The Sea Bright Borough Council took another shot at the long-standing issue of the Shore Regional High School funding formula at its April 3 meeting, voting 5-1 to hire a special counsel to assist in yet-to-be-defined reform measures. “As we’ve discussed in our [education] committee meeting, this is phase one of our intention to do something about the situation with the high school so it’s very specific and it requires a unique set of qualifications and I think that the person we considered and chosen is perfect for the position,” said Councilwoman Peggy Bills.
The Borough Council passed a resolution naming Marianne McKenzie, former president of the Sea Bright school board and 30-year attorney, special counsel for $5,000 including out-of-pocket expenses.
“When you don’t have an official capacity, you can’t get information,” said McKenzie in an interview in March.
“It’s really to get a good grip on the best scenario for our students and to really investigate what is going on with the various laws.”
Sea Bright is one of four towns, including Monmouth Beach, Oceanport and West Long Branch that send students to Shore Regional High School. For the 2011-2012 school year, Sea Bright sent 17 students, or a 10.85 percent share of the student body, to the high school.
According to Mayor Dina Long, the borough pays $91,000 per pupil, a figure that is determined by the district funding formula that is based on property valuations. In Sea Bright’s case, the equalized valuation of the municipality is about $764 million as compared to the other three sending towns, whose individual valuations are at least $1.2 billion.
“So if you only have a few kids in the borough going over to the high school, then per-child it appears you would be paying more,” explained Frank Belluscio, director of communications for the New Jersey School Boards Association.
“Most of the districts are still using the property valuation but this becomes more of an issue when you involve municipalities that do have very large differences in property values and very big differences in enrollment. That’s probably what they’re looking at.”
Monmouth Beach has a regional enrollment of about 102 students, or 25.7 percent of the high school student body; Oceanport sends 250 students, or 27.8 percent; West Long Branch sends 322.5 students, or 35.5 percent.
Belluscio cited several reasons for cost apportionments to be modified by voter approval in each constituent municipality: 10 years have elapsed since the last voter approval; 10 percent change in equalized valuation; 10 percent change in pupil enrollment counts; enlargement of the regional school district; or the regional district was formed before 1993 and never changed its apportionment.
Sea Bright has taken several steps to try to address the funding formal that puts a heavy burden on Sea Bright taxpayers, including a failed attempt in 2008 to get out of the school district by a referendum vote of all the sending municipalities.
“There is a method set up in the statute and you actually bring it to the voters and they decide if they want to change the cost reapportionment in how the regional district pays for students education and all of the municipalities have to approve it. You need a majority of voters in each municipality to approve it and there are some districts that have done it,” explained Belluscio.
The Shore Regional High School Board of Education, however, denied Sea Bright’s request for referendum.
“We could probably file a lawsuit that we’ve been denied our due process because they wouldn’t allow the referendum,” said Long in an April 4 interview.
“I don’t know [if we’re going to do that], that’s one of things that you would want a special counsel for, but what Marianne is going to do for that $5,000, and what I want to see, is she’s going to compile the official record of everything that’s been done in terms of the formation of the regional [formula] and what’s been tried.”
Councilman Marc Leckstein voted against the hiring of McKenzie and suggested the council instead put out public bids for the position.
“I am not opposed to the idea of hiring a special counsel for education, I think the education issue is a very large one for this borough,” he said.
“I just think we can probably put together a better package and come up with a very specific proposal and get better looks back, and to see a more defined project put forth.”
Resident Charlie Rooney was outspoken against the need for a special counsel and questioned why the council needed to spend money on outside resources.
“I think hiring Marianne is not a great idea but we’ll see how it goes. I think when you’re elected to council, I would say one of your main objectives has to be to correct our situation for the amount of money that we pay in taxes to the school system,” said Rooney.
“But I want to know what she’s doing that the council can’t do, and it’ll be interesting just to see at the end of the rainbow what’s been done that you guys can’t do. I mean that’s why you’re elected here.”
At the council meeting, the mayor said that this issue would require a lot of coordination among council members and suggested a mayor’s blue ribbon committee to oversee the progress by McKenzie.
“I would very much like to participate, having been a council member who spent a lot of time on this issue and have a good command of the formula and the circumstances,” Long said.
“I would like to definitely like to be on that and I would like for two additional council people to join me.”
Councilman Read Murphy, however, questioned the need for a special Mayor’s committee especially since McKenzie would already be working in conjunction with the education committee. The only difference, he said, is that the special task force would allow the mayor to participate.
Because state regulations prevent four elected officials from working together on a given special project, a mayor’s blue ribbon committee would sidestep that roadblock.
Still, the council did not seem convinced and instead Murphy concluded the discussion with his opinion of a special mayor’s committee.
“We’ve had some real doozies.”