Tinton Falls Educates Naval Base Students from Colts Neck

Twelfth district legislators to assertions by the that they have remained impassive in the school district's recent fight to keep children of non-active military residents of Naval Weapons Station Earle out of their classrooms.

Sen. Jennifer Beck said in an interview on Monday that she was "surprised" by a and written by Tinton Falls Board of Education member Bill Holobowski stating that she and her fellow 12th District legislators had not supported the school district in what Holobowski called a "new Earle housing problem."

The senator said that when she had heard from the Tinton Falls board in July that it was trying to avoid accepting three students from a non-active military family from the Earle base, as mandated by the Department of Education (DOE), "We jumped right in."

Beck said that since July, she and Assemblywoman Caroline Cassagrande and Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon worked with the DOE, the Tinton Falls Board of Education and the state commisioner of education to resolve the matter. The Tinton Falls Board of Education had filed a suit against the state to overturn a mandate by the DOE that they educate the civilians living in “Balfour Beatty” housing at Earle.   

The court initially ruled against the school district and the board now awaits the appeal decision, which will be handed down by the commissioner of education who is acting in a judicial capacity in the matter. Legislators' hands are tied until the decision is made to avoid any improprieties, according to Beck.

O'Scanlon said that the commisioner "may just solve the problem." But if new legislation is required to resolve the issue, his team will go that route.

In his letter, Holobowski stated, "These legislators have neither the desire nor courage to draft a measure to repeal an antiquated law that continues to shield Colts Neck from educating all children living in Colts Neck."

"This is completely an unfair attack on the character of the people of the 12th District," said O'Scanlon of Holobowski's letter in a phone interview. "It's absolutely counter-productive."

In a separate matter, the Tinton Falls School District, which has educated students from Earle since 1988, successfully fought a plan by the Navy to provide 300 units for non-civilian housing known as Laurelwood at the naval weapons station. The fight was resolved last year with the help of 12th District legislators.

Freeholder Lillian Burry, who is also named in Holobowski's letter, said in an interview with Patch that the Tinton Falls School District willingly entered into this arrangement with the state over 20 years ago.

"They found the agreement very favorable at the time because [the compensation] was for the future of their school system. Of course time evolved and it's the end of the rainbow for them and it's not the pot of gold they were hoping for."

An earlier  stating that the board would not be "bullied" by state and county officials and the DOE into enrolling the students.

According to Cassagrande, the board was quick to "lawyer up," instead of taking a more collaborative route. "Everybody needs to sit down in a room and have a discussion about this."

"There's a solution here," said Cassagrande on Monday. "These children are the sons and daughters of our nation's heroes and we need to make sure the children remain a priority for everyone."

Additional reporting for this story was done by Shannon K. Winning.