Toms River Schools: Reserves Fill Hole, Devastating Cuts Loom

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional Board of Education pulled $2.3 million from its reserves to backfill a cut in state aid for the 2018-19 school year. But officials said that stop-gap measure won't be available next year, when at least $5 million in cuts are coming.

Barring a dramatic change between now and April 2019, those cuts will include courtesy busing, sub-varsity sports, and hundreds of staff, district officials said.

"We are in serious, serious trouble and it's just beginning," said William Doering, the business administrator for the Toms River Regional Schools.

"I don't want the community to think, well, we made it through this year," said David Healy, the district's superintendent. "This is a Band-Aid so we don't have to tell 100 staff members 'you don't have a job' on the first day of school."

"I implore this community to work together to fight this," Healy said. "We have nearly 120,000 residents when you include all the towns. We need the entire community to make noise."

The cut in state aid was made official on Tuesday when Gov. Phil Murphy signed S-2, the law cutting adjustment aid to school districts that had been receiving it under the School Funding Reform Act, into law. The law, proposed and pushed by Senate President Stephen Sweeney, is cutting the adjustment aid over the course of seven years.

For Toms River, that will mean a cut of more than $21 million over that time — a cut that will mean significant rollbacks in staffing and programs. Hundreds of jobs will be cut. Courtesy busing and late buses will cease. Sports programs, long a source of pride for the district, will cease to exist below the varsity level. And that's just in 2019-2020, Healy said.

For 2018-19, with the opening of school just over a month away, Doering said the district is using an additional $1,157,955 in surplus and an additional $1,200,000 from its maintenance reserve fund. The maintenance reserve exists for emergency issues that arise, such as the damage inflicted on the district by Superstorm Sandy. The unrestricted funds surplus, meanwhile, will be well below 2 percent, putting the district in a precarious position, Doering said.

"We have already rehired staff, purchased textbooks, purchased the 15 buses we budgeted for, and renewed all of our insurances," he said. "We are at the day of reckoning."

In addition to slashing the adjustment aid, the law requires the district to increase the tax levy by 2 percent per year, because it is "an underspending district."

"That will not be enough to make up the difference," Doering said.

It will, however, mean increases in property taxes in all of the towns in the district. In Toms River, the average increase would be more than $1,300. Pine Beach homeowners would see an increase of more than $1,200. In Beachwood, the average increase would be more than $900, and in South Toms River it would be nearly $350.

"This is a massive shift in property taxes," Board President Russell Corby said, noting that Toms River has the third-highest home foreclosure rate in the state.

Sweeney, in pushing his legislation, insisted that districts receiving adjustment aid were not carrying their fair share of the property tax burden. There also have been implications that districts receiving adjustment aid were freely spending funds frivolously.

The Toms River schools spent $16,318 per pupil in the 2015-16 school year, the most recent figures available on the state Department of Education website, more than $3,000 less than the state average per-pupil spending. It is the third- or fourth-lowest in per-pupil spending among schools its size.

"We worked diligently to make sure our costs are low," board member Daniel Leonard said. "This is sending the wrong message to our kids. We tell them to do the right thing and you will be rewarded, but that isn't what's happening here."

Scott Campbell, president of the Toms River Education Association, said it's imperative that parents, taxpayers, teachers, politicians and staff and students work together to fight.

"We have to advocate for the prosperity of this town," he said. "If we don't do this as a collective effort ... we will fail."

Robert Onofrietti, who served on the board for the last three years but lost his seat last November, urged the board to file a lawsuit against the state on constitutional grounds.

"If you remember when Lt. Gov. Guadagno was here, she said that would be the only way to get the state's attention," he said.

The state constitution requires the state to provide a "thorough and efficient" education through its public schools.

Corby said that course of action is one of the paths the district is considering. He also urged the community to voice its support for a bill proposed by 11th District legislators James Holzapfel, Dave Wolfe and Greg McGuckin that would shield Toms River and other towns devastated by Superstorm Sandy from the cuts.

The board also approved an immediate application to the state Department of Education seeking restoration of the aid. Last year, the district appealed the $1.4 million cut and that money was returned in November.

There are still more than $600 million in ratables that have not returned to the tax rolls in Toms River.

"We are in a circumstance that is not of our own making," Corby said.

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Business Administrator William Doering and Superintendent David Healy take questions during a public meeting on the district's impending school referendum. Photo by Toms River Schools