DOE Restores $720K State Funding Cut From Brick Schools

BRICK, NJ — Four months after more than $720,000 was stripped from state aid to the Brick Township School District in a last-minute deal to pass the state's 2017-18 budget, the New Jersey Department of Education has restored those funds to the district.

The district announced the funding had been restored in a news release Wednesday morning.

The funding cuts were announced in mid-June, when state lawmakers and Gov. Chris Christie were wrangling over the 2017-18 state budget. A deal among Christie, Senate President Steven Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto added $100 million to spending on schools across the state, and also stripped so-called "adjustment aid" from a number of districts. Brick was among the districts targeted in the aid reduction that initially was set at $2.2 million. That figure was later reduced to $720,507.

In July, after amending the district's budget, the Brick Township Board of Education voted to appeal the cuts to the state Department of Education, and Business Administrator James Edwards, with the assistance of Interim Director of Planning, Research & Evaluation Thomas Gialanella, set to work, interim Superintendent Dennis Filippone said.

Filippone praised the two and staff members for "their diligent effort to provide the documents and information to the NJ Department of Education outlining the effect the cuts would have on the students and taxpayers of Brick Township."

“Mr. Edwards and his staff put many hours into the arduous task of producing the numerous pages of information the NJDOE requested," Filippone said, "documentation demonstrating that Brick is a low-spending district that would be hurt by these cuts.”

Filippone said the district also received a great deal of help and support from 10th District Sen. James Holzapfel and Assemblymen Greg McGuckin and David Wolfe, along with their staffer, Glen Feldman.

"Without their tireless efforts we would not have had a successful outcome," he said. "They worked hard to restore our funds and showed how much they cared about our district and students.”

“This was a team effort, and the restoration of these much needed funds will allow the Brick Township School District to continue to move forward,” Board President John Lamela said, adding his praise for the district's staff and local legislators.

Filippone said the restored funding will allow the district to purchase items that were cut at the last minute, including the replacement of some interior and exterior doors at Brick Memorial and Brick Township high schools, exterior doors at Veterans Memorial Middle School, a van, a bathroom partition, and a 100-gallon water heater at Drum Point Elementary School. at Veterans the items reduced by this cut at the last minute.

The deal on school aid shifted adjustment aid from a number of districts not only for the 2017-18 school year but moving forward as well. According to a report on Observer.com, the adjustment aid, a provision of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, has been criticized by some who feel it is outdated and gives more money to some districts than they should be receiving.

Sweeney has routinely defended the cuts in adjustment aid. In a letter to state residents who contacted his office about the cuts, Sweeney defended it on the basis of districts such as Kingsway, which he said had been forced to cut teachers and "struggled to supply basic necessities like textbooks."

"It is regrettable that reallocation will lead to cuts in some districts," Sweeney said, "but we worked hard to include extra funding to mitigate losses and established loan options for districts struggling with budget concerns."

Sweeney's letter goes on to say the ultimate goal, once the reallocation is complete and the funding formula is properly funded, is "a properly run and funded formula which will reduce the overall burden on property tax payers and provide each student with the opportunity to learn and thrive."

That reallocation could amount to a $2.2 million cut for Brick in the 2018-19 school year — the amount that was initially supposed to be cut this year. The district has had to cut positions in recent budgets as well.

The funding formula includes several pieces, including the total property tax base in a school district, how much of the budget is being funded by property taxes, and estimates of the impact of students whose first language isn't English and the impact of special needs students. All of those factors are figured in and an estimate made of how much state aid a district needs to educates students is decided.

The funding formula also sets minimum figures for the expected tax levy for districts — similar to when you apply for financial aid for college, there's a figure that is determined to be the district taxpayers' fair share of the education costs.

The tax levy combined with state aid gives a figure results in a determination of whether the spending is over or under adequacy in terms of what the state says the district should be spending on its students.
Brick's budget is considered to be under adequacy by $29.1 million, in terms of state funding shortages, cumulatively since the School Funding Reform Act, according to the Education Law Center.

Brick Board of Education, photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff