Toms River Regional superintendent says absorbing Seaside school could restore $26M in aid

TOMS RIVER — Toms River Regional Superintendent Michael Citta urged the school board and community to support a prospective referendum that would wrap Seaside Heights' students and staff into the regional school district and thereby restore millions of dollars in state funding cuts.

On Friday evening, the nine-member school board met in Toms River High School North, where they voted 7 to 2 to approve a request for a referendum from New Jersey Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan. If the request is approved, voters in Toms River, Beachwood, South Toms River and Pine Beach would decide whether to incorporate Seaside Heights into the Toms River Regional School District.

Earlier Friday, Seaside Height's school district met within the Hugh J. Boyd Jr. Elementary School to approve a similar resolution.

Citta, the Toms River Regional superintendent, said that adding Seaside Heights to the four-municipality regional school district would bring millions of dollars in state aid back to the district, which has faced millions of dollars in cuts from Trenton.

"This (addition of the Seaside Heights school district) would restore… our funding (cuts) from the 22-23 school year of $14.4 million, plus the $4.5 million we are projected to cut this (school) year," Citta said during the Friday night board meeting at High School North, where about 100 parents, residents and teachers gathered.

Without action, Citta said, Toms River Regional is facing layoffs of more than 100 teachers and the elimination of extracurricular activities and sports in the near future. The district faces a $26.6 million shortfall in the 2024-25 school year, he said.

"That's real. That's not a scare tactic," he said. "And we are there."

If the districts merged, Toms River Regional would have state funding restored due to a law passed in August known as S3950, the superintendent said. The new law exempts regional school districts serving five or more New Jersey municipalities. To qualify, these regional districts must also have administrative per-pupil costs that are at least 15% below the state average and their boards must have raised school taxes by the maximum allowed by law over the previous five years.

"We can see real tax relief for a five-town regional district and not worry about (losing) jobs, opportunities, for… our children," Citta said.

By restoring Toms River Regional's state funding through S3950 and adding Seaside Height's $7.1 million school budget into the regional budget, Toms River Regional's $26 million fiscal loss would be eliminated, he said.

In Seaside Heights, school officials voted in support of their own referendum on Friday, citing declining enrollment at the borough's Hugh J. Boyd Elementary and a feasibility study that estimated both Seaside and Toms River could save about $2.7 million by merging.

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If a majority of voters in both districts approve the referendums, Seaside Height's school district would be dissolved and the Boyd school closed. The Boyd school teachers and students would be incorporated into Toms River Regional, where students would attend East Dover Elementary School and Intermediate East, Citta said.

Students who currently attend the Central Regional School District — which educates Seaside Heights students in grades 7 to 12 — would finish their educations there, according to officials of the Seaside Heights and Toms River Regional districts.

School board members at Central Regional said they plan to oppose the change and are exploring their legal options.

"Central Regional School District has no intention of allowing any neighboring school district to financially benefit at the cost of taxpayers in the remaining sending districts of Berkeley, Ocean Gate, Island Heights and Seaside Park," Central Regional's Acting Superintendent Doug Corbett said in the statement on behalf of the school board. "The Central Regional School District remains deeply committed to ensuring students continue to receive a high-quality education, but the purpose of this study (between Seaside Heights and Toms River) has very little to do with education."

Corbett also serves as acting superintendent of Seaside Heights.

Both Seaside Heights and Toms River Regional school districts may find garnering sufficient public support difficult, despite the proposed financial benefits.

The Boyd school "is so special," former Boyd paraprofessional and Central Regional alumna Alexa Padula told the Toms River Regional school board. "There's only about 40 staff members and each one of them can single handedly name every kid that walks through that door, their siblings, their family members and tell you their story."

Seaside Heights students will not find that kind of connection and support with teachers and staff in the larger regional district's schools, she said during the meeting.

"Your district is viewing them as dollar signs to fix your problems," Padula told the board.

Toms River Regional school board member Lisa Contessa also opposed requesting a referendum.

"I don't trust the state of New Jersey," she said during the voting roll call. "There are a lot of 'ifs' that need to occur…And there's a deadline, otherwise there is no financial benefit to Toms River. So we could approve this and still receive no relief from our dreaded anticipated funding cuts."

Glen Tuzzolino, a Seaside Heights father of four, urged both Seaside Heights and Toms River Regional boards to reject the referendums.

"I'm bothered by this, because we're doing this for the wrong reasons," he said during the meeting at High School North. "That's all this is about, is money. And it's sad, because our community is just fine the way it is."

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Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 15 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River superintendent calls for Seaside Heights to join district