N.J. eliminates S.B. school district
District, which has no school, merged with Oceanport
BY KIMBERLY STEINBERG Staff Writer
State Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy announced on July 1 that the state has eliminated 13 school districts, including Sea Bright's, that were operating without any schools and with relatively few students.

The only Monmouth County district affected is the borough of Sea Bright. With its kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school district now eliminated, the district has merged with Oceanport.

The elimination and merger of the nonoperating school districts comes a day after Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed legislation to establish procedures for merging the districts with larger, neighboring districts where children from the non-operating districts already attend classes.

The legislation ensures compliance with a 2007 law that included numerous requirements to enhance efficiency and accountability in the operation of school districts, explained Richard Vespucci, state Department of Education spokesman.

"This is an important step forward in Governor Corzine's efforts to share services and make government more efficient," said Davy.

"These districts don't operate any schools; they are charged tuition by the districts to which they send their students. Many of them have only a handful of students, yet they have boards of education and many hire staff to fulfill their duties," Davy said.

"It is important to note, however, that eliminating the districts will have no impact whatsoever on the quality of the education provided," added Davy. "Children will continue to attend the same schools and enjoy the same educational opportunities."

"This elimination has no impact on where the children are going to school," Vespucci said.

According to a state-issued press release, the concept of eliminating these non-operating districts was first proposed in a legislative study in 1969. Forty years later, Corzine signed legislation paving the way to eliminating the state's non-operating school districts.

With the mergers announced last week, the number of districts in the state has decreased from 616 to 603. When the final 13 districts are eliminated over the next year, there will be 590 districts, Vespucci explained.

Davy said in the press release that the initial 13 mergers are effective July 1 to coincide with the start of the state and school fiscal years.

"We wanted this to be as seamless as possible," she said.

The first districts eliminated were those that were in a sending-receiving relationship with a single school district. The remaining districts have additional considerations that must be addressed before a merger can be effectuated.

The executive county superintendents in these counties will continue to review these matters and will advise the commissioner when a transition can be made, Davy said.

Among the remaining 13 non-operating districts that will be addressed at a later date in Monmouth County are Allenhurst, Interlaken and Lake Como.

Sea Bright students currently attend Oceanport elementary schools and Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch.

"This only deals with K-8. It has nothing to do with the regional district," Vespucci said.

Oceanport will increase its Board of Education (BOE) from nine to 10 members, with one voting member being from Sea Bright.

Next year, candidates will run at large, with people of both communities running for seats on the board.

In a letter from Davy to Maryann McKenzie, board president of the former Sea Bright Borough school district, Davy explains plans for the BOE.

"The plan provides for the continuation of a nine-member BOE elected for staggered three-year terms. Current members of the Oceanport BOE will continue in office until the expiration of their respective terms, at which time the successor shall be elected at-large by the voters of the new district," she wrote.

"Within 30 days of the merger, the Monmouth County Executive Superintendent of Schools [Carole Knopp Morris] will appoint the existing representative from the Sea Bright borough BOE to serve as a voting member of the Oceanport borough BOE until the first annual election in which a member of the Oceanport borough BOE is elected at-large," Davy continued.

District finances including the tax levy will not be affected, and per-pupil costs paid by the borough to Oceanport will not change for the 2009-10 budget.

Thereafter, the school budget tax levy will be apportioned through a combination of 98.1 percent pupil enrollment and 1.9 percent equalized valuation, the letter said.

According to the letter, an estimated potential cost savings totaling $74,028 may result from the elimination of contracted child study team services, contracted attendance and social workers, administrative costs for a contracted business administrator and support staff, and the elimination of benefits, including costs for workers' compensation insurance and Social Security, among others.

All remaining Sea Bright school district assets are to be liquidated because they no longer exist as an entity, and the fiscal books for the district will be closed, said Vespucci.

"This is only part of a larger statewide effort to reduce local and state government waste and extra spending in an effort to consolidate and share services. It's a response to having too many duplicated costs in many municipalities. It's one piece of a very large pie," Vespucci said.

Earlier this year, Morris sought to conduct a school consolidation feasibility study that could result in the merger of several area school districts.

The study looks into the possibility of merging districts in an effort to alleviate school taxes, as well as the possibility of eliminating or merging non-K-12 districts. The study provided the data that led to the elimination of non-operating school districts.

Area districts being considered for mergers include the Ocean Township, Deal, Interlaken, Allenhurst and Asbury Park school districts, the Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Monmouth Regional High School districts, as well as the Red Bank Borough, Red Bank Regional High School, Little Silver and Shrewsbury Borough school districts.

The study is also expected to investigate a possible merger among the Shore Regional High School, West Long Branch, Oceanport, Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach school districts.

The feasibility study and the elimination of several school districts comes after the state Legislature passed a law in 2007 requiring counties throughout the state to investigate potential cost-saving measures through the elimination of non-operating school districts and the creation of more K- 12 districts.

Items examined in the study include district school budgets, tax levies, student populations, the utilization of buildings, staffing, depth of programs and similarities between districts.

In addition to the elimination of non-operating districts, the feasibility study looked at eliminating non-K-12 school districts.

"We will reduce beyond the non-operating school districts. We're currently looking into other schools that aren't K-12 with future consolidations down the road," said Vespucci.

The move toward K-12 districts would allow school districts to come into compliance with the state's current grade structure, which calls for districts to be configured from grades kindergarten through 12.