Use State Surplus To Restore Freehold Regional HS Busing: Legislators

MARLBORO, NJ — After the Freehold Regional High School District announced a budget crisis is forcing it to cut courtesy busing next year for its six schools, state and local legislators are urging the state to use some of its surplus to help the district.

In a statement Wednesday, legislative District 13 representatives weighed in on the budget problems, calling upon the state Department of Education to "take immediate steps to restore school state aid cuts as a means to fund bus transportation for the next school year."

The Freehold Regional budget calls for eliminating courtesy busing for students living closer than 2.5 miles to their school to close its budget gap for next year, citing state funding cuts since 2018's S2 funding bill went into effect.

The Freehold Regional High School District has six high schools in western Monmouth County serving more than 10,000 students, including Marlboro High School. There are also Howell, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Colts Neck and Manalapan high schools.

Seven years of state aid reductions under the so-called "S2" funding formula will have amounted to $30 million in aid cuts by the next budget cycle, the district says.

Another legislator, Assemblyman Sean Kean, R-District 30, which includes Howell, said he voted against S-2, which he said is causing "tremendous financial hardships for many school districts."

"We are seeing this at the Freehold Regional High School District. I am very concerned about the elimination of courtesy busing and feel it could create a public safety problem. I will be working with my District 30 colleagues to draft legislation to restore funding for courtesy busing," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the office of state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, District 11, said Gopal, chair of the Senate Education Committee, has been in contact with the district and is looking for ways to find funding to avoid the busing cuts.

What is referred to as "S2," a 2018 state aid equalization law, determined which districts were underfunded or overfunded with state aid, with adjustments in aid being applied since then.

For Freehold Regional, this has meant hard budget decisions have had to be made for the past several years as state aid cuts have been absorbed, said district Superintendent Charles Sampson.

This year, the regional district had an unanticipated $6.7 state aid decrease, based on funding formulas. The district had $4,464,057 restored in state aid, but it was still left with a more than $2 million reduction in aid.

State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn and Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, all R-District 13 in Monmouth County, have been advocating for the full restoration of state funding to all schools in Monmouth County since the introduction of the state 2023 budget, their office said.

Their district includes the Township of Marlboro, just one of the high schools affected.

"There is $8 billion in surplus in the state’s coffers; yet, the Department of Education slashed $20 million from Monmouth County schools. While the Legislature has taken action to reverse that decision by returning 65 percent of that aid, there are schools that will still be left without sufficient funding to address essential services like busing," the legislators said in a joint statement.

Locally, Marlboro Council President Juned Qazi sent out a statement Tuesday demanding that Governor Murphy and the Acting Commissioner of Education Angelica Allen- McMillan "immediately restore state aid funding to the Freehold Regional High School District to avoid having students being forced to walk to school along busy and treacherous roadways which are not suitable for pedestrian use."

The District 13 state legislators said about $55 million would need be taken from an $8 billion surplus to fully fund the school districts that have seen budget cuts this year.

This "is not an impossible ask, especially considering that the Governor has appropriated $45 million for his 'electric school bus' pilot program. The focus should be on transporting children safely now and not funding some future project," the legislators said.

In the joint statement, O'Scanlon, Flynn and Scharfenberger said they "remain committed to working with the Governor as well as leadership in the Senate and the Assembly to devise a more fair and equitable funding formula, especially in this post-pandemic world, so that the needs of students are kept first and foremost in these budgetary decisions."

Other legislators, those from District 11, commented in early March when state funding cuts were first announced for the district.

Assemblywomen Kim Eulner and Marilyn Piperno, R-District 11, which includes Freehold, Freehold Township and Colts Neck, said in a statement at the time that the school funding cuts were "a slap in the face to suburban districts."

On Wednesday, they addressed the current budget issue: "Increased funding for certain school districts shouldn't come at the expense of other students. No school should be suffering cuts this year with our record surplus and unspent federal COVID funds.” the assemblywomen said in a joint statement.

In Marlboro, Council President Qazi said Tuesday, "On behalf of Marlboro families and children, we implore the Governor to restore our state aid so that the students of Marlboro may travel safely to school in the upcoming school year."

"The mysterious state aid formula was prepared prior to the pandemic, when no one could have imagined the challenges schools are now facing due to learning loss, mental health costs, and never mind the astronomical increases in transportation costs – busing costs alone have increased for schools over past year by 30 percent," he said.

He added that municipalities cannot address those increases in costs within the budgetary cap limits imposed upon school districts and municipalities.

In March, at the time of state legislation to restore a portion of state aid cuts, Sen. Gopal, D-Monmouth, District 11, which includes Freehold, Freehold Township and Colts Neck, commented on the financial constraints school districts have been under. Gopal chairs the state Senate Education Committee.

"Our schools have come under tremendous pressures over the past three years due to the pandemic, ranging from uncertainty about resources, learning recovery and a growing teacher shortage," Gopal said in a previous Patch interview. "Now is not the time for more uncertainty, nor the time for districts to be asked to do with less at the precise moment they are trying to recover some sense of normalcy."

Gopal's office said Wednesday that he "has been in regular contact with Superintendent Sampson over the last few days and and has been working to secure funding to avoid these school bus disruptions and cuts.”

And Assemblyman Edward “Ned” Thomson, R-District 30, said the busing issue is another example of "the state’s disastrous school funding formula."

"While the Department of Education would have you believe that the decision to provide courtesy busing is up to the school district, it is obvious that the district’s decision is heavily influenced by the amount of state aid it receives. For this administration to tout a $10 billion budget surplus and not give every school district in this state enough to operate efficiently is an affront to every taxpaying resident,” he said in a statement.

A state Department of Education spokesperson responded to a request for comment about the state aid formula, saying, in part: "The formula is designed to meet the needs of growing districts by considering key factors such as student enrollment, and aims to ensure students in every school across our state receive the high-quality education they deserve," said Mike Yaple.

The Freehold Regional High School District has an Advocating for our Students section of its website for more information on S2 and a list of local legislators' contact information.