Toms River schools chief: $26.5M NJ aid gap could make September reopening impossible

TOMS RIVER - Toms River Regional schools remain in budget limbo as the deadline for adopting a 2024-2025 school spending plan rapidly approaches.

The Board of Education held a public hearing Tuesday night on the $290 million budget, but took no action on the spending plan, which Superintendent Mike Citta said still has a $26.5 million hole. The state-mandated deadline to adopt a spending plan is May 14, although Citta said it's possible that timeframe could be shifted this year.

"We are $26.5 million short to provide a rock bottom, thorough and efficient education for our students," Citta said. He said the district has been working with the Ocean County superintendent's office and also speaking to officials at the state Department of Education about Toms River Regional's predicament.

Last month, Citta said that the district would have to cut 368 positions, and raise class sizes by dozens of students, if no further aid was forthcoming. The superintendent said he would never present a budget with such deep cuts, and noted that the district will run out of money by next April if it does not receive more state aid.

Citta has previously noted that a budget with that magnitude of cuts would preclude him from opening schools in September, and has stressed that the district must find a way.

"They have done the scrutinizing and they see the problem. They see the same things we see," Citta said of state education officials. The district has cut 241 positions since enrollment started to decline, and funding cuts began, more than a dozen years ago. "We don’t have anything that’s in our budget that is not for thorough and efficient education."

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Citta has warned for a year that the district was facing a budget armageddon for the 2024-2025 school year, after years of state funding cuts under New Jersey's school funding formula, S2. The funding formula reallocates state aid from districts where student populations are shrinking, such as Toms River Regional, to other school systems that have seen rapid student growth.

But for years, Toms River Regional officials have argued the formula unfairly penalizes districts with low per-pupil spending costs; Toms River Regional's is the lowest in the state for school systems that have over 3,500 children. About 14,700 kids attend Toms River Regional's 18 schools.

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The state has told school districts with large budget gaps, including Jackson and Lakewood, that New Jersey will not be issuing loans as it has in the past. Toms River Regional and other districts facing large budget gaps also cannot raise school taxes to pay for line items in the spending plan that would be considered part of the state's requirement to provide a "thorough and efficient" education for all New Jersey students.

An effort to insulate the district from further state aid cuts was squashed last month when Seaside Heights voters rejected a proposal to merge their small school district with Toms River Regional. A new state law exempts regional school districts serving five or more municipalities from state aid cuts under certain circumstances. Toms River Regional serves four.

You can watch the school board's committee meetings and budget hearing in the video below.

"At this point, nothing has changed," school Business Administrator Bill Doering said. "We still, as Mr. Citta just explained, have a $26.5 million revenue side issue, a structural deficit issue. … We have submitted multiple checklists, analysis and documents, justifying the budget we did put together."

A homeowner whose house is worth $446,100, Toms River's average, would pay an additional $66.67 a year if the budget is adopted next month. The school tax rate would rise from 84.6 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 86.1 cents.

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Under the state's school funding formula, Toms River Regional has seen millions of dollars in state aid cuts over the past seven years. The state also requires districts that have lost aid to raise school taxes 2% a year.

This year, the state has told school districts with large budget gaps, including Jackson and Lakewood, that New Jersey will not be issuing loans as it has in the past.

An increase in special education students means Toms River must hire 12 special education teachers and two staff who teach English as a second language for next school year, Citta said.

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The $290 million budget the board introduced in March includes the $26.5 million in revenue that has not yet been guaranteed.

The budget relies on $191.4 million in taxes from Toms River, Beachwood, Pine Beach and South Toms River, the towns that make up the regional district. Toms River property owners, who pay the majority of taxes to support the district, would see a 1.8% increase.

The other three towns would also see school tax increases if the budget is adopted. In Beachwood, taxes would rise 4.4%; in Pine Beach, 2.5%; and in South Toms River, 4.1%.

A homeowner whose property is assessed at Beachwood's average, or $207,700, would pay $103.95 more annually if the budget was adopted. In Pine Beach, a homeowner with a house assessed at the borough's $412,000 average would pay $81.33 more a year, and in South Toms River, a property owner whose house is assessed at the borough's $194,500 average would pay $81.50 more a year.

Citta said he remains optimistic that a solution will be found. "We're not crying wolf," he said.

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Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and writes about issues related to Superstorm Sandy. She's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River Regional super: NJ aid gap could keep schools closed