Brick Schools To Present Plan To Address $1.9M State Aid Cut

BRICK, NJ — With the ink now drying on a law that will strip millions in state aid from the Brick Township school district, administrators are working on a plan to cope with the first cut to that aid.

The Brick Township Board of Education has scheduled a special meeting for July 31, presumably to present and formally adopt its plan to adjust the 2018-19 school budget that will now have $1.9 million less in state funding.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31, at the district's Professional Development Center at the Veterans Memorial schools' complex off Van Zile Road. (Access to the complex is from Harrison Avenue as parking lot construction continues.)

The district announced the meeting in a legal notice distributed to local media Tuesday morning.

The district is losing $1,913,022 in state aid for the 2018-19 school year, according to documents provided by the state to the school district. Though the state Department of Education website lists the cut at $1,162,224, that number does not include the $750,798 that was cut in the 2017-18 budget deal — money that was later restored to Brick following an appeal to the state.

The cut, however, is just the beginning. On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law the legislation that will cut $25 million in state aid from Brick's schools over the next seven years. As part of that law, however, the district will be required to increase the property tax levy by 2 percent because it is seen as "underspending," according to a news release from Murphy's office.

"Any district that loses aid and underspends will be required to increase their prior year school tax levy by 2 percent until Fiscal Year 2025," the news release says.

The "underspending," referred to as "under adequacy" in the legislation, means districts are not spending what the state school funding formula has determined is necessary to adequately educate a child. (READ MORE: Just Make Cuts: One Man's Take On Brick's $25M School Aid Dilemma)

Brick has routinely had lean budgets for decades as the district tries to balance educational priorities with the tax burden on a township where nearly a quarter of its residents are retirees. Since the 2009-10 school year, when then-Gov. Chris Christie dramatically slashed aid to schools across the state, Brick has been below the state average for spending per pupil, even as its enrollment has decreased and even with mandates to spend millions on technology to accommodate PARCC testing and a myriad of programs.

It's unclear what direction Brick will go to absorb the cut in aid. The district eliminated 31 teacher's aides and did not fill 18 teaching positions when it formed the 2018-19 budget that received approval in May. A number of requests for staff and curriculum programs aimed at improving reading and math scores were rejected.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Sweeney, takes effect in Fiscal Year 2020, according to Murphy's office.

"It modifies the current school funding law to eliminate adjustment aid as well as State aid growth caps and allows adjustments to tax growth limitations for certain school districts. The balanced approach will provide more equitable funding distribution through the school funding formula," the news release said.

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