District tops state in percent of aid increase
DOE: Red Bank symbolic of districts Corzine wants to address
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

The Red Bank Public School District may have been just what Gov. Jon Corzine had in mind when he worked with the state Legislature to provide more funding to certain non-Abbott School districts.

After five years of flat state aid in the amount of $1,979,028, the Red Bank Public School District has received an increase of 18.6 percent, bringing total state aid for the 2006-2007 school year to $2,346,899.

Richard Vespucci, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said this week this is the highest percentage increase for a single school district throughout the state.

"Red Bank is symbolic of the type of district that Gov. Corzine's budget is addressing," said Vespucci. "The budget especially favors non-Abbott districts with high concentrations of poverty."

Vespucci said that poverty levels in schools are based on the percentage of students who receive free and reduced-price lunch, and in Red Bank, that is a relatively high number.

According to district Business Administrator Annie Darrow, 75 percent of students in the district receive free or reduced-price lunch.

"Districts with 20 percent or more of their students receiving free and reduced lunch qualify for $500 per student who qualifies," said Vespucci.

Districts with between 15 and 20 percent of their student bodies who qualify for free or reduced lunches qualify for $250 of state aid per student receiving free and reduced lunch, according to Vespucci.

This type of aid is referred to as Targeted at-Risk Aid (TARA) for low-income students, which is a new category of state aid added this year, according to Vespucci.

"This aid must be used for literacy, pre-school and full-day kindergarten classes," said Vespucci, "to help close the achievement gap between low-income students and their counterparts."

Another area of new aid, accounting for $26 million of the $194 million in aid going to schools across the state, is supplemental aid for schools that already provide full-day kindergarten classes, which is currently not a state requirement.

"This aid was created to recognize districts that have so far paid their own way to expand to full-day kindergarten classes and deserve more support from the state," said Vespucci, "as well as act as an incentive for other districts to expand and enhance their kindergarten programs."

Red Bank currently has a full-day kindergarten program, according to Darrow.

An area of state aid where Red Bank's increase was most noticeable was in the category referred to as "other," according to Vespucci.

This category includes bilingual aid, as well as TARA and full-day kindergarten aid.

According to Vespucci, in the 2005-2006 school year, the Red Bank district received $105,272 in "other" aid, which, he said, was most likely almost all bilingual aid.

This year's state budget allocated $413,772 in "other" aid to the district, almost quadrupling it.

Corzine's budget, according to Vespucci, also contains several grant programs, including $10 million in grants for expansion of pre-school programs.

Two years ago, the Red Bank district had to cut its pre-school program for 3-year-olds, and now only provides pre-school to 4-year-olds in the district, according to Darrow.

"Gov. Corzine's budget was designed to maximize the benefits to the neediest children in non-Abbot school districts," said Vespucci, "focusing a lot on early education to help close the achievement gap. Red Bank's profile fit with the kind of programs the governor felt are the most important to fund this year."

Vespucci said that this year's budget represents a "transition year" for school funding from the state, and that New Jersey residents can expect a new school funding formula to be in place by next year.

"One of the goals is to get the burden of revenue off the local property tax- payers," he said.

Red Bank School Superintendent Laura Morana said at last week's Board of Education meeting that this increase is long overdue.

"We're very optimistic," she said, "and very grateful for the increase."

Board member Ben Forest said that it would be wise of the board to use at least a portion of the state aid for property tax relief.

"We all want to improve our programs," he said, "but [tax relief] has to be on the table, too."

Morana agreed.

"This is not a blank check where we have to spend every dollar," she said. "It is important for us to provide tax relief and that is something to be considered."