Toms River Schools Officials Rip NJDOE Over Budget Comments, Blast 'Politically Driven' Aid Formula

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River Regional Schools officials blasted the New Jersey Department of Education on Monday over comments from the department calling the school board's second straight budget rejection a “troubling pattern indicates deeper and systemic concerns."

On Thursday, the NJDOE informed Toms River Regional that it had adopted the district's 2025-26 budget — a budget the district's Board of Education rejected because it included a 12.5 percent tax increase. The state said the refusals — the Toms River school board also rejected the district's 2024-25 budget because it included a 9.9 percent tax increase — were a "marked violation of several statutory and regulatory requirements," and called the fact that the state had to take action for a second straight year a "troubling pattern indicates deeper and systemic concerns about the ability of the Board and district administrators to meet their most basic responsibilities."

"As such, the Department has no choice but to take additional steps to safeguard district students and the school community’s public trust from further risk," the statement said. It did not specify what those steps might be, or when they might happen. A request for comment and additional detail from the NJDOE was not immediately answered Monday afternoon.

"It is truly ironic for a state department unwilling to disclose its tragically flawed funding formula to have 'deep concerns' about the most efficient, effective, and transparent large public school district in New Jersey," Toms River Regional officials said Monday.

"They are angry because they tried and failed to strong-arm our board into approving a massive tax increase two years in a row, so that the board would be responsible for it rather than the actual responsible party: the NJDOE, which 100 percent caused the revenue shortfall with their secret, politically driven formula for the distribution of state aid, and imposition of a massive tax increase on our citizens. Twice," the district said.

"In Toms River, we get taxes imposed while our neighbors get loans, thereby saving their taxpayers," the district statement said, referring to state aid advances that have been given to Lakewood for several years, including $65 million in February to keep paying its teachers.

"Why? That is something that warrants 'deep concerns,' " the Toms River statement said.

"In Toms River, we’re threatened that unless we pass a budget, we must shirk our most basic responsibilities and not open our doors, and thus ignore our most vulnerable students who need summer and ESL services. That also is of 'deep concern,' " the district said, referring to an NJDOE order on June 30 that the district shut down until the board approved the budget. Toms River Regional defied that order, opening its summer Extended School Year programs for students two days later.

"Make no mistake, the Toms River School Board and TRRS administration did not fail our district or demonstrate incompetence," the district's statement said. "The board met every deadline whereby they had to take action. They rejected a proposed tax increase because our BOE respects the code of ethics and respects their fiduciary duty to the taxpayer, something the NJDOE does not care about, at least not in certain districts or areas in the state."

"The NJDOE’s ranting about the board and administration of Toms River Regional Schools is baseless and simply a smokescreen to hide their nefarious actions in imposing, over the last two years, a 22.2-percent tax increase on the residents of this community," the district said.

"The efficiencies our district has tirelessly achieved and maintained used to be to the benefit of our taxpayers. But the state has stolen our savings and distributed it to the rest of the state using a clandestine formula. That formula and this entire mess stems from State Bill S2, a false flag for the greatest wealth redistribution in the history of the state," the statement said.

"What S2 did was take hundreds of millions of dollars from politically unfavorable areas and funnelled it into urban and suburban districts in politically favored areas. It is that simple," officials said.

Toms River Regional is among more than 100 districts that have seen significant cuts in state aid dating back to 2017-18, when the cuts that were supposed to be targeting so-called adjustment aid first hit under a budget agreement by then-Senate President Stephen Sweeney and then-Gov. Chris Christie. That agreement got lost in the "Beachgate" outrage, when Christie was photographed on the beach at Island Beach State Park after he closed the state parks to the public over the July 4th holiday during the state shutdown amid the budget stalemate.

The adjustment aid had been given to Toms River and other districts to ease the transition in funding changes under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.

Under S2, the district has "cut more than 250 staff positions, reduced supply budgets, sold our admin building and other property, and have used every legal and legislative channel possible to combat these cuts and fight for our students, all the while being the lowest-cost district in the state," the district's statement on Monday said. "Since the bill’s inception in 2017, we have been warning about its catastrophic effects, which have been fully realized and thensome."

"We have repeatedly demonstrated the state’s manipulation through S2 mathematically, clearly, and in ways that lay bare what is happening here," the district said. "Meanwhile, more than five years after the initial filing of an OPRA to reveal the state aid formula calculations for local fair share (property and income wealth multipliers), the NJDOE is still stonewalling and will not provide."

That formula and the data are used to distribute New Jersey's $9.2 billion in school equalization aid, which district officials noted is the largest single line in the state's $58.8 billion budget.

Toms River Regional had submitted a final budget to Susan Naples, the acting executive Ocean County Superintendent of Schools, on May 13, and that budget had received the state's approval. That was the budget the NJDOE adopted on Thursday.

"Adopting a district budget requires innumerable complex, and sometimes emotional, decisions regarding the allocation of resources to ensure that all students receive the educational services they deserve," the NJDOE said at the time. "While the Department acknowledges the difficulty inherent in school district budgeting decisions, the State and the public hold their school district leaders to the highest standards and expect them to rise to this challenge. This is not only an expectation but is required under State law."

Toms River Regional officials, who had been warned to pass the budget during a special meeting of the school board on June 30, instead announced they were exploring the possibility of filing for bankruptcy.

"This strategic move combined with its inherent defiance of the NJDOE’s wishes was an affront to them, and they responded by imposing the tax hike on our residents," the Toms River Regional statement said. "If the state had to disallow our district from pursuing bankruptcy, it is fine with risking personal potential bankruptcies of our 100k-plus residents."

"We are not fine with that, clearly, so now our funding fight shifts from being on behalf of our students to on behalf of our taxpayers," the Toms River statement said. "It’s safe to say, after seven long years of a clearly unjust and secret funding formula, we’re sensing a troubling pattern that indicates deeper and systemic concerns about the ability of the state to meet its most basic responsibilities."

Monday's statement is just the latest response by the district in its ongoing battle with the state over school aid. In October, the district filed a lawsuit against the state that detailed the impact on its students of the state aid cuts that came even as the district taxed its taxpayers to the 2 percent cap. Read more: Falling Test Scores, Rising Absenteeism: Suit Details Aid Cuts Toll On Toms River Schools

The budget of $293 million includes $271 million in general fund spending — the part that funds the day-to-day educational activities of the district — along with debt service. The overall tax levy was $222,945,373, up from $193,201,141 for the 2024-25 budget. Those figures include the debt service payments from the bonds for the $147 million in capital projects throughout the district approved by voters in January 2019.

Additional reporting:

• Toms River Regional Schools Applying For New NJ Tax Levy Incentive Aid
• Toms River School Board Rejects 2025-26 Budget With Double-Digit Tax Increase
• Budget Crunch Leading To Administrative Cuts For Toms River Schools