Brick Schools May See $750K State Aid Bump For 2018-19

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township School District would receive an increase of more than $750,000 in state aid under the 2018-19 budget proposed by Gov. Phil Murphy.

Overall, state aid to schools would increase 3.5 percent under a budget that still must be approved by the state Legislature.

Brick would receive $36,055,619, an increase of $750,798 over last year, according to the figures released by the Murphy administration this week. It would be the first increase in state aid to the district in years.

But whether that increase will actually happen is anyone's guess.

Last year, district officials were told Brick would receive $35,304,821 in state aid, and then Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella and Business Administrator James Edwards, along with Board of Education, finalized the district's budget with that in mind. But just days before the new fiscal year was to begin, a last-minute budget deal between Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Steve Sweeney and then-Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto to increase state aid, with the goal of helping districts in severe need, stripped $2.1 million from Brick.

District officials along with local legislators and with support from other affected districts publicly decried the cuts. In Toms River, district officials planned to bus parents to Trenton to protest the cuts, a plan blocked by State Police. But the outcry led to a reduction in the initial planned cut.

The battleground was over adjustment aid, which was funding included years ago for districts that would have been decimated when the current state education funding formula went into place. Sweeney, a Democrat, targeted that funding to push more aid to schools in his legislative district, implying the districts seeing adjustment aid cuts were rich districts that didn't need it. However, some of the deepest cuts under Sweeney's proposal last year were to districts in Republican areas, and several of them were Shore towns that had been hit hard by Superstorm Sandy.

Brick was one of 10 districts that would have had cuts exceeding $1 million in their adjustment aid under Sweeney's plan.

When the state budget was finally signed by Christie in the wee hours of July 3, following a firestorm of criticism over the famous photos of the governor sitting on the beach at Island Beach State Park while the state park was closed to everyone else, Brick was still left with a $720,000 cut that the district had to fill with surplus.

Edwards and Acting Superintendent Dennis Filippone had to fight for three more months to get the $720,00 restored by the state Department of Education.

A bump in state aid this year would be important as the district continues to wrestle with significant security needs that have become more urgent in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida high school in February. At the March 8 Board of Education meeting, Facilities Director William Kolibas and principals from the district's schools presented requests that include creating vestibules that help control access to the rest of the building in several schools, including both high schools and some of the elementary schools. There's a need for more security cameras and improved lighting. And there are other serious facilities needs as well, including paving of parking lots and pathways to eliminate tripping hazards and routine maintenance to keep systems working properly, Kolibas said.

The Board of Education was harshly criticizes last year for budget increases that led to an increase in property taxes for the schools as the district continues to try to address serious facilities issues, some of which have been neglected for decades.

The Board of Education has a special meeting scheduled for March 21 at 6 p.m. at the district's Professional Development Center, which is in the district's administration building at the Veterans Memorial schools complex.

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