By Stephen Appezzato
RED BANK – Staff and programming cuts may be inevitable for the Red Bank Borough School District next year as the institution faces a severe state funding cut.
Alongside Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed Fiscal Year 2025 state budget, the state Department of Education released information on how public school funding will be distributed next year. Within Monmouth County, some school districts will see a significant increase in aid, while others face stark reductions.
The budget proposal increased public school funding by $908 million and is the last of a seven-year initiative to implement Murphy’s 2018 S-2 legislation, which reformed school funding across the state. If the record high $55.9 billion budget is approved by legislators by the end of June, it will be the first to fully fund the state public school funding formula, which determines how much money school districts receive based on numerous factors.
In accordance with the budget, the majority of school districts will receive more state funding than last year. However, about 140 districts will face cuts.
Many applaud Murphy’s school funding reform, which was designed to increase investment in public school education and fix funding imbalances that arose from the overfunding of some districts while skimping on others. However, some are concerned the new funding formula is not fully fleshed out.
While most Two River area school districts will receive financial boosts, the Red Bank Borough School District faces a 19.6% funding cut – a $1.7 million loss.
“We expected to remain – worst case scenario – flat, or maybe see a slight increase this year because our enrollment is status quo,” said Red Bank superintendent of schools Jared Rumage. In reality, the outcome of the new state budget is far from the case.
“For about a decade beginning in 2013-14 we were underfunded over $44 million. Thanks to the S2 legislation, (for) the past seven years we’ve been, I’d like to say, on the road to recovery and made it back to 100% funding last school year, which would have been for this fiscal year,” Rumage said. But the district was blindsided by the announcement of next year’s funding breakdown.
While enrollment in the district remains steady, the “wealth factor” of the town resulted in the nearly 20% funding cut. Within the S2 funding formula, wealth factor is a variable that accounts for a town’s property values and the income of a district’s residents. Towns with a higher wealth factor must contribute more money from tax revenue to fund their public schools. This is sometimes referred to as the local cost share.
In Red Bank, a small but up-and-coming municipality, the increased wealth factor has skewed the school system’s funding outcome.
“Gov. Murphy did a great job, I think, and it seemed like they put an unbelievable amount of resources into the formula this year – another $908 million. So, you know, their efforts were to provide equity and all the resources needed to educate kids throughout the state. However, when that money was pumped into the formula, it didn’t come out that way,” Rumage said.
To account for funding loss, school districts can levy up to a 2% municipal tax increase. Rumage called that option “challenging,” as a 2% levy in Red Bank would only generate $400,000, a far cry from the anticipated $1.7 million loss.
A bill is currently progressing through the legislature that would allow school districts facing funding shortfalls to levy more than 2% in municipal taxes.
But, “how much can I tax the community?” Rumage asked. “Our goal was to provide a tremendous educational environment for all students every day, and do so in a fiscally responsible manner. And because we can go above the 2% tax levy doesn’t mean that’s in the best interest,” he said.
As a result of the $1.7 million loss, Rumage is concerned the school district may resort to programing and staff cuts. “Our goal would be to try to maintain the integrity of our amazing class sizes, to retain as many of our highly credentialled teachers as we possibly can, to maintain as many of those robust programs that we have,” he said.
“The last thing we want to do is cut programs and cut staffing,” Rumage said, an option he said was probably “inevitable.” While it is too early to determine what exactly will be cut, Rumage said to continue to meet the district’s mission, “we’ll probably have to cut a little bit from everywhere.”
Rumage and other superintendents facing funding cuts will testify at a state Senate Education Committee hearing March 21. The committee is chaired by Sen. Vin Gopal (D- 11); Red Bank is within his legislative district.
“The main goal is to calibrate the formula in a way that decreases the volatility in the formula and provides more consistency so that we can plan more appropriately in terms of long-term planning,” Rumage said. “It makes it very difficult for us to develop long-range plans when the volatility of the aid fluctuates so much,” he said.
Notably, within Monmouth County, the Asbury Park School District and Long Branch School District also face similar funding cuts – totaling $4.1 million and $10.4 million, respectively.
While the Red Bank, Asbury Park and Long Branch school districts face heavy losses, many districts across the county will receive financial boosts, including the Red Bank Regional High School District which will see a 13.54% increase under the new funding formula. The Fair Haven Borough School District the Oceanport School District will also receive double-digit increases, 12.1% ($133,059), and 19.03% ($154,395), respectively.
However, the largest increase in funding in the Two River area is for the Colts Neck School District; the Department of Education has earmarked over $3.6 million for Colts Neck, a 98% ($1.79 million) jump from the current fiscal year.
Lawmakers have until June 30 to negotiate changes to Murphy’s budget before school funding for the fiscal year is finalized.
The article originally appeared in the March 14 –March 20, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
