, will be compensated at the rate of $125 per hour, not to exceed 32 hours per week, without vacation, holiday or fringe benefits. This represents an increase in salary for the position from his predecessor.
Morris’s initial contract term was from 1-23-24 to 1-22-25 and under that contract, the state-designated monitor rate was $96 per hour for 849 hours which equals $81,504 having been paid.
The second contract period began 1-23-25 and was for a term through 1-22-26, however Morris left the district in April 2025 and Savio began in May 2025. Under that contract, the state-designated monitor rate was $125 (the new rate for all state monitors) per hour.
Morris was paid for 220 hours during that contract time at that $125 rate came to $27,500 bringing the total paid to her during her time here in the district between January 2024 and April 2025 to $109,004.
Savio’s contract is for the same rate of pay as Morris’s most recent contract (the state-designated amount) of $125 per hour. His duties remain the same and involve “oversight of fiscal matters in the township school district determining that all remedial actions required have been implemented and the necessary local capacity and fiscal controls have been restored to the Jackson School District.”
Department of Education spokesperson Mike Yaple further explained to The Jackson Times that “all state monitors are paid the same hourly rate. In 2024, the rate increased from $96 to $125 per hour. This updated hourly rate increase takes effect upon renewal of the state monitor contract. The compensation change reflects this across-the-board rate adjustment, not a change in duties or schedule.”
New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer has the authority to determine when the State Monitor is no longer required to oversee the school district’s financial management.
Savio’s Contract
Savio’s contract took effect on May 19 and will continue until May 18, 2026 or “until such earlier time the Commissioner so determines consistent with this contract.”
The State Monitor is charged with “directing all business office activities, including but not limited to preparation of monthly financial reports, and approval of all purchase orders, budget transfers, and payment of bills and claims,” according to the contract.
Savio will also “oversee budget development and implementation, including assessing the efficiency and necessity of appropriations and resources contained in the district budget and making all necessary reallocations and reductions to maintain a balanced budget.”
He will also oversee all district staffing with the ability to hire, promote and terminate the employment of employees. This includes, but is not limited to, recommendation and oversight of any sick-leave buyout or other retirement incentive program presented to the board and any reduction-in-force of tenured personnel or issuance of termination notices for nontenured teaching staff in response to the school redistricting and restructuring plan.
Savio will also have the authority to “override a chief school administrator’s action and vote by the board of education on any matters related to the fiscal and personnel management of the district, except that all actions of the State Monitor shall be subject to the education, labor and employment laws and regulations, including the “New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act,” and collective bargaining agreements entered into by the school district.
He’ll be attending all Board of Education meetings, including closed sessions and will meet with the Board in an open public meeting on at least a quarterly basis to discuss with the board about matters that led to the appointment of the State Monitor and provide Board members with education and training that address any deficiencies identified in Board actions.
State Should Pick Up The Tab
Sauickie and fellow 12th District Assemblyman Robert Clifton proposed legislation earlier this year that would require the state to pick up the tab for the State Monitor salary. “It is outrageous that the Jackson School District, which can’t even meet the state’s own definition of adequacy spending, has to pay for a state monitor, but other schools flush with taxpayer cash are free to spend with little or no oversight,” Sauickie said.
Assemblyman Sauickie told The Jackson Times, “It was outrageous that the Murphy Administration’s Department of Education (DOE) forced a state monitor on the Jackson School District in the first place. This stemmed from the disastrous school funding formula known as Senate Bill 2 (S-2), enacted in 2018 under Governor Murphy, which slashed aid to rural districts like Jackson while redirecting taxpayer dollars to urban schools.”
“Jackson, left severely underfunded and ignored by the DOE, was forced, for the first time ever, to take a state loan, which triggered the monitor assignment. That monitor, Carol Morris, never fought for Jackson despite the little value she did provide by publicly stating what Jackson already knew: this is a revenue problem (lack of state funding), not a spending problem. Yet taxpayers had to pay $160,000 a year for that confirmation, adding insult to injury after a 53% cut in aid,” the lawmaker added.
Sauickie added, “now, after the district was forced to close two schools, merge high schools, lay off teachers (leading to 40:1 student-teacher ratios), cut AP classes, eliminate sports and after-school busing, the DOE is assigning another monitor, at even greater cost. Based on surrounding districts, some of which actually have had two monitors simultaneously, this will do nothing to help.”
“I’ve publicly called for the Commissioner of Education’s resignation and introduced two bills to address this injustice:
- A3589 requires the state, not the district, to pay for DOE-appointed monitors.
- A5179 mandates monitors only for districts receiving 70% or more of their funding from state aid, like Newark City Schools, which get $1.3 billion annually, funded from the same parents of school districts outside of Newark getting destroyed.
The second bill remains in the Assembly Education Committee, having received no action since formal introduction on January 14. Assemblyman Clifton is the second prime sponsor and it is co-sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Inganamort and Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, both R-24th legislative district (Sussex and parts of Morris and Warren counties).
He noted, “districts like Jackson, Toms River, Plumsted, and Lacey are being gutted to fund others, and the DOE continues to fail them. These bills won’t move under one-party rule, but with the election of a new governor this year and a change in legislative leadership, we can bring accountability. On day one, the new governor should fire the DOE Commissioner and the State Board of Education for failing the children of Ocean County, and remove the political agenda that’s been in place for the past eight years.”
District Suing State
The school district is selling the Christa McAuliffe Middle School this year to balance its budget and filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the State of New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Education, and the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, challenging what the district believes is a systemic and unconstitutional underfunding of the district.
