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Fight to Restore Our Funding

Mike Citta speaking at Town Hall spring 2024
From rallies in Trenton in 2019 and 2021 (right), to Town Halls hosted by Superintendent Michael Citta in 2024 (above), the district has been battling State Bill S2 since its inception in 2017. Read all about why, plus what you can do to help and how you can stay informed, below.

SOS rally in Trenton from 2019

Funding FAQs

NJ’s current school funding formula dates back to 2008. It considers property wealth and enrollment, plus other calculations the NJDOE has not fully revealed. In 2018, a Bill known as S-2 reinterpreted the formula to redistribute funds among districts based on recent changes in enrollment. About two-thirds of districts benefited, at the expense of the rest.

One key issue is that the state does not consider factors such as a district's spending history, funding history, cost per pupil, most special education costs, and transportation, nor does it accurately measure community wealth-- all impacts that, if considered, would trend positively for our district and others. We have asked the NJDOE to look at how many towns inaccurately report their wealth due to PILOTs and delaying property re-evaluations, and to disclose how it allocated $6.5 billion in Equalization Aid last year. So far there has been no reply on these important issues. Our most important demand is that the formula be examined and fixed openly to the public.

Toms River Regional Schools is the second largest suburban district in the state and the biggest employer in the county. Despite the challenges of managing such a large organization, it has a history of fiscal responsibility, with one of the lowest per pupil and administrative costs in the state.

Even prior to S2, TRRSD had weathered significant aid cuts, absorbed new special services, busing, mandated programming, and medical costs, and never fully recovered from $300 million in lost ratables due to Superstorm Sandy. In fact, by the NJDOE’s own calculations, the district was operating at $37 million under adequacy (meaning they think we should be spending more) when S2 passed.

Now? Now the district is an incredible $91 million under adequacy. More than 200 staff positions have been lost, along with cuts to services. The total projected cumulative loss of state aid across the lifespan of S2 will be a whopping $137-plus million for Toms River, millions more than the state even anticipated when S2 was developed.

The impact on staff and programs is poised to be catastrophic if something isn't fixed as we endure the fiscal cliff this bill promised, which is here. This could include the elimination of over 200 more positions, expanding class sizes to 30-40 students; a return to half day or the elimination of kindergarten; and getting rid of non-mandated programs and services like athletics, band, musicals, robotics, courtesy busing, and more.

All who live in these communities are already feeling the emotional impact of lost staff and anticipated cuts to programs. People are moving or looking for work elsewhere. Good schools are the backbone of great towns and equate to quality of life. Town leaders are discussing the future of local businesses and real estate. Dismantling our schools will destroy the towns of Beachwood, Pine Beach, South Toms River, and Toms River, towns already struggling to recover financially and from other serious challenges like addiction and unemployment. Other districts may have fat to cut to weather a fiscal storm, but TRRSD has always operated lean. No combination of cuts, savings, or other actions can make up for this loss. 

Before Bill S-2 was passed, as early as 2015, district leaders communicated with the Commissioner of Education and Senate leaders, met with local leaders, consulted legal counsel, and wrote and presented dozens of documents explaining the inherent flaws in the funding process.

With the passage of S-2 and the affected districts announced in July 2018, Toms River Regional’s campaign went full throttle with press conferences, news releases, videos, and partnerships with other school districts, organizations, and legislators. The district co-founded SOS and joined voices and action with more than 80 other districts. On March 5, 2019, thousands of students, teachers, parents, administrators, and Board members, most of them from Toms River Regional, arrived in Trenton by the busload as Governor Murphy delivered his annual budget address. Dozens of students, teachers, and administrators followed up with testimony at Senate and Assembly budget hearings in late March, depositing over 30,000 letters from students, parents, and teachers on legislators’ desks.

In August 2019, our Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution condemning the funding process and beginning the application for emergency aid, which has yet to be responded to. It worked to bring organizations like the NJ School Boards Association to join the battle. Administrators and Board members continue to meet with political leaders to make sure Trenton hears our concerns and understand the impact of their decisions. Parent letters and social media campaigns continue to add to the fight. And press coverage on the issue is increasingly supportive (see below). 

Years of fighting forged through a global pandemic, and under Superintendent Michael Citta, who began his tenure in 2021, conversations seemed hopeful, especially with the state acknowledging the position Toms River is in. However, no amount of rationale and diplomacy resulted in action, and on Sept. 30, 2024, the Toms River Board of Education filed a lawsuit against the State of the New Jersey and the NJDOE.

A land sale with the Township of Toms River entering the 2023-2024 school year helped the district manage a balanced budget by the skin of its teeth, evidence of district leaders' resourcefulness and creativity over the years aimed at delaying and offsetting the fiscal cliff. American Rescue Plan funding from the pandemic helped to retain positions that might have otherwise been lost from 2020-2023. A potential merger with Seaside Heights schools, which would gone a significant ways toward helping Toms River's budget while at the same time serving Seaside students without closing their elementary school, passed overwhelmingly in greater TR, but narrowly failed in Seaside during the spring of 2024.

And the fiscal cliff has arrived, and will remain. The district entered the 2024-2025 school year $26.5 million short of balanced budget, due to the drastic, years-long reductions in state aid. Instead of addressing the issue, the state instead allowed effected districts to tax their residents up to 9.9-percent, more than the normal allowable annual 2-percent cap. The Toms River School Board rejected this proposal-- both because it wouldn't have even cut the deficit in half, and because it was wrong to divert a problem the state caused to taxpayers-- but county and state officials overrode the rejection. Appraisals of district properties are currently happening in order to make ends meet this school year.

Funding Crisis In the News