By PATRICIA MCDANIEL
A year-end review by the state Department of Education projects a nearly $13 million gap for the Asbury Park school district in the next budget, leaving it grappling with how to find revenue with no immediate help from the state in sight.
While the current budget is not affected, the Asbury Park Board of Education, at its regular meeting Dec. 19, began looking ahead to identify sources of revenue for the 2025-2026 budget.
Various options were presented to deal with the shortfall, such as selling some school properties. And the board decided after an executive session to proceed with obtaining a market valuation of the Obama School building site and a separate valuation of the land, confirmed board Vice President Giuseppe Grillo, who called the plan “exploratory” at this point.
The current state Department of Education monitor for the Asbury Park district, David Shafter, was in attendance, as with every meeting, and said he usually didn’t give reports at board meetings. But this month it was different, he said, as he had to present the budget report.
But the fact that the DOE’s Monmouth County Interim School Superintendent Lester W. Richens did not accept the district’s invitation to attend the meeting and discuss solutions shocked and upset the board members and other officials, they said.
However, the board is in contact with Sen. Vin Gopal, chair of the Senate Education Committee, who helped the district regain $1.8 million in state aid lost under the state’s funding formula this past budget year.
And the board members reported that Gopal and the Legislature in January will focus on the first charter school reforms to be considered since laws creating the system were passed in 1997. Many districts in the state are concerned with how charter school funding operates. The board agreed to draft a letter in support of charter school reform legislation.
Grillo said the board is committed to advocacy and making its needs known at all levels of government to ensure proper funding for city students’ education. “We were elected to speak out,” Grillo said.
State charter school reforms may be enacted
In Asbury Park, 600 students are enrolled in charter schools, Acting Superintendent Mark J. Gerbino said. Students primarily attend Hope Academy, Academy Charter High School in Lake Como or College Achieve Public Schools (CAPS) in Neptune.
Board member Tracy Rogers, who spent “two long days in Trenton” for legislative hearings recently, said school districts around the state are forced to pay full per pupil costs to charter schools despite their own needs to cut costs and programs.
Rogers said there isn’t the same oversight of these schools as required of publicly elected school boards. The district formally filed a complaint earlier this year with the state Department of Education to obtain documentation from CAPS Asbury Park to verify the number of city children who attend the school. Grillo said the complaint is “ongoing.”
And the state DOE confirmed last week that the department had received two petitions related to charter enrollment in Asbury Park – College Achieve filed one against the Asbury Park board, and Asbury Park filed one against College Achieve, both of which are pending, according to Michael Yaple, department spokesperson. Once there is an initial decision, the education commissioner has 45 days to review it and issue his decision, he added.
Rogers noted that the district pays $12 million annually for tuition for charter school pupils – an amount nearly equal to the shortfall. The per pupil cost for Asbury Park has come down from about $37,192 per pupil to $32,704 per pupil in the most recent budget, according to past reports.
Supporting students a priority
This fiscal news came at a meeting that began, as each meeting does, with good news. The district names a student of the month and a teacher of the month at each meeting.
Proud family members saw their children honored for their academic growth and the excellent attitudes they brought to their schools. Gerbino and other administrators explained the successes in a district that has suffered with low test scores and declining admissions.
But those issues have gradually been turning around, with more pupils than ever signing up for pre-school, some gains in test scores, and a renewed winning football team that triumphed in the “Friendsgiving” game against Neptune, the officials noted.
Gerbino said providing factual information to residents is crucial as the board works on closing the budget gap.
“And most important is . . . making sure that these kids have equal advantages. These kids deserve just as much as anybody else, and I’m here to make sure that if I have to fight the state, I’ll fight the state. I’ll fight anybody else who doesn’t want to see these kids get the best education,” Gerbino said.
Potential for cost savings
Gerbino outlined certain areas that may contain cost savings:
Sale of certain properties: The Barack Obama School building could be sold, rather then repurposed, as the district had planned, although encapsulated asbestos is present in certain materials there. Plus the sale of other buildings, such as the Dorothy L. McNish Parent Center could be hastened. And the board has wanted to sell the building that houses the maintenance department, but Fisher said there may be an environmental cleanup there that would use up some of the profits realized by a sale. The Information Technology Center building also could be sold, but it was discussed that certain trunk lines there would need to be relocated and equipment moved. The Parent Center is the only site that could be sold without any issues. Meanwhile, the district did receive a $1 million state grant that can be applied toward facility needs, Grillo confirmed.
Enter into more send/receive relationships with other school districts: The district has been trying to bring more students back to the district and hopes to capitalize on a program approved in October to bring an Emotional Regulation Impairment program back to the city, so students could be served locally. The district also hopes other districts can send students to the program, creating a revenue stream.
Insurance alternatives: The state health insurance plan will include an 18 percent increase this coming year, officials said at the meeting. So the district will look into other group insurance options that provide the same level of coverage at a lower cost.
Transportation savings: The district could look at a traditional schedule, as opposed to a block schedule, at the high school, finding savings in transportation, said Gerbino. Currently, an employee is training to become a certified transportation administrator who could replace an outside service. With a district employee there would be more incentive to find savings on routes, he said.
Changes in cap requirements/class size: The school district is limited to a 2 percent tax increase but is “still below the local fair share for taxes,” Gerbino said. “If the legislation would allow, the district could exceed the 2 percent limit to go up to their local fair share,” he said. Also the 21-pupil maximum doesn’t allow for enough flexibility for staffing decisions, he said.
Charter school funding changes: “If legislation were passed, the charter schools would share a reduction, not just the . . . students in the Asbury Park School District,” Gerbino said.
Several board members commented that the district needs to develop a long-term solution for future funding. The board was to reorganize after the 2024 election on Jan. 2, with the return of an incumbent, the return of a former board member and the addition of a member new to the board, all members of the Improve Learning Now! team.
Accomplishments highlighted
For the end-of-year meeting, Gerbino also took the time to summarize the accomplishments of the district. He presented a long list of programs and activities the district has in place to enhance education.
Below is a sampling of some of the initiatives he mentioned:
Early Childhood:
An Early Childhood and Asbury Park Library connection with weekly field trips and monthly registration events will kick off at the library starting in January.
A Performing Arts Preschool Program: Students are rehearsing for the Musical “Wicked” after school to prepare for the end-of-year performance. They learn age-appropriate dances, songs, and movements. The performance is in May.
Thurgood Marshall Elementary School:
Every student (Pre-K through second grade) has been screened using a core phonics screener to identify gaps in knowledge.
The purchase of books for students to take home to add to or create their home libraries, which supports early literacy initiatives.
Bradley Elementary School:
Staff is currently volunteering to implement the Girls Group mentoring program.
Literacy and Math Family Nights are in the process of being planned for March.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School:
Student attendance at the Middle School is 93 percent.
There is a 100 percent completion rate on the i-Ready and LinkIt! testing, which will help teachers gauge where students need help leading into state testing.
Programming underway for a Compass school-wide assembly presentation on mental health for the seventh and eighth grades.
A Gear Up program through Brookdale Community College includes 25 seventh- and eighth-grade students.
Asbury Park High School:
Collaborating with professionals and organizations to bolster access and opportunities around theater visual arts (Asbury Park Theater Company, Two River Theater, Count Basie Center for the Performing Arts, Asbury Park Arts Council, Monmouth Country Arts).
Field trips, paid by partners from above, to theaters and tours of facilities.
Fall Block Testing for NJGPA 12th-grade students had 25 more passing scores, which adds to a record-breaking NJGPA passing rate. That is 25 fewer “alternate pathways” to meet graduation requirements reported to the state. This brings the school to the lowest amount of “alternate pathways” reported to the state in almost a decade.
ICR Spanish Class will not only expose special education students to another language but also will reduce the number of exemptions reported to the state for the district’s special education students.
