State Rejects Brick Schools' $2.7M Emergency Aid Request

BRICK, NJ — As the Brick Township School District grapples with pending state aid cuts of $4.2 million for the 2020-2021 school year and the rejection of its emergency aid request for 2019-2020, parents are beginning to take notice of the possible impacts to students.

Among those potential impacts: the possibility of repurposing schools. That issue was raised publicly in the summer, when members of the Herbertsville Elementary School PTA attended a Board of Education meeting to press for approval of the installation of a playground.

"Everything is on the table," Brick Township Board of Education President Stephanie Wohlrab said in late July. It's a sentiment the administration is sticking to: absorbing a cut that could be $5 million is going to be difficult.

"We are looking at things that none of us as a community, as parents, as board members, as educators are excited about," Wohlrab said at that meeting.

It's a message the district has been trying to deliver for months and one that will be highlighted again on Thursday when the school board meets. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Brick Township High School.

"We have a revenue problem, not an expenditure problem," James Edwards, the business administrator for the Brick school district, has repeatedly said.

That problem got worse with the state's rejection of Brick's request for $2.7 million in emergency aid. Brick Township — and all of the districts that sought emergency aid — filed their applications in May. The Dec. 6 decision was the latest announcement yet by the state of its decisions. Last year, the state made its announcement in October.

In rejecting Brick's request, which was vetted and approved by the executive Ocean County superintendent's office, state Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet cited the district's balanced budget as part of the reason for rejecting the aid request.

State law requires all school districts to submit balanced budgets.

"They look at the fact that we were able to balance our budget with the state aid that we received, not taking into consideration the cuts we needed to make in order to make that happen," Edwards said.

In addition the state's letter is critical of the district over extraordinary aid, which is a reimbursement the district receives for what it spends on special education students. The district budgeted a $900,000 reimbursement for expenses incurred in 2018-19 when it submitted the 2019-2020 budget in May. It was mid-July before the district learned it would receive $1.37 million in reimbursements.

The district also was criticized having had surpluses that resulted from efficiencies and from lower-than-expected insurance costs, and for putting funding for a capital project that was delayed into a capital reserve fund. The state insisted in the letter that all of the surpluses should have been completely depleted.

In years past, the Brick schools have been criticized by both state officials and taxpayers for not having funds set aside for major unanticipated facilities problems.

The cuts coming in 2020-2021 will be severe to address the $4.2 million aid reduction under S2, the law pushed by Senate President Stephen Sweeney.

The cuts in so-called "adjustment aid" will continue to leave the district under adequacy, Edwards has said.

"Adequacy as contained within the School Funding Reform Act is the determination of the cost of educating all students to achieve state standards, along with the cost of programs for low-income (at-risk) students, limited English proficient students, and students with disabilities," Edwards has said.

Under S2, Brick is required to increase its property tax levy by 2 percent to address what the state says is its failure to adequately tax its residents for education. But Edwards has said the cuts and the elimination of state aid will have the effect of putting the district further below adequacy, because the district cannot make up the gap with 2 percent increases.

"In 2020-2021 Brick schools are projected to lose $4,220,408 in state aid under S2 and will be required to increase local taxes by $2,223.374," Edwards said. "This will leave a revenue gap in the amount of $1,997,034."

"All in all the problem S2 creates for Brick Schools is staggering," he said at an earlier school board meeting. By the end of the seven-year S2 implementation the Brick school district will be more than $6 million under adequacy.

"This places Brick school children in a similar situation as that of the school districts covered under the Abbott decisions since the district will not be able to meet the constitutional mandate of a thorough and efficient education."

The reductions are why Toms River parents and students are rallying in Trenton on Tuesday, for a second time this year.

Edwards and other district officials have been fighting against S2, including through a lawsuit with seven other school districts seeking to force the state to reveal it the formula used to calculate the local fair share, the figure the state says the district should be getting from its property tax levy.

The state has refused to release the formula, calling it proprietary. Read more: Toms River, Brick Seek 'Secret' Math Equation In School Aid Fight

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