Bayshore voters could merge 3 school districts next week. But is the timing bad?

For decades, more than a few folks involved with the fragmented school system in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands have eyed a merger.

On Sept. 26, when a special election asks voters in both boroughs to approve or reject such a move, that idea might become reality.

Or it might not.

While the principal parties involved agree on the merits of regionalization, there has been widespread debate over how to do it, with two sides drawn and the outcome seemingly up in the air. Voting takes place from noon to 8 p.m. The referendum has to pass in both boroughs in order for regionalization to take place.

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Right now, there are three separate districts in the two boroughs — one for Atlantic Highlands elementary school students, one for Highlands elementary school students, and the Henry Hudson district for students from both towns in grades 7-12.

There is one superintendent, but three separate boards of education, three budgets, three teachers’ unions with distinct collective bargaining agreements, three attorneys, three auditors. When the schools recently underwent a much-needed tech upgrade, it was a red-tape nightmare.

“All of our contracts are individualized, so we don’t get purchasing power,” superintendent Tara Beams said. “We could not pool money. We have three separate contracts for internet service providers. We had to install three separate firewalls instead of one. We cannot create one network for all the schools.

“Everything is in triplicate,” she said.

The exasperation is palpable in her voice.

“Regionalization in this area has been discussed since 1978.” Beams said. “This is really the first viable path forward.”

But there is a complication that has divided consensus over just how viable the path is.

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The Sea Bright conundrum

In January 2022, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill into law that dangles incentives for some smaller school districts to merge. Officials from Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Sea Bright submitted such a plan to the state’s commissioner of education after a study produced by Kean University examined their school districts and strongly recommended it.

Sea Bright currently sends its few dozen students to the Oceanport school district for elementary school and Shore Regional in West Long Branch for high school. As documented by the Asbury Park Press and other media outlets, Sea Bright’s per-student payment to those districts, which is in excess of $100,000 per pupil, has been characterized by those in the town as "drastically disproportionate" as compared with a typical rate of a quarter to a third of that.

The aforementioned January 2022 law provided a LEAP (Local Efficiency Achievement Program) grant to study consolidation, and would provide more money to help regionalizing districts make the transition. The law also made it easier for Sea Bright to extricate itself from its arrangement with Shore Regional and Oceanport; instead of requiring permission of the municipalities it seeks to leave, Sea Bright in theory merely needs to pass its own referendum — and referenda of the municipalities it seeks to join.

However, Sea Bright’s current receiving districts filed a lawsuit to prevent those students from leaving. The commissioner of education won’t approve Sea Bright’s inclusion in the Atlantic Highlands-Highlands merger while that matter remains tied up in court.

So the question now has become: Should Atlantic Highlands and Highlands residents wait for Sea Bright to get green-lit before approving regionalization? Or should they go forward with the two-town school merger now and revisit adding Sea Bright if and when that becomes an option down the road?

That’s where the division in opinion lies.

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“I would never tell anybody how to vote, but I can tell you I’m going to vote no,” Highlands Mayor Carolyn Broullon said. “I don’t think the cost savings is going to be sufficient (without Sea Bright on board). The inclusion of Sea Bright is a very different story because they have millions of dollars to bring to the table annually.”

Atlantic Highlands’ council members, by contrast, voiced broad support for voting up Tuesday’s two-borough merger proposal at last week’s council meeting — with the hope of adding Sea Bright later.

“People have this idea that there’s discord between Highlands and Atlantic Highlands. I don’t know if that’s real or imagined, but if Highlands wants to wait for Sea Bright, it’s a catch-22 because the commissioner of education has not approved that,” said Elisabeth Eittreim, former president of Atlantic Highlands Elementary School’s board of education. “Everyone would prefer Sea Bright joined sooner, but we’re not in that position. This is the first step toward enabling Sea Bright to join.”

How is it a first step?

“The law is very clear that in order to leave a district, you need to go to a Pre-K-through-12 district,” Beams said. “We are not now a Pre-K through 12. If we become a Pre-K through 12 (by passing Tuesday’s referendum), it strengthens Sea Bright’s position to join. If we don’t get this vote passed and leave it to chance, it could be years (before Sea Bright becomes available) and then we don’t have a Pre-K-through-12 school district for them to join.”

Sea Bright Mayor Brian Kelly doesn’t see it that way.

“That’s her opinion,” he said of Beams. “We can agree to disagree on certain things. I stand by my opinion that a single vote of the three towns would be much more expeditious and streamlined. A two-phase regionalization makes it a lot more cumbersome.”

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'Everyone has their own financial expert'

Beams said that based on the terms of the LEAP grant, the three districts under her auspices have until May 2024 to merge or they will risk losing up to $700,000 in state aid.

Highlands’ Broullon said “even though we send over 100 less children into the school system, this year we’re paying more for Henry Hudson than Atlantic Highlands is.”

School funding formulas are complex, and disagreements can arise because “everyone has their own financial expert,” Broullon said.

She foresees a close vote that “may not be decided that night” of Sept. 26.

“It’s going to have substantial difficulties passing in least one of the towns,” Kelly predicted.

Eittreim, who has promoted the two-borough merger in Atlantic Highlands, has received different feedback.

“From what I can tell, it has been largely positive,” she said. “I understand change can be frightening, but this isn’t a dramatic change. There is not going to be new curriculum coming into place (the curriculum already is streamlined). It just makes governance more efficient.”

In presentations at back-to-school nights, Beams has been trying to hammer that last point home.

“I keep saying, ‘efficiency leads to fiscal responsibility,” she said. “We have 25 board members in three separate districts making decisions for about 750 kids. Meanwhile Middletown sits next door to us with 13,000-plus students and nine board members.”

Beams said all 25 members of the Highlands and Atlantic Highlands school boards support Tuesday’s regionalization proposal.

But, in an assessment folks on both sides of the debate would agree with, she added, “It is a complicated issue.”

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and Henry Hudson could merge schools