The minutes of the joint meeting of the Allenhurst Board of Education and Board of Commissioners

   Updates will be posted as information becomes available.

SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES

ALLENHURST BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

AND ALLENHURST BOARD OF EDUCATION

MAY 27, 2009 - 7:30 PM

            The Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners was held at the Allenhurst Fire Department, 316 Hume Street, Allenhurst on the above date.  Present from Allenhurst were Mayor McLaughlin, and Commissioner McLoughlin and Allenhurst Borough Clerk, Lori Osborn.  Present from the Allenhurst Board of Education were Larry O’Rourke, President, Joel Fleming, Christine McIver and Robert Selden.

            The meeting was called to order at 7:30 P.M. with a salute to the flag.

            Mayor McLaughlin announced that the notice requirements of R.S. 10:4-18 had been satisfied by delivering the required notice to the Coaster, posting the notice on the board in Borough Hall and filing a copy of said notice with the Borough Clerk.

PRESENTATION ON CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS

            Board of Education President, Larry O’Rourke, stated they also posted a notice to tonight’s meeting.

            Mayor McLaughlin stated that he thought it was important that the public have a good understanding of what is going on with school consolidation.  Especially in light of what happened to Loch Arbour.  He turned the meeting over to Mr. O’Rourke who spoke for some length on the issue.

            Mr. O’Rourke stated that everything started two years ago.  The Legislature passed a law that called for certain reforms.  Specifically, that the 23 non-operating districts be eliminated.  Allenhurst is a non-operating district.  The law also calls for consideration of consolidation of certain districts.  There will be no vote given if the State decides to eliminate the non-operating districts.  Each County had to appoint a County Superintendent.  Carole Morris is Monmouth County’s appointment.  She still has not sent in a plan to eliminate non-operating districts in Monmouth County.  She was supposed to have submitted a plan by June, 2009.  There is supposed to be a series of feasibility studies.  One thought was to consolidate Allenhurst, Interlaken, Deal, Asbury Park and Ocean Township into Ocean Township. 

            Rutgers University is conducting these studies.  He has asked for a copy of the study, but has not received anything yet.  He doesn’t know whether they have done the studies yet.  The towns to be consolidated are supposed to get a vote on whether or not they want to consolidate.  Each town is to get a separate vote.  His question is, if Allenhurst’s district is eliminated, do they still get a vote?  The Attorney General will have to issue an opinion. 

            Mr. O’Rourke continued, speaking about an article in that day’s Asbury Park Press about Spring Lake.  He understands the Assemblyman said if one town votes no, the consolidation will not happen, but he has heard that the Governor may have the authority to overrule any vote.

            They now have a sending relationship with Asbury Park, completely unlike Loch Arbour’s relationship with Ocean Township.  He explained the difference to the public, stating Allenhurst has a sending/receiving relationship and the fee is based on the number of children that attend Asbury Park schools.  The fee is between $15,000 and $18,000 per child.  Asbury Park does not have the authority to raise taxes through the citizens of Allenhurst.

            He asked Carole Morris whether there will be a recommendation in the feasibility study to change the school funding formula.  She did not know.  He stated that, hypothetically, if the formula were changed to an amount based on assessed valuation rather than a per pupil basis, the resultant fee to Allenhurst could be as much as $3,000,000.  Last year, school taxes were $25,000.  He stated the reason why it was so low is that they had an accumulation of surplus which they used to balance the budget.

            He stated if the formula is changed, it could be catastrophic to the taxpayers of Allenhurst.  No one knows the answers yet on what the study will propose or what recommendations will be made as far as funding.  He stated a lot of things have to happen first.  He has met with Carole Morris several times.  She has been candid and forthright, but she is taking direction from Trenton.  He and the Mayor have met with Senator Kean.  The sad fact is that Republicans do not have much say.  Senator Kean voted against the law.

            Mr. O’Rourke stated that about a year ago, he talked to several towns about saving expenses.  They entered into a shared services agreement with Long Branch for School Board Administrative services.  Mr. Genovese, who is Long Branch’s School Board Administrator, is also the Borough’s School Board Administrator.  This saves the Borough about $5,000 in payroll taxes and contributions.  They also did it to try to be demonstrative to the powers that be that they do not have any fat in their administrative costs.  The school board has no debt.  He has made it a point to tell Carole Morris that they have gotten in front of this.  He had a discussion with Ocean Township and they were not receptive to taking Allenhurst children on a per-student basis.  He also spoke with Long Branch and found them to be very receptive.  They are trying to be pro-active.  He has talked to the Boards of Education in Deal and Interlaken.  They set up meetings with Shore Regional.  He spoke to Shore Regional and they are very interested.  Their school was built for 100 children and their enrollment is down to 700 children.  Taking students from Interlaken and Allenhurst would be found money for them.

            Mr. O’Rourke continued, stating that right now, even though they do not have a written contract with ASbury Park, the State assumes there is a contractual relationship.  Some years ago, Belmar spent $1,000,000 to try to get out of their contract with Asbury Park and they were unsuccessful.

            Mr. O’Rourke spoke about the things the State looks at, one of which is maintaining a racial quota.  Their goal is to get a new relationship based on a per-student basis.

            There was a short discussion in which Mr. O’Rourke talked about having to take the bus out of service, even though it ran great, but was 10 years old and mandated to be taken out of service.  The Board will sell the bus to the Borough.

            Mayor McLaughlin opened the meeting up to comments and questions from the public.

            Daniel O’Gorman asked if Loch Arbour has looked into a different deal with Ocean.  Mr. O’Rourke stated they had, but this is the law.  Mr. O’Gorman stated it was unfair and Mr. O’Rourke agreed that it was.

            Pat McGinnis asked if the town would be stuck if they regionalize.  Mr. O’Rourke stated they would have to enter into an agreement and current law would require that they be billed based on the town’s assessment.

            Rose Myers asked if we are not getting answers from Carole Morris, can we go over her head to get answers.  Mr. O’Rourke replied that the funding formula is State law.  What they want to know is in these feasibility studies, will they change the funding formula.

            Haim Dabah asked what the benefit would be in switching from Asbury Park to Long Branch.  Mr. O’Rourke stated that in looking at test scores, some would say Asbury Park is challenged.  There may be a modest tax benefit.    Asbury Park has the highest per student because they get so much money as an Abbott District.  Right now they have two children in Asbury Park and a couple in Red Bank Regional.

            Robert Fernicola state Loch Arbour is a consolidated school district because a Village must be consolidated with the town it seceded from.  Loch Arbour’s problem is that they bare a Village. 

            Mr. O’Rourke stated that no one has chosen to regionalize under the existing law, because someone is going to lose.

            Debbie Higgins asked if Carole Morris delays this, would the Gubernatorial election have a bearing on the situation?  Mr. O’Rourke stated the law is in place.  It was passed in 2007.  It requires a report by March of 2010 and requires an election by September of 2010.  A new Governor and new Commissioner of Education may look on things differently.  He added that Governor Corzine is not losing a lot of sleep over Allenhurst.

            Trish McLoughlin asked what was meant by a vote to eliminate.  Mr. O’Rourke explained.  He stated if the Board of Education were to be eliminated, the duties would have to be picked up by the governing body.  There would have to be a vote on whether they could be consolidated with someone else.  There are some who think the Governor could override the vote.

            Mr. O’Rourke stated the State is trying to put Asbury Park out of business.  They are a Board of Education that has had some difficulty.

            Kevin Rogers asked if taxes were to go to $3,000,000, would there be a re-assessment of the homes so that taxes come down?  Mr. O’Rourke stated that would take a long time.  Residents can only appeal their taxes in April of each year.

            Mayor McLaughlin stated he has spoken to Peter Barnett on this issue.

            Victor Tawil asked why the state would continue the present formula, if they could get more taxes.  Mr. O’Rourke stated the money taxed would go to Ocean Township.  He stated Asbury Park only raises $6,000,000 to $7,000,000 locally.  They receive $20,000,000 from the State.  The State does have motivation.

            Lou Shalam asked what the public could do.  Mr. O’Rourke stated the public should know that Sean Kean and the 11^th district Assembly are against this.  People can write to the Governor, the State Democratic Chairman and the head of the Education Committee.

            Comm. McLoughlin asked if taxes went up to $3,000,000, why not build a high school with the neighboring towns?  Mr. O’Rourke replied that Deal is a wealthy district.  They probably have the highest cost per student in the state.  Add Deal, Allenhurst and Interlaken together - it is not that simple.  If the Borough spends $5,000,000, they would have to hire and pay for staff.  It sounds like an interesting idea, but it is not.

            John Reng asked if anyone has spoken to the Allenhurst Board of Education as a part of the study.  Mr. O’Rourke confirmed that no one has talked to them.

            John Zazzerman asked why not a ballot question with 10 or 12 other towns?  All of a sudden, it becomes a debate during a Gubernatorial election.

            Bob Scally stated if they are forced to consolidate with Ocean Township, they would need to build more schools.  Mr. O’Rourke replied, not necessarily.  Ocean will find out that some of their children will be sent to Asbury Park.

            Comm. McLoughlin stated the Board of Commissioners will work out how to get a question on the ballot. 

            Kevin Rogers suggested information be put on the Borough’s web site and maybe a blast e-mail should go out.

            Steven Agrista suggested putting a sample letter on the website for residents to use.

            Judge Dowden stated that on behalf of all the citizens, he would like to express his sincere appreciation to the Mayor and Board of Education, especially Mr. O’Rourke for presented such detailed information.

            There being no further comments or any further business, Comm. McLoughlin moved, seconded by Mayor McLaughlin, that the meeting be adjourned.  Motion carried.

Lori L. Osborn, RMC

Clerk-Administrator