School board condemns S.B.’s proposed cuts
Sea Bright officials seeking $1.3M from Shore Regional budget
By sherry conohan
Staff Writer
In the continuing distress over the $11.1 million Shore Regional High School budget for the next school year, which Sea Bright would like to cut by $1.3 million, a member of the Board of Education has demanded to know who is advising Sea Bright.
The borough pointed out Sam Siciliano, of Ocean Township, a retired school administrator.
When it retained a consultant to identify items in the budget that were not related to a thorough and efficient education, the statutory mandate, and could be scratched, the borough’s governing body said it would be selecting someone from among three former business administrators of the state Board of Education.
As one of the two sending districts to Shore Regional High School to defeat the school’s budget in the April 15 school elections, Sea Bright had the opportunity to recommend cuts in it.
The other sending district to Shore Regional to defeat the budget, West Long Branch, recommended cutting only $50,000 from the budget.
The other two sending districts, Monmouth Beach and Oceanport, passed the budget.
Russell T. Olivadotti, a representative from West Long Branch on the Shore Regional board, charged that "half of them" on the Sea Bright Borough Council, which recommended the huge cut, don’t know what they’re doing.
Olivadotti asked, at the high school board meeting, why the borough of Sea Bright was seeking to "tear apart" the district’s budget by eliminating such things as courtesy busing. He noted, that is for transporting students who live less than two and a half miles from the high school, and contended the standard is antiquated.
"They didn’t have all the traffic we have today," he said, when the distance was set.
"They should take care of their own house," he said, indicating Sea Bright.
Sea Bright, in making its recommendation, noted that it’s paying $44,500 for every pupil that it sends to Shore Regional and has complained it is simply too much money.
Paul Rolleri, another Shore Regional board member, from Oceanport, maintained that Sea Bright is making a "mockery" of the school system. He said an editorial in the Atlanticville was correct when it said that Sea Bright is one of the district’s most prosperous municipalities and should pay up according to the formula now in place for assessing cost on member municipalities of a regional school district.
"The people who are going to get hurt with any cuts are the students at Shore Regional High School," he asserted. "I think it’s a disgrace they’re recommending $1.3 million."
Olivadotti said it was worse in that the Sea Bright Borough Council was hiring a retired school business administrator to recommend cuts that should be made in the budget.
Both Rolleri and Olivadotti expressed the hope that the county superintendent of schools and the state commissioner of education would reject such a deep cut in the school’s budget.
Sea Bright’s lone representative on the Shore Regional board, Joan Brearley, voted for the high school budget that the board passed and submitted to the voters.
Sea Bright, in slashing the high school budget, proposed eliminating funding for sports and co-curricular activities, and letting the individual sending districts or parents pick up the tab for students who participate.
Sea Bright Councilman William Gelfound, said Shore Regional’s sports program is the most expensive of a regional high school in the state. He said his children were very athletic when in school but he could readily support the cuts the council was recommending.
"Why should we pay for Oceanport’s and West Long Branch’s kids?" he asked." They should pay $1 million more."