Sea Bright's share of regional budget to rise
County superintendent looks at consolidating districts with no schools
BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer

SEA BRIGHT - The Shore Regional High School Board of Education (BOE) is proposing a school budget that would increase the tax rate in Sea Bright by approximately 6.6 cents per $100 of assessed value, the highest increase of the four municipalities that send their students to the school.

In total, the $14.6 million budget would bring the tax rate up from 35.1 cents to 41.7 cents per $100 of assessed value for Sea Bright taxpayers.

The budget, which also includes a slight increase in the tax rate in West Long Branch and decreases in Monmouth Beach and Oceanport, was approved by the Executive County Superintendent of Schools March 10, according to Shore Regional High School (SRHS) Business Administrator Dennis W. Kotch.

"We're the town with the least amount of students, the least amount of equalized value and yet we always get the highest increase," said Sea Bright Mayor Maria Fernandes at the March 4 Borough Council meeting.

Since becoming mayor in January, Fernandes has formed the School Formula Advisory Committee, which she commissioned to develop a long-term plan for securing state changes to the thorough and efficient formula that the state imposes on the regional districts.

The committee is made up of a mix of eight professionals including current and former teachers and school board members, a political fundraiser, an attorney and an actuary, and will be chaired by Councilwoman Dina Long.

According to Fernandes, it costs Sea Bright about $75,000 per student to educate 24 students while the average cost to educate a child at the high school is approximately $15,000 per student.

A homeowner living in the average Sea Bright home assessed at $383,100 would pay an additional $21.25 a month or $254 annually if the school budget is adopted.

The total amount of the district's budget to be raised by taxes is $13.15 million, of which Sea Bright's share is about 16 percent.

This is an increase from the 2007-08 Shore Regional budget, where Sea Bright's share was about 14 percent.

Sea Bright is a non-operating district, which means it is a district that has school-age children but does not operate a district school of its own, according to Department of Education (DOE) spokesman Rich Vespucci.

Although Sea Bright does not have a district school of its own, it does have its own BOE and one board member on the SRHS board to represent the borough.

On March 24, representatives from Sea Bright will meet with Executive County Superintendent of Education Carole Knopp Morris to discuss the consolidation of school boards.

Sea Bright is one of four municipalities in Monmouth County that have boards but no school districts.

The other three municipalities are Interlaken, Allenhurst and Lake Como.

"We are one of four towns that have a school board and yet no school, and they have to present a plan to the state as to how we are to proceed. The state wants all school boards that do not have a school to be eliminated. What this is, is taxation without representation. We will have no say at all but yet we still have to pay," said Fernandes.

The consolidation effort is part of the Shared Services and Consolidation Act passed by the Legislature in June 2007, according to Vespucci.

According to the legislation, the Executive County Superintendent can also recommend to the commissioner a school district consolidation plan to eliminate all districts, other than county-based districts and other than preschool or kindergarten-throughgrade 12 districts in the county, through the establishment or enlargement of regional school districts.

"I'm going to be introducing myself and talking to them [Sea Bright officials] about the procedure that I'm going to use to review the law itself. It's an introductory kind of meeting to elicit some of their ideas and to really have an exchange of communication," Morris said of the preliminary meeting.

She said the discussion of consolidation is in the very preliminary stages and there is no procedure or plan in the works yet.

"I would hope to have a plan developed within the next few months to present to the commissioner," said Morris.

In total, the 2008-09 SRHS budget is a 4.4 percent, or $614,860, increase from the 2007-08 budget, which called for $13.99 million.

The proposed budget would decrease the tax rate in Oceanport by 0.3 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The tax rate would decrease from 25.6 cents to 25.3 cents per $100 of assessed value.

A homeowner living in the average Oceanport home assessed at $580,000 would pay $1.50 less a month if the school budget is adopted.

Oceanport's share of the total amount of the regional district's budget to be raised by taxes is about 23.9 percent, which is a decrease from last year when the municipality's share was about 25 percent.

The budget is scheduled to be introduced for public hearing at the March 20 SRHS board meeting, at the school, located on Monmouth Park Highway 36 in West Long Branch.