Jackson Schools To Sue NJ Over Funding

JACKSON – Members of the Board of Education rejected the district’s 2024-25 $165.7 million budget that would include the closing of the Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School and they also moved to sue the state.

The proposed budget featured numerous staff cuts and elimination of late buses. It also included a 9.9% tax increase.

State law normally prevents districts from raising taxes more than 2%. However, a special, one-time exception to this was granted for districts facing state aid cuts this year.

A taxpayer with property at the average assessed value of $330,688 would receive a $4,861 school tax bill, a $146 rise over 2023, under the budget.

The district’s budget included $18 million in cuts and was rejected by the School Board at their most recent meeting. The state previously informed the board that the district would be unable to open its schools in September if it didn’t approve a budget by July 22.

The Board was left with two alternatives: raise school taxes 9.9% to close the budget gap – an option it already rejected – or file a lawsuit as the Toms River School District did to have its state aid restored.

The Board’s unanimous rejection of the budget was quickly overturned following its introduction last month, by Carole Knopp-Morris, the state fiscal monitor assigned to the district by the State Department of Education.

Morris previously stated the district had not been fiscally mismanaged and that it had a revenue problem. She had been assigned to the district after it received a $10.2 million loan last year from the State Department of Education.

During the most recent meeting, School Board President Giuseppe Palmeri noted that the district’s attorney, Marc Zitomer, had been authorized to “take appropriate legal action against the Department of Education to obtain funding and/or state aid advance that is required for us to provide an efficient education.”

The announcement drew loud applause from the audience. Palmeri once again donned the black “S-2 Failed Jackson” T-shirt that the nine-member Board wore during a prior meeting, when he made this announcement. S-2 was the name of the bill that cut funding by millions of dollars to Jackson.

Zitomer noted that while lawsuits historically take years to resolve, the district would seek “emergent” relief, which would permit it to enter court or be heard before an administrative law judge on an expedited basis.

“We hope this (lawsuit) can be avoided, but we do not remain hopeful, given the prior course of events,” Palmeri said. He had gotten the ear of Governor Phil Murphy during a recent segment of News 12’s Ask The Governor call-in show but the governor was noncommittal to his request to restore funding, and his response didn’t instill any confidence that he would provide Jackson any support.

Despite persistent lobbying for relief by Jackson school officials and legislators representing Jackson’s 12th legislative district, the pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears.

Last autumn, more than 64% of Jackson voters voted down a ballot referendum that would have permitted the district to increase taxes by more than $4 million, around $96 for an average home, in order to hire more than 30 teachers, counselors and support staff.

Governor Murphy has defended the school aid formula, arguing that Jackson and other districts lost aid because of declining enrollment and an expanding tax base suggesting that Jackson could afford to pay a larger local share of school costs.

What has been shown however is that the portion of state aid cuts to the district far exceed the decline in enrollment.

Assemblyman Alex Sauickie (R-Ocean) has been a loud critic of S-2 having testified at legislative hearings that the $68 million in income tax Jackson taxpayers contribute to New Jersey, only about $23 million is returned to Jackson’s schoolchildren.

Palmeri, who announced on social media that he will be running for Township Council this fall, did report that he received a cordial phone call from Acting State Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer a day after the Ask he Governor segment. “He didn’t make any commitment, but he was understanding and we agreed to work together,” Palmieri said.

Township Councilman Nino Borrelli attended the latest BOE meeting and told The Jackson Times, “As an elected official in Jackson, a concerned resident, and a grandparent of two children in the Jackson Township Public Schools, I’m asking the state to advocate for Jackson students and taxpayers. With everybody paying almost more for everything, Jackson residents cannot afford to pay for a huge increase in taxes because of the state not adequately providing aid to our public schools.”

“The district has lost $22.4 million in state aid over the past seven years, has already made many cuts, and are unable to maintain buildings. Our kids’ education should be a bipartisan issue and priority. Stop defunding our schools in Jackson. Fairly and equitably return the state aid to our town’s schools,” Borrelli added.