Seaside Heights voters rejected a plan to merge the borough's elementary school with the Toms River Regional school district, defeating a ballot question that asked if Seaside should become part of the larger district.
Seaside Heights voters rejected the merger by a margin of 261 to 167.
The ballot question passed overwhelmingly in Toms River, Beachwood, Pine Beach and South Toms River — the four towns that make up the regional district — with more than 80% of voters supporting the merger. The unofficial tally in the four Toms River Regional towns was 7,145 in favor to 1,070 against. But the defeat in Seaside Heights was all that was needed to scuttle the merger plan.
In total, 8,643, or about 10% of registered voters, cast ballots on Tuesday.
The question asked if the approximately 200 students at Seaside's Hugh J. Boyd Jr. Elementary School should leave Central Regional and join Toms River Regional. For the merger to go forward, Seaside Heights and Toms River Regional voters had to approve it.
"I’m extremely proud of the Toms River Regional community. I am humbled and grateful for their support," said Toms River Regional Superintendent Mike Citta. "I am just disappointed that the kids in Seaside are not going to have the benefit of a Toms River Regional education."
A concerted effort by opponents of the merger in Seaside seems to have paid off: parents, teachers and residents of the borough said they were concerned that the largely ethnic minority students in the borough's elementary school would not receive the same quality education if they joined Toms River Regional. The Boyd school would have remained open for up to five years, as long as enrollment stayed above 125 students, if Seaside Heights residents had approved the merger.
The defeat marks a major setback for Toms River Regional, which has been struggling for years to deal with the impact of the state's school funding formula, or S2. The formula cuts money from districts that have lost students, such as Toms River Regional and other school systems at the Jersey Shore, and funnels money to those that are growing.
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If the merger with Seaside Heights had gone through, Toms River Regional taxpayers would have saved about $40 million over the next decade, while Seaside Heights taxpayers would have saved $9 million. Toms River would have received more than $6.5 million in additional property taxes.
If the districts merged, Toms River Regional would have had state funding restored due to a law passed in August known as S3950, Citta has said. The new law exempts regional school districts serving five or more New Jersey municipalities from state aid cuts under certain cicumstances.
Citta said Toms River Regional faces a $26.5 million budget deficit for the 2024-2025 school year, a number that would have remained even if the school merger had gone through.
"To say I am disappointed is an understatement," Citta added. "Certainly we have done our job educating our community. That showed up in the polls today. They listened to us, they heard us and they supported us. That will keep me moving forward to find solutions."
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To qualify, these regional districts must also have administrative per-pupil costs that are at least 15% below the state average and their boards must have raised school taxes by the maximum allowed by law over the previous five years.
The merger was opposed by Central Regional school district, which educates Seaside Heights kids once they reach seventh grade. Central, which includes children from Berkeley, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park, educates children in grades 7 to 12. Central officials have recently said they plan to conduct a study to look at the feasibility of creating a pre-K-to-12th-grade district.
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Seaside Heights Borough Administrator Christopher J. Vaz noted that Seaside was asked to conduct the feasibility study by the state, since the borough has been receiving transitional aid since 2016. Seaside has received $17.6 million since that date, to help the borough balance its budget after a large ratable loss following 2012's Superstorm Sandy.
VJean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and writes about issues related to Superstorm Sandy. She's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com.
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