TOMS RIVER – District officials will be spreading information about what might happen if the Toms River Regional School District takes in all Seaside Heights students now that the state has approved their April 16 referendum.
A referendum is a special election. Residents in Toms River, Beachwood, Pine Beach, and South Toms River will be voting.
The Toms River Board of Education asked the acting commissioner’s permission to have the referendum and the decision came on March 7.
“We’re obviously very happy with the commissioner’s decision which allows us to move forward with a referendum to welcome Seaside Heights to Toms River Regional Schools,” said Superintendent Michael Citta. “That the state supports this process moving forward also reaffirms what we’ve maintained since this became a viable option – that this merger is what’s best for kids. I look forward to hosting several public meetings on the referendum beginning March 18, so that everyone is educated on the issue and what this means for the greater Toms River community before heading out to vote April 16.”
In allowing the referendum, Acting Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer said that the possible merger satisfies portions of the law, such as reducing travel time and having consistent curriculum throughout a student’s school career.
Seaside School’s Future
The Seaside kids go to the Hugh J. Boyd Jr. School for kindergarten through 6th, and then go to Central Regional for middle and high school. Seaside residents and teachers were worried that Boyd would close. However, a new proposition has Boyd staying open. It would be a similar arrangement to other towns in the region – Beachwood, Pine Beach, and South Toms River – that each have an elementary school.
A February 27 letter from Toms River Schools’ attorney to the State Department of Education said that Boyd could stay open for the 2024-2025 school year and four years after. Staff and students would remain unchanged.
Dehmer’s decision noted that many of Central’s arguments were made when Boyd was expected to close.
“The commitment to leaving Boyd Elementary School open for up to five years post-consolidation will ease the transition and dispels many of the concerns raised by Central,” he said.
Impact On Central
Central Regional officials have been challenging the idea of Seaside leaving. They said that they can provide better instruction than Toms River, listing factors such as Toms River not providing afterschool busing. They were also worried about the financial impact of an entire town’s worth of tax revenue leaving.
The acting commissioner didn’t see it that way.
“The Feasibility Study found that the educational and financial benefits to Petitioners (Toms River Schools, Seaside Heights borough, and Seaside Heights Board of Education)
and their students outweighed the impact on Central,” said Dehmer.
The attorneys representing Central fired back.
“Central Regional is shocked that the Acting Commissioner made such an important decision so quickly without further study of numerous factors likely to affect Seaside Heights students for many years – factors which are not resolved by Toms River’s 11th hour commitment to keep Boyd Elementary School open, subject to a stipulation involving student enrollment which we suspect will result in the school closing much sooner than five years from now,” they said.
“Seaside Heights has been a constituent member of Central Regional since 1956. We are surprised the Commissioner was so willing to allow the dissolution of over 65 years of history, and to tear apart Central Regional just to bail out Toms River Regional because of budgetary issues.
“While we also believe that holding a vote in April on this referendum would violate applicable election laws, we will await word from the Ocean County Board of Elections on that issue before taking any further action,” they said.
