Toms River Drops Tuition Claim Against Berkeley's Central Regional For Seaside Park Students

The Toms River Regional Board of Education reiterated its claim for tuition payments from 11 Seaside Park students who attended the district’s schools during the 2013-2014 school year, while formally dropping pursuit of those funds from the Central Regional School District.

In a resolution adopted Tuesday night, the board said it will no longer pursue tuition payments from the Central Regional School district, the students’ home district, based on the rulings of the county superintendent of schools and an administrative law judge. Nor will it seek tuition from those students who were forced from their homes as a result of Superstorm Sandy.

“The Toms River Regional Schools Board of Education chooses not to pursue collection of tuition for the period of school year 2012-2013 from Super Storm Sandy through June 30, 2013 due to the homeless status of such students,” the resolution reads. But for 2013-2014 and beyond, “nothing herein stated shall be deemed a forgiveness or waiver of any tuition due for school years 2013-2014 and thereafter, from either the Seaside Park tuition-in students set forth herein or any other tuition-in students.”

Under former Toms River Superintendent Michael Ritacco, an arrangement was made in 2009 for secondary school students from Seaside Park to attend Toms River schools -- Intermediate East and High School East -- at no cost. That changed in 2011, when Toms River announced those students would have to pay $10,000 in tuition to remain in the Toms River schools.

Seaside Park is a sending district for the grades 7-12 Central Regional district, and has been trying for years to break out of its sending arrangement with the district, citing both distance and the property tax burden it shoulders under the state’s school funding formula. Seaside Park elementary students are educated in Toms River schools through a shared-services agreement between Toms River and the Seaside Park Board of Education that was reached when the borough closed its elementary school in 2010.

Initially, the tuition for Seaside Park students was paid to Toms River by a Seaside Park-based organization called “CARES,” or Citizens Aligned for Responsible and Equitable Schools, according to a recent article in the Asbury Park Press. CARES has since dissolved, leaving the Seaside Park families on their own. Toms River officials said the families had been notified of the tuition being due going back to February.

The district first sought payment from Central Regional, petitioning the state Commissioner of Education in the case. But on Aug. 27, Administrative Law Judge Jeff S. Masin rejected the district’s petition for Central to pay.

Interim Executive County Schools Superintendent Joseph F. Passiment Jr. ruled the parents of the students, not Central Regional, were the ones responsible for the tuition, at which point the board billed the parents, according to the Press article.

Passiment also ruled, however, that because the Seaside Park students were left homeless as a result of Superstorm Sandy -- and many of them were living temporarily within Toms River’s borders -- they were entitled to a free education during that time under state law.

The resolution on Tuesday night rescinded tuition charges for the 2012-2013 school year as a result. But tuition bills for 2013-2014 remain due, it said.

Seaside Park students whose families have not paid the tuition returned to Central Regional and enrolled the first week of school.