TOMS RIVER – As the school district is facing a loss of another $8.1 million in state aid, officials urged the public to once again speak up to prompt some change in Trenton.
They are asking residents to call or email the Governor’s Office, the Senate President’s Office, the Assembly Speaker’s Office, and other legislators on March 24.
The district is providing contact information, talking points, and sample emails here: trschools.com/community/march-24-marked-as-day-to-call-email-state-officials
There is strength in numbers, and the school district hopes that a “blitz” of contacts from the public will help its case. They have also teamed with more than 100 other districts that lost state aid, and they will all be contacting state lawmakers on the same day.
For several years, Toms River Regional School District – which includes Pine Beach, Beachwood and South Toms River – has been laboring under a bill called S-2. When it was signed into law, it redistributed funding from districts considered “overfunded,” like Toms River, to districts considered “underfunded.”
The formula that decided who should gain and who should lose is based on proprietary information, the state has said, so they have not made it public. Toms River, along with other districts impacted, are suing the state to reveal the funding formula. The courts have ordered the New Jersey Department of Education to release the financial details of the funding formula, school officials have said.
This issue has been going on for more than one year. The loss is cumulative. What this means is that the district lost a few million during the first year, and then a few million more the next, and so on. The end result will be a loss of $90 million in state aid over the course of several years. This has already resulted in a loss of dozens of positions.
As Toms River School Board President Joseph Nardini stated: “Incurring these cuts year after year is simply unsustainable.”
While the district will be receiving CARES Act funding, it is important to note that this funding can only be spent on pandemic relief, such as providing technology for students learning from home, the district said.
The cut of $8.1 million would be in effect for the 2021-2 school year. This is a loss of about 14 percent from last year’s aid.
A different state law prevents school districts from raising taxes more than 2 percent in a year. The two main forms of funding for a district are taxes and state aid. So, state aid is going down, and schools aren’t allowed to raise taxes enough to fill that hole.
