'One More Year:' Toms River Video Urges School Aid Cut Reprieve

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional School District community is continuing to push and press for a reprieve from the state Department of Education on an anticipated funding cut that could force the district to scrap sports, clubs and the arts.

Since November, when district officials spelled out how dire the financial situation is for the 2020-2021 school year, where the district is anticipating a $4.4 million state aid cut, parents and students and staff have been banding together to fight the cuts.

The most recent effort was the creation of a video stressing the importance of the arts. Marching band, theatre and chorus, are at risk of being cut if the district is unable to come up with a solution to the cuts, which are being imposed under S2, the law signed in 2017 by Gov. Phil Murphy that sets strict deadlines for cutting so-called "adjustment aid" that the district has been receiving under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.

"Cutting out the extracurricular programs will cut out the heart of our district," said Kristine Perry, the Toms River teacher who organized the video.

Toms River district officials and officials at other districts affected by the severe cuts have asked the state to suspend the cuts for one year, until the formula — which the state Department of Education continues to refuse to release — can be examined.

"One more year," was the message of the group of 167 students, staff and Toms River alumni who gathered at Toms River South on Jan. 11. You can watch the video below.

The Toms River school district — along with several others — is fighting the cuts, which the state says are based on a formula that purportedly shows the Toms River district is not paying its "local fair share" of property taxes to support its schools.

The state education department has refused to release the details of the formula, including the wealth multipliers it uses to calculate that local fair share figure. (Read more: Toms River, Brick Seek 'Secret' Math Equation In School Aid Fight; Sports, Clubs, Kindergarten At Risk In Toms River School Aid Cuts)

At the same time, the Toms River schools are defined as under adequacy — meaning they are spending less per student than the figure defined by the education department as what's required for a thorough and efficient education.

"We tax less because we spend less," Superintendent David Healy has said on multiple occasions.

"We are being punished for being efficient," business administrator William Doering has said.

The Toms River schools spent $17,606 per student in the 2017-18 school year, the most recent year available on the Taxpayer's Guide to Education Spending. The state average was more than $4,000 higher, at $21,886.

Earlier this month, a Sweeney-led bill was sent to Murphy that would have given school districts receiving drastic cuts the ability to increase the property tax levy by more than the state's 2 percent cap to make up for the lost aid. Murphy vetoed the bill, however.

Raising the tax levy beyond the 2 percent cap was not a solution district officials see as a permanent solution until the funding formula and its details are publicly released and examined.

"It was one more tool in the tool box," Healy said, for addressing the immediate crisis. "It would have gotten us through this year to fight another year."

Now the district is faced with seeking other answers, and urging state officials to reconsider the aid cuts or suspend them for a year.

The video "is who we are as a district and a town," Healy said. You can watch it here.

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