$2.7M State Aid Cut For Brick Schools, But Fight Goes On

BRICK, NJ — A $2.7 million cut in state aid. That's the preliminary figure for the Brick Township School District under the tentative figures included in Gov. Phil Murphy's 2019-2020 state budget.

The number wasn't unexpected, Brick Superintendent Gerald Dalton said Friday afternoon, after spending the day in Trenton trying to fight for more aid. "It's still devastating for Brick," he said.

It's also a number that raises questions about how the state actually is parceling out aid to schools. Brick's cut — $2,741,894 — is a reduction of 8.03 percent of its aid. Toms River is being cut $2,780,498, just $40,000 more than Brick, but a number that is a 4.21 percent reduction in aid. Read more: These 190-Plus Districts May Face Tax Hike: NJ School Aid Figures

Aid is supposed to be distributed to schools following a formula defined under the School Funding Reform Act, which took effect in 2010. But last year the state Legislature passed bill S2, pushed by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, which forced cuts to schools said to be overfunded and not paying their fair share of the property tax burden. The state determines that local fair share based on a formula that is supposed to take into account both average income of a town and its property values.

A number of school districts, including Brick and Toms River, have asked the state Department of Education to release the formula, so they can fully understand how the state is reaching its aid conclusions.

The state Department of Education has refused those requests to release the formula, officials in several school districts have said, which is part of the reason Toms River and other districts joined the Brick Township School District in a lawsuit against the education department.

Education department officials have told the school districts the formula it uses to determine school aid is proprietary information, several school districts have confirmed to Patch.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Mark Tabakin of Weiner Law Group, is before New Jersey Administrative Law Judge Ellen S. Bass, who has agreed to expedite the process. Hearing dates have been scheduled for May 6 and May 20, Brick Township school district officials have said. Read more: Brick Schools File Suit Against NJDOE Over Aid Distribution

In the meantime, Brick officials and others, including District 10 Sen. Jim Holzapfel and Assemblymen Gregory McGuckin and David Wolfe, continue to press for a reversal of the cuts that are being spread over six years.

In Brick, those cuts are anticipated to cost the district nearly 300 staff positions and will completely alter a number of programs across the district, officials have said.

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