Taxes, Budget Argument Focus Of Toms River School Board Election 2024
TOMS RIVER, NJ — School board elections in New Jersey are supposed to be nonpartisan matters. In reality, they have functioned for years as battles between political factions, though much of that fight has been behind the scenes.
In the 2024 school board election in Toms River, the partisanship has been anything but behind the scenes. There are three seats up for election on the Toms River Regional Board of Education — two representing Toms River, and one representing South Toms River.
Four people aee running for the Toms River seats: Jennifer Howe, who is seeking re-election to the board; Lisa Contessa , who served on the board previously and is seeking another term; Diane Oxley, a charter school teacher, and Maria Marisa Matarazzo, a real estate agent.
Two people are running for the South Toms River seat: Krista Whittaker , a parent and frequent critic of the school administration who has been a frequent attendee at Toms River Regional school board meetings for years, and Joseph Jubert , who is retired but has served in public office in South Toms River.
The campaign of Oxley and Matarazzo has been run by Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick, who submitted press releases on behalf of the candidates and said he would fill out questionnaires for his candidates. (Patch declined, as local candidate profiles are expected to be filled out by the candidates themselves.)
Campaign literature distributed on behalf of Oxley and Matarazzo has prompted public responses from the school district that included cease-and-desist letters to Rodrick as well as the two candidates alleging defamation.
Rodrick responded with a letter from assistant township attorney Peter Pascarella countering the defamation claim and threatening to file ethics complaints.
The Oxley-Matarazzo campaign has focused on the school district's budget and the 9.9 percent property tax levy increase in the 2024-25 budget. The campaign mailers have focused on a June 18 meeting of the school board where the board approved a tentative budget that included the 9.9 percent increase with the caveat of the state Department of Education approving an additional $12 million in aid for the district.
The 9.9 percent tax levy increase was the result of a state law signed for the 2024-25 budget year for districts that could not close the gap between state aid and what the state said was their local fair share — the amount the state Department of Education said the district should be raising through property taxes — under the state's 2 percent cap on property tax levy increases.
The district's final budget included the 9.9 percent increase in the tax levy and the sale of Toms River Regional school district assets to make up the $12 million gap, but the district's school board rejected that budget unanimously on July 3 because the state did not provide $12 million in additional aid, as had been sought under the June 18 tentative budget.
On July 3, Superintendent Michael Citta and Burns announced the district would be suing the state Department of Education over the state's school funding formula and S2, the law that modified the state's funding formula.
The state Department of Education has repeatedly insisted that Toms River Regional is not paying its local fair share of property taxes to support its schools. Local fair share is based on equalized property values in the district and income. In the 2018-19 school year, Toms River Regional's local fair share was $197,787,405, and it has climbed to $278,449,551 for 2024-25.
Toms River Regional's property tax levy was $155,329,012 in 2018-19, and rose to $175,797,217 in 2023-24. It is $193,141,201 for the 2024-25 school year.
The rejected budget was submitted to the executive Ocean County superintendent and approved by the county superintendent on July 24 .
The campaign letters and mailings also have attacked Howe in particular over cuts to programs in the district, including sports and extracurricular activities. The district has disputed the claims of cuts, but in its lawsuit filed in October, the district details the severe impact of the aid cuts , which have included reductions in support for students, particularly academic support.
The Oxley-Matarazzo campaign mailers also highlight the change in the district's budget, from $249,218,765 in total expenditures in the 2018-19 school budget ( listed as actual expenditures alongside the 2019-2020 budget ) to $290,199,788 in anticipated expenditures in 2024-25 , in part based on a decline in enrollment.
In 2018-19 the district had 15,368 students, and in 2023-24 the district had 14,502 students (the number was estimated at 14,488 for 2024-25), a decline of 866 students last year (and potentially 880 this school year). An initial mailer from Oxley and Matarazzo claimed the district had lost 4,000 students, but a later mailing said 1,000.
While overall enrollment decreased the number of special education students has risen from 2,310 in 2018-19 to 2,588 in 2023-24. That change in the special education population brings with it increased costs, from tuition for out-of-district placements to classroom aides, but Toms River Regional's categorical special education aid has stayed flat at $9,865,327.
The campaign criticizes the raw figures, insisting that waste will be cut, but a closer look shows the district's budget increases reflect things such as raises negotiated for the teachers, increases in health insurance costs, and in transportation costs. The district budgets from 2019-2020 through 2024-25 include the impact of the $147 million in repairs and upgrades approved by voters in January 2019.
In 2024-25, there is a $10 million capital outlay budgeted, a portion of which is set to go to repairs at Toms River Intermediate South , where issues with the building envelope were leading to water leaking into the building during storms.
Regardless of who is elected, Toms River Regional is going to continue to face struggles with state funding and increasing property taxes as state legislators have refused to consider taking a look at the funding formula, in spite of the fact that S2 was supposed to expire after the 2024-25 school year.
