FREEHOLD – The superintendent of schools in the Freehold Borough K-8 School District thanked state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem ) and state Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) for their recent efforts to help secure additional state aid for the district.
Sweeney and Gopal visited the district on Sept. 4, the day before students began the 2018-19 school year.
“We in Freehold Borough were honored to have Senate President Sweeney and our own Sen. Gopal stop in the district to visit the Park Ave Elementary School and the Freehold Intermediate School,” Superintendent of Schools Rocco Tomazic said.
“We are fully aware of the key leadership role Senate President Sweeney played in getting the school funding formula back on track to fulfill its original purpose. Working with Sen. Gopal and others, our district has seen an increase in state aid of more than $3 million over the past two years. Just this year we increased our percentage of state aid from 45 percent to 58 percent.
“Because of this extra aid, we were able to hire 11 more teachers for the upcoming school year, thus significantly lowering our class sizes and allowing us to put a teacher in each of the new classrooms currently under construction. We were delighted to show Senate President Sweeney and Sen. Gopal our progress and thank them in person for all their efforts on our behalf,” Tomazic said.