8 Things To Know On Proposed Seaside Heights-Toms River School Regionalization

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A proposal that would have the Seaside Heights School District join the Toms River Regional School District has received an endorsement from the Seaside Heights Borough Council, and officials say the matter could be put before voters as soon as March.

The Seaside Heights Borough Council passed a resolution on Nov. 21 endorsing the conclusions of a regionalization study commissioned by the Seaside Heights Board of Education and Toms River Regional Board of Education, which says Seaside Heights should join the Toms River district for students from preschool through 12th grade.

The council resolution also authorizes a request to the state for permission to hold a referendum on Seaside Heights joining the Toms River Regional district and simultaneously withdrawing from the Central Regional School District, where the borough's seventh through 12th graders currently attend middle and high school.

A 104-page report on the study, which looked at the academic and financial impacts for Seaside Heights and for Toms River, says the proposal offers "distinct educational advantages for both districts and no identifiable impact, much less a substantial negative impact, on Central Regional if the small number of students from Seaside Heights (is) phased out."

Central Regional appears to have no say in the withdrawal. Acting Superintendent Douglas Corbett told Patch that district's school board would be discussing the matter Thursday evening and would comment after that meeting.

Christopher Vaz, Seaside Heights borough administrator, told Shorebeat the referendum could happen as soon as March, but that the Toms River Regional school board must take action on the report and the state commissioner of education must give approval as well.

Toms River Regional Superintendent Michael Citta said the study "is currently in the hands of both our Board of Education and I believe the BOE of Seaside Heights," which must also sign off on the regionalization.

"If the districts agree to move forward with the regionalization question, March would be a possible date for the affected towns," Citta said, adding the Toms River school board would be meeting soon to discuss it. The school board has set a special meeting for Dec. 8. The board's committee meetings are set for Dec. 13, and the business meeting is Dec. 20.

The Seaside Heights Board of Education is scheduled to meet at 8:20 a.m. on Dec. 18.

Central Regional responds: 'Questionable Findings' In District Merging Report: Central Regional

The regionalization study was ordered by the state Division of Local Government Services as a condition of continuing to provide extra aid to Seaside Heights as it recovered from Superstorm Sandy and from the boardwalk fire in 2013.

Here are key points of the report:

1. Seaside Heights would close Hugh J. Boyd Elementary School.

The school building would be repurposed and the district — currently overseen by Central Regional's superintendent and business administrator at a nominal cost — would be dissolved. Its preschool to fifth graders would attend East Dover Elementary; sixth through eighth graders would attend Toms River Intermediate East, and high school students would attend Toms River East. All three schools have plenty of capacity to accommodate the Seaside Heights students, about 300 students covering kindergarten to 12th grade, the report said.

2. Seaside Heights would leave the Central Regional District.

The proposal to regionalize with Toms River would mean withdrawing from Central, though there would be a transition for students. Those who are in seventh grade would be permitted to complete eighth grade before moving to the Toms River schools, and students in high school would be permitted to complete their high school career at Central.

3. Who bears the tax burden?

Moving Seaside Heights into the Toms River district would cause property tax increases if it is done either as a share of equalized property value or on a per-student share.

Currently, Toms River and the other towns in the district — Pine Beach, Beachwood and South Toms River — share in the property tax burden based on 100 percent of the towns' equalized property valuation. Seaside Heights would see a significant tax increase under that method.

If it was shifted to per-student, Seaside Heights would save nearly $2 million, but the other towns would face tax increases.

The 100 percent equalized value is the same method used to determine the Central Regional district's property tax distribution, and it has been a driving force in past efforts by Seaside Heights and Seaside Park to dissolve the Central Regional district, which also includes Berkeley Township, Ocean Gate and Island Heights.

To avoid the potential tax increases the consultants proposed "a transitional allocation method." It would use the 100 percent equalized value allocation but freeze the Seaside Heights tax levy at 2023-24 levels for five years.

"We recommend that Seaside Heights join Toms River Regional and use the transitional

allocation methodology as presented," the report said. "Over the ten-year period Seaside Heights saves about $9 million when compared to the status quo. For each of the current constituent members of the regional over the same ten-year period Toms River saves $35.7 million, Beachwood saves $2 million, Pine Beach saves $680,000, and South Toms River saves $480,000."

4. Toms River Regional would use the funds from Seaside Heights to pay transitional support payments to Central Regional, including tuition for Seaside Heights students who remained in Central Regional during the transition period.

5. Academic positives.

Elementary students from Seaside Heights in particular would benefit academically as the larger district has more resources to help students needing extra assistance than exist at the borough's elementary school, the report said. Like students across New Jersey, student performance has been far below par since the pandemic.

Seaside Heights students also would see a reduced travel time for middle and high school, as the trip to Toms River Intermediate East is about 15 minutes and it's just over 10 minutes to Toms River High School East. The trip to Central Regional in Bayville is about 25 minutes.

"Seaside Heights students would benefit from the availability of programs and services in Toms River that would support greater student achievement as well as improve attendance and English language acquisition. The Toms River School District has the capacity, expertise, and a proven track record to accomplish these goals," the report said.

6. What would a referendum look like?

The consultants said there are two ways the addition of Seaside Heights to Toms River could be addressed. One would "dissolve" the current Toms River Regional district and create it anew with Seaside Heights as an additional member, along with changing how the tax levy is shared to combine equalized value and enrollment.

That would require a vote to approve in each town in the district; the consultants said that would not save any of the towns money.

"Given the lack of potential savings for each community, and the longstanding success of the regional, dissolving the existing regional is not advisable," the report said.

The other option is to simply expand to add Seaside Heights, which only requires approval of the majority of the voters throughout the district, along with approval in Seaside Heights, the report said.

The referendum expenses would be paid for by the state Division of Local Government Services.

6. What would happen to state aid?

State aid that Seaside Heights receives would be allocated to Toms River Regional, the report said, though it's not clear if it would be the full current amounts or not. In addition, Toms River would receive state aid allocated to Central Regional for middle and high school students.

What's not clear is whether that will mitigate the cuts Toms River Regional has suffered under S2 the last six years, due to the state Department of Education's insistence that the district is not bearing its fair share of the property tax burden. Categorical aid — state funding dedicated to areas such as special education students and English language learners — would likely increase as Seaside Heights has a higher percentage of Spanish-speaking students.

The cuts under S2 are expected to continue for the 2024-25 school year, which is supposed to be the last year of the cuts. The state has not indicated what it will do about the funding formula beyond 2024-25.

7. Other costs.

In addition to the state paying for the referendum, the consultants said the state offers grants to assist with other transition costs. The biggest potential cost: legal expenses if Central Regional fights the withdrawal.

The law governing regionalization, which passed in 2021, "speaks to the withdrawal process, which may mitigate any such challenge. This new regionalization legislation is new and has not been tested in the courts," the report notes.

8. What about Central Regional?

The report says Central Regional will lose funding under the change, but the consultants said it was not enough to "constitute a substantial negative financial impact. The reduction in revenue is not substantial when compared to the overall size of the Central Regional budget as well as the overall size of its annual tax levy, according to the report.

The consultants who performed the study and produced the report recommending regionalization were Richard S. Grip of Statistical Forecasting LLC, who handled the demographic and racial impact analysis; Mary Robinson Cohen, a retired school administrator with Porzio Compliance Services, who was responsible for the educational analysis; and Steven Cea, retired school business administrator, who was responsible for the financial analysis.