Can Land Deal Fill Toms River Schools' Budget Gap?

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River Township officials are pursuing the potential for the township to buy a piece of property from the Toms River Regional School District in hopes of filling $3.8 million hole in the district's 2023-24 budget.

Toms River Superintendent Michael Citta made the request to township Mayor Maurice "Mo" Hill and the Township Council Wednesday, with the request announced during the council meeting.

The parcel the district is hoping to sell to the township is next to Silver Bay Elementary School in the Silverton section of town. If it was sold to a developer, it would have the potential to hold up to 50 homes, Hill said.

Toms River would buy it to preserve the property as open space and prevent homes from being built there, he said.

The Toms River schools were handed a catastrophic state aid cut of $14.4 million in Gov. Phil Murphy's 2023-24 proposed budget, nearly five times the aid cut that the district had been anticipating under S2. S2 is the law passed in 2018 that was supposed to be removing so-called "adjustment aid" that districts had been receiving under the 2008 change in the school funding formula.

The depth of the aid cuts to Toms River and dozens of other school districts prompted an outcry and led to an emergency bill, Senate Bill 3732, to reduce the amount of the cuts. Murphy signed the bill Tuesday, making $103 million available to districts faced with aid cuts, reducing them by 66 percent.

For Toms River, that reduces the cut by more than $9.5 million, but still leaves the district with a $4.9 million reduction. Citta said the district's proposed budget includes $1.1 million in cuts, including 30 jobs. The remaining $3.8 million hole would force more drastic cuts for the district, which has 14,798 students as of March 30, an increase in enrollment over 2022.

"I have a constitutional obligation to sign off on a thorough-and-efficient budget," Citta said, adding that if they are forced to cut the $3.8 million the district will not be able to meet that constitutional requirement.

Hill and Council President Matt Lotano said the township council's land use committee met in an emergency session Wednesday and was in favor of the purchase. Hill said the township has enough money in its open space fund to make the purchase, and the council agreed to move forward with the possible purchase.

The details were still few. The property has to be appraised; that process to get the appraisal was to begin Thursday. The council also will have to introduce an ordinance and vote on it, which will require two more council meetings minimum.

Citta said he needed to discuss the matter with the school board, which has its committee meetings scheduled for April 19. Some of the board members were present Wednesday night, including board president Kevin Kidney and vice president Kathy Eagan, Lisa Contessa, and Ashley Lamb, and were scattered around the meeting room.

Lotano noted the potential land purchase is a one-year Band-Aid for the district, something the town won't be able to repeat infinitely.

Citta said the land sale would buy the district time to keep fighting the battle to get S2 changed, which he said is getting attention because so many districts are being pushed to the edge of a fiscal cliff.

"Toms River got pushed over," he said.

The Toms River Regional district spends about $20,000 per pupil, which business administrator William Doering said at the citizens budget hearing likely will be the lowest per-pupil cost for districts with more than 3,500 students.

"This is a time where being No. 1 isn't a good thing," Doering said.

And Citta anticipates 2024-25, which is supposed to be the final year of S2, would be far worse. At the citizens budget meeting, he said the district would be faced with a $26 million cut, because the $9.5 million put back in for 2023-24 would be cut in addition to what is anticipated to be cut for 2024-25.

"This is not an expense problem, it’s a revenue problem," Citta said.