Seaside Leaving Would Be 'Detrimental' To Central Regional, Board Says
BERKELEY, NJ — While Seaside Heights and Toms River are in agreement of the two combining school districts, it seems that Central Regional will not be giving up without a fight.
The Board of Education held a special meeting on Dec. 13, where they adopted a resolution opposing a recent feasibility study that recommended Seaside Heights withdraw from Central Regional. Read more: Seaside Heights-Toms River School Regionalization: What It Would Mean
What are the benefits of keeping Seaside Heights students at Central Regional? A big one is the approximately $3 million a year in property taxes towards the district’s budget, according to Board Secretary Kevin O’Shea.
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Money seems to be a factor for Toms River Regional, too, as Superintendent Michael Citta has said that if Seaside Heights joined, it would solve their anticipated $26.6 million budget shortfall.
But allowing those students to leave would have a “detrimental impact” on the tax basis, plus the community and its students, the board said in their resolution.
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The board is planning to solicit a neutral third party to review the potential impacts and “will undertake all necessary actions to assist in the New Jersey Department of Education’s understanding of what such an unprecedented decision” would cause, the resolution reads.
They also said that the group of attorneys that completed the study are the same group that previously tried to dissolve the Central Regional School District on behalf of Seaside Park, which was unsuccessful.
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.
And it uses a law that was passed a year and a half ago regarding school regionalization that would effectively leave Central Regional and its sending towns out of the conversation. The decision would be made by voters in the Toms River Regional towns (Toms River, South Toms River, Pine Beach and Beachwood) and Seaside Heights.
But Board Attorney Christopher Dasti said that when that new law was passed, it did not repeal a previous one that meant Central Regional’s towns would have to vote to allow Seaside Heights to leave.
That’s an issues attorneys on both sides will likely be working out, Dasti said.
“They have a vision for their town,” O’Shea said of Seaside Heights. “And for better or for worse, they’re implementing that vision.”
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